Contrary to prior URGENT news, ESPN has decided to report that Brett Favrewas in contact with the Lions before the Week 2 game against the Packers.
In a press conference today, Favre admitted to talking with Matt Millen before the Lions-Packers game, but said he made no mention of a game plan or how to attack his old team. While Fox's Jay Glazer was breaking the story, with pretty much every other news outlet joining him, ESPN remained mute on the story that has been going on since Sunday, even sending out an internal memo telling all employees to avoid the story because, "the report is NOT TRUE."
Now, on Sportscenter's live telecast this morning, Sage Steele brought up the fact that there was communication between the two sides, the first mention of the story since it broke. Yesterday, ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said that while they don't mind reporting stories that other news organizations break, they couldn't get confirmation on this one.
"Like all reports that come in, we gave careful consideration to this one," Krulewitz said. "We couldn't confirm it. It's obviously a judgment call. Given the nature of the story, we needed to bring a lot of sensitivity to our reporting and do what we felt was the most responsible thing."
Now, it appears, the report has some validity to it, and ESPN had to jump in the media hot tub after all.
It's strange that a media conglomerate like ESPN feels the need to stay away from a story that may or may not be true, from a reliable news source, when they've had so many incorrect reports from some of their top guys, all hoping to break a story first. While much of the time ESPN makes great decisions and improves sports for all, this is when you have to shake your head. Do they now believe the story after first admitting they had conclusive evidence it was incorrect? I think the worldwide leader has a lot of explaining to do.
