Rick Maese on Adam Schefter

Schefer was also the victim of one of the best pranks in the history of the business.

You can't find much about it because The Denver Post wiped it from it's archives.

 

Well, now you need to share.

 

I marvel at his energy and work ethic, but that seems like a hollow, myopic existence. He seems to have no outside interests beyond fantasy football and bullshitting with Jim Cramer. Maese's profile didn't do a very good job of humanizing Schefter or explaining what makes him tick. He didn't get into a fraternity...which apparently changed the course of his life? Because if he was in a fraternity, he wouldn't have time to work for the newspaper? But what about Schefter's childhood? Did he play football? Why such an interest in that sport?

I found Magary's profile of Glazer in GQ a lot more interesting, and Magary isn't a journalist by trade.
http://www.gq.com/entertainment/sports/201402/jay-glazer-nfl-fox-sports

 

Schefter left the RMN under really crappy circumstances. It was a no-brainer for him to leave because he got a signing bonus and a $40K a year raise to go to The Post. A lot of people at both papers were pissed about it. Rocky employees found out that he left when they read his byline in The Post that morning. Forbis was at the Olympics and someone had to call him and tell him that his lead Broncos writer had gone to the competition.

It was about a year later when Schefer filed a late note. It said, "Add to Adam's notebook" He did this all the time.

It said, "When he emerged from the shower, Broncos quarterback John Elway was sporting a nipple ring. When asked about the jewelry, Elway said, "That's none of your business, but if you must know, it was a gift from my wife."

It gets added to Adam's notes and Elway goes ballistic the next day.

The Post wrote a 16-inch apology/clarification the next day.

Lots of rumors as to who pulled off the prank. The most popular one was that someone from the RMN did it with the help of someone from The Post.

 

Outstanding!

 

Your comment's not nearly as insensitive, and demonstrably ridiculous, as Steak's original asscertion.

 

I was particularly taken by the note about Schefter having a great memory, and ability to bullshit about, his sources' families, including the names of their kids and their ages. I don't think people realize how disarming that can be, and how much people trust you when you appear to give a shit about their lives.

(Cool story bro time) I saw this first-hand when I was covering football at IU during college. We went to cover a game at Michigan, and I was sitting next to Adam Schefter of the Michigan Daily. He introduced himself to me, and then he noted that his father had heard me interviewed on WFAN over the summer (it was the summer Bob Knight threatened to leave for New Mexico because he was in a snit over the school president calling him out), and that his dad relayed that I was very "well-spoken." I couldn't believe it; one, because I did the interview while lying down on the blow-up mattress I was sleeping on for the summer, and two, because he immediately recognized my name (which qualitatively is one of the most forgettable names out there) and put it together with what his dad told him.

 

He works for ESPN, which has now multiple reporters stationed at every game, to cover the game.

If beat reporters stop going to games -- Schefter is not a beat reporter -- they're dead as useful sources of information.

 

Here's a question:

How often does Schefter report things that his sources don't want published?

I think he's fine at what he does. But if I had to boil down what he does it'd be this: He reports things that will officially be true shortly after he reports then, or were official just as he did. This is quite useful in the stock business. I'm not sure of its long-term usefulness in sports.

A guy like Woj for Yahoo, he gets most of the stuff Schefter does for his given beat (NBA), but then he gives context, meaning and power to the subjects he covers. He serves the readers.

Schefter serves the league. ESPN pays him handsomely to do that.

 

I agree, but if Schefter reports things first, isn't he serving the readers by doing that?

 

Windhorst got scooped by sportswriter LeBron James.

But a day or two later ESPN was first -- FIRST! -- to report that basketball player LeBron James was negotiating final terms with the Cavs, because it was important for ESPN to inform people that ESPN could be the first outlet to deliver a piece of inconsequential news.

I don't think people give a rat's ass if Jocko Magillicutty's big signing is FIRST reported at 10:38 a.m. because it will be tweeted out and Facebooked out a thousand times over by 10:39 -- and who "broke" that news again?

Does that downplay Schefter's work ethic? No.

Maybe it's just ESPN's daily overkill of EVERYTHING that gets old and tired.

 

The best was when Chris Broussard "broke" the story that Michael Jordan was OK with LeBron wearing No. 23 with the Cavs.

That was one of the top headlines down the right rail for a day.