Allen: Moss Speculation Means New Lows For Media

This past week we were treated to a new low in the annals of sports "journalism."

It started with a column from CBSSports.com's Mike Freeman, a hack's hack. Freeman has written for some of the biggest newspapers in the country, including the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, the Dallas Morning News and the New York Times. He fancies himself an "investigative reporter" and "enterprise journalist." He attempted to apply those investigative skills in analyzing Randy Moss' performance last Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons.

Bragging that "CBSSports.com charted every Moss play against the Falcons," Freeman claims that Moss was not putting out a full effort. He talks in generalities, and says that Moss' supposed lack of effort hurts the Patriots offense as much as his talents help it.

He made statements such as "Moss must privately irritate perfectionists like quarterback Tom Brady." and "The Patriots seem content to put up with this tomfoolery because Moss still produces." and "But there must be a part of the Patriot genome that says: What a dog."

By making statements that indicate that he has some sort of insight into the thinking of the Patriots, Freeman makes himself look stupid. Extremely stupid. In the first version of the column, Freeman made no reference to the fact that Moss was playing injured, having been listed as "questionable" for the game with a bad back. It was said in the local papers that Moss was having difficulty lifting his arms above his head after the game. After that was pointed out to him by commenters, Freeman updated his column to say he wasn't "buying" it. After putting himself in the mind of Bill Belichick with his statement above, he brushes off the real comments from Belichick which praised Moss after the game. He fails to mention that Moss was even given a game ball after the win for his effort and play in the victory.

Tom Brady has stated many times how much he loves playing with Moss, how smart he is on the field, and how hard he works. Moss' teammates voted him a captain of the team once again. If Freeman knew even the slightest bit about the Patriots this column wouldn't have been written. Instead, Freeman, the "investigative" reporter, picks up on the incorrect perception in some corners that Moss is a dog, makes a surface review of a game, having no real knowledge of what Moss was asked to do on each play, and declares that Moss is lazy and hurting his team, and that the Patriots must secretly hate having him around.

It plays well to a national audience where readers in other cities would also not be aware of the real situation.
Shouldn't national columnists be educating their wide audience and bringing them facts and insight that they wouldn't get from their local view? Instead, Freeman chose to spread more untruths and contribute to a myth.
What's worse, Freeman wasn't even the worst offender in this "story."

Shortly after CBSSports.com posted this garbage, ProFootballTalk.com, operated by NBC Sports, picked up on the story and added some of the most irresponsible speculation seen in some time, which is really something when you consider some of the other speculation to come out of that site. The founder of PFT, Mike Florio, churned out a mass conspiracy theory. He accepted at face value Freeman's premise that Moss was "dogging" it, and went further in guessing what Moss' motivation was for this non-existent "dogging." Florio writes that is is "possible that Moss wants out, and that this is his way of making it happen." Right. Moss wants out of what has been the best and most productive situation of his career. Makes sense. Former teammate Rodney Harrison, who might actually know how Moss feels about being here, on an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show this week, said of Moss: ""The guy loves New England, he loves Tom Brady. They're like best friends. He loves Bill Belichick."

Florio didn't stop there, adding "Indeed, if the Pats made it clear two years ago that they wouldn't tolerate this kind of stuff from Moss, common sense suggests that, if Moss engages in this kind of stuff, they'll send him packing." Sure. They'll just cut ties with Moss. No problem.

Florio has a "duh!" moment by then stating that Belichick would be reluctant to cut Moss because another team might then sign him. Really?

Then, tinfoil hat firmly in place, Florio suggests that since Brett Favre lobbied hard for the Packers to trade for Moss a few years back, that perhaps...just perhaps...Favre "could be putting ideas in Randy's head" that he should continue to "dog it" so that the Patriots will have no choice but to cut ties with the receiver, who then would be free to join Favre in Minnesota with the Vikings, and Moss can return to his first NFL team and Favre and Moss can be together at last and bring that long awaited Super Bowl title to Minnesota!

Talk about creating "news" out of thin air! Where is the accountability? One of the major flaws of the immediate news cycle is that by the time we've digested one story and worked up an outrage over it, the next one comes down the pike and makes us put the first one aside. Then it happens all over again. What is the solution? In a world where page views are more important than facts and accuracy, the public looking for real news is the loser.

Bruce Allen is the creator of Boston Sports Media Watch, which has recently been recognized by SI.com as one of the best non-corporate sports web site's on the Internet