"Trying to reach Junior Seau"

So someone contacted Jim Trotter asking how to get ahold of Junior Seau. Yeah, good luck with that!



What follows is a pretty entertaining Twitter thread. A few people are criticizing Trotter for putting up the exchange on social media, and also for apparently not doing a good enough job to black out his name. But I found it pretty curious he didn't google Seau's name first and try to find something there. Also, when the guy figured out what Trotter was getting at, his excuse for not knowing was that he was a "basketball writer." Um, OK.

 

Wasn't Chris Sheridan one of the AP's big NBA beat writers a while back? How the hell did he not know that Junior Seau is going to be very hard to reach these days?

 

I wondered if it was somehow a different Chris Sheridan, but it’s not. Apparently he lost his Boardroom gig because of this.

 

Awful Announcing.com weighs in:

NBA reporter asks NFL reporter for Junior Seau's contact information, unaware he committed suicide in 2012

I'm kind of surprised it was a guy like Sheridan; I'm not a big NBA guy so I'm not all that familiar with his work, but looking at his background I just find it hard to believe that a death like Seau's didn't cross his radar when it happened. It was a pretty big deal in sports circles and even beyond.

 

Given Sheridan's resume, I guess I can see why he thought he could reach out to Trotter for somebody's contact info and get a response. But why he was looking for Seau in particular is bizarre (even if he was alive, it's kind of a random pull for a story like that), as is the idea that an accomplished reporter at a high level didn't have the contacts or wherewithal of his own to find him. Or that he didn't know Seau has been dead for 10 years. It wasn't exactly a sports death that flew under the radar.
This whole thing is weird.

 

Weird and lol.

 

Wow, that is fucked up. Only explanation is Sheridan was on some sort of medication and wasn't in his right mind when he started that project. Even that's a stretch. Christ how do you not look up ANYONE with whom you are unfamiliar yet writing about to make sure he or she is still alive?

 

LOL “I prefer to do my own interviews rather than rely on Google.”

He might as well have called it “The Google.”

 

Next up: Yo, Jim, can you tell me how to get in touch with Sports by Brooks?

 

Chris Sheridan does not do his own research?

 

At the same time, it's been awhile since I've seen someone get thrown under the bus this hard, and then thrown under again after the bus ran over the body the first time.

 

Trotter should have responded, "Sure thing, Chris. And while we're at it, I'm doing a story on transportation safety and was hoping you could help me get in touch with Kobe Bryant."