On Monday morning, NFL.com posted an item from David Carr in which he suggests that the four teams on Russell Wilson‘s short list should have called the Seahawks “yesterday” about a trade. Curiously, one of those four teams — the Raiders — currently employs David Carr’s younger brother as its starting quarterback.
Even more curiously, David Carr’s article quietly was revised after the comment was spotted and publicized.
The original version said this: “If I’m one of those four teams, I’m picking up the phone yesterday.” The new version says this: “If I’m a QB-needy team, I’m picking up the phone yesterday.”
Surprisingly, the article contains no indication that it has been revised or edited. The original timestamp of 11:25 a.m. ET remains, and it has no editor’s note or other indication that any change was made. It therefore creates the clear impression that the article never said, “If I’m one of those four teams, I’m picking up the phone yesterday.”
It did. And apparently David Carr did indeed receive a “WTF?” text from Derek, prompting the change to surreptitiously be made, so that no one would notice that David believes what anyone else with a basic understanding of football knows: Russell Wilson would be a major upgrade over Derek Carr.
Moreover, the revision makes no sense in its context. The prior paragraph explains that Wilson has said, through his agent, that he’d only accept a trade to four teams (Raiders, Bears, Cowboys, Saints). Thus, any “QB-needy team” other than those four would be wasting its time to call the Seahawks yesterday, today, or tomorrow.
Still, David Carr clearly had to do some damage control once it became obvious that he was suggesting that the Raiders throw his brother overboard for Wilson. And David Carr tried to do the damage control in a way that controlled the perception that no damage had been done.