Media member sells Kyle Rudolph's gloves on eBay

Fair points. But we encourage whistleblowers in private industry as well. Cops and politicians were two examples. But if someone saw something shady going on at Google, we'd want them to out the characters involved.

 

It surprises me that Rudolph had no idea who it was. Maybe he's just that generous.

 

I regularly visit NFL locker rooms, but not as a every day beat person, and I'd bet the number of players out of 100 who could tell you my name would be less than five.

 

I'm guessing it's less than five who'd sign gloves on the spot and hand them over to a media member who wants them for charity. That doesn't seem like a terribly common request to receive or grant like that, while simultaneously not knowing for whom you did it. But who knows. Joe's probably just a real good guy.

 

Funny. I disagree but funny.

 

Of course there are a ton of people. I’m surprised that with that many observant people in a locker room, apparently not one witnessed this exchange that would garner attention or knew who was asking for a player’s gloves. No one saw that or can be bothered to give a shit about an egregious ethics violation? That’s somewhat surprising.

 

Still would think someone would be able to figure it out. Guy has been to enough big time events that people would know him. Also, his eBay profile is still public. Just based on what he's sold should weed him out some. And since this became public and he's using a credential that should doesn't allow such things, I would be OK with him being outed. He hasn't sold anything since, but you'd think he will again if not caught. It's possible his employer or how he got the credential knows, though, and he won't be at anything else. Which would be OK too.

 

Ever been in a NFL locker room? Doesn’t surprise me at all. Wouldn’t surprise me in a NBA locker room, which has a quarter of the players and is smaller.

Unless someone is making an ass of themselves or if the media is scrumming waiting for a player? I don’t pay any attention to what the rest of the media is doing. Nor do I think they pay any attention to what I’m doing. It’s a workplace. Frankly? One that most are trying to get their work done in and GTFO of.

 

I’ve covered the NFL and am still surprised. I mean, with that many reporters in the locker room after the game, and most of them presumably talking to the dude who caught the game-winning touchdown, how did no one hear a reporter ask Rudolph for his gloves — an obvious ethics violation that would cause most to stop and look? This scenario includes media scrumming around a player AND someone making an ass of themselves. Yeah, we all want to GTFO of there and file, but no one noticed that? It’s unlikely that any reporter had a moment alone with Rudolph given the circumstances.

 

I'm sorry to come off this way, but this does not read like someone who has been in many NFL locker rooms.

First of all, let's see where Rudolph addressed the media.

Here is the video footage.

Rudolph Explains His Game-Winning Touchdown, Criticism of Cousins, Need To Refocus ASAP, More

This does not appear to be in front of his locker. In fact, it's obvious it's not. There are probably at close to 30 reporters in this scrum, I would guess. It looks like it's in the hallway of the visitor's locker room in the Superdome. If you've ever been in the Superdome, it's kind of a chaotic place. So Randolph spoke for at least 5 minutes on camera, not at the podium where it would have been obvious if someone had gone up to him to ask for his gloves as he was going back to the showers. Now, once a player is done talking, particularly if he hasn't showered and dressed, that doesn't mean you can't get him anymore. It depends on the player. Some guys will happily answer questions right after their scrum, when the first wave of reporters has gotten their soundbites and left, some will limit their interactions to one chance and you're done, and many will land somewhere in the middle. I'd suspect that Rudolph is not a big enough star that he's not going to blow off anyone who comes up to him after he's returned from the showers and say "I already did media." Even Tom Brady will take an occasional question at his locker if you approach him the right way.

So here is what we know: Rudolph addressed at least 20, maybe 30 reporters before he'd even taken his uniform off and showered. At this point, the majority of the media, unless they were writing a Rudolph-specific story, would likely be elsewhere, not paying attention to exactly what he was doing, who he was interacting with. There is a good chance in the time in after he was done speaking on this video, he might have had four or five *more* interactions with "media" within the confines of the locker room, plus whatever might have potentially happened to him in the hallway on his way to the bus.

We really think it's improbable that no other reporters – the majority of them on deadline, totally not aware this nefarious situation was unfolding — didn't see it and think something was amiss? Particularly when it could have been someone credentialed by the Saints who was New Orleans "media" and most of the people who might have potentially seen this person and maybe been able to ID him would have been Vikings-related media? (Seeing as Saints media members would have been in their locker room, writing ab out the end of their season?)

 

What’s more telling is this guy has sold stuff from a number of “assignments.” The league PR departments could cross-reference the credentials lists in about two minutes and narrow it down quickly.

 

You’re right that the reporter could’ve asked Rudolph for the gloves in the locker room, in a one-on-one conversation after he showered. By then most reporters would’ve been gone.

Rudolph responded in detail about what happened and I just figured he would have mentioned if it was later, after the locker room had slowed down. Or maybe it hadn’t slowed down but no one knew the guy because he was parachuting in to cover the Saints for the day and for some reason wasn’t on deadline. I agree that all of that is possible.