NFL teams' pre-draft playbook: Character assassination

By Adam Cancryn

Quick, cover your ears! The NFL's anonymous sources are peddling their misinformation again, and the suckers are lining up around the block.

If you haven't already, you can now feel free to tune out the NFL draft chatter until the big day arrives. 

Get up, stretch, move around the cabin. Don't worry, you won't miss a thing. Know how I know? Because the annual period of petty mudslinging has started. This year, the target is Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III, who an unnamed scout told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Bob McGinn has a "bit of a selfish streak" and "doesn't treat anybody good."

In a vacuum, this might be a nice scoop for McGinn, who is widely acknowledged as one of the deepest-sourced NFL reporters out there. But then again, there's all this pesky context: Scores of reports and accounts to the contrary, lauding Griffin as a model student, well-liked teammate and all-around good guy. After months of charming the pants off of even the most skeptical among us, what are the odds that one unnamed scout is the only one who knows of Griffin's evil alter ego? 

Just as damning is the timing. You didn't hear a bad word about him during all that jostling for the No. 2 pick. But now, suddenly and surely not at all related to the fact that the Redskins won the bidding war and the Colts decided on Andrew Luck, teams are leaping off the Griffin bandwagon just miles from their final destination. 

And then there's this. As Deadspin notes and anyone in a relationship-based industry can attest, access goes both ways. McGinn is well-connected, sure, but for a price. It's difficult to get all that inside information without becoming your sources' public mouthpiece every once in a while.

The info comes via Bob McGinn, who's universally respected and may have more sources than any beat writer in the nation. But a part of that is his willingness to print just about whatever he's told, even if the source has an agenda. (It was McGinn who reported Terrelle Pryor's low Wonderlic score last year, and insinuated the Vikings were tampering with Brett Favre in 2008.)

Taking that background into consideration, the thinly sourced report on Griffin makes the scout look vindictive and the reporter look unprofessional at worst and gullible at best.

Now, while the rest of you are busy putting on your NFL-canceling headphones, a quick pep talk for the media types:

We get it. A reporter's job is to dig up news, and in sports especially, no information is too small or inconsequential not to throw out there. There's constant pressure to be the first with everything, and in the minute-by-minute news cycle, this bit of RGIII troll-bait might look juicy. But there has to be some room left for judgment, some small part of your reporting process that involves stepping back, taking in the bigger picture and realizing that this is the time of year that your sources start playing you. And by cooperating, you in turn play your readers.

Reporting is only part of the job. Arguably the more important part is deciding what not to report. This RGIII nonsense falls into the latter category. (And don't even get me started on Albert Breer's me-too act. At least save it for when you get beat on some real news.) It's true that your readers will never applaud you for exercising restraint and deciding against publishing. But in the long run, sacrificing a morsel to avoid becoming your source's puppet is a major step toward preserving credibility.

Of course, in some cases these anonymous "concerns" about players are legitimate. Surely there were character issues with Ryan Leaf, JaMarcus Russell and countless others that went ignored. If that's the case, though, the vague sourcing that runs rampant through the sports pages isn't enough. Reporters can't just cite an "executive" or a "scout." They have to give readers reason to believe that that particular "executive" or "scout" has some special insight. In this case, even identifying the source as a "scout for a team that considered trading up to take Griffin" would allow us to consider that scout's potential biases and motivations.

Everyone, from the bitter teams spreading the misinformation to the reporters that have to sift through it to the consumers that read it, hates this period. It's a free for all, and no one can trust anyone. So let's put a stop to it right now. Take a step back. Ignore the prejudiced tidbits. Insist on something more than blanket anonymity. And readers, do yourself a favor and ignore it all. Agreed? Yes? Good. The NHL playoffs are as intense as ever, the NBA is roaring down the stretch and baseball is in full swing. It's a beautiful time of year. Set your alarm for 8 p.m. on April 26, then leave the NFL behind and go out and play. The big day will be here soon enough.

Adam Cancryn is an editor and co-founder of Began in '96. He hopes he won't lose his precious access to Bob McGinn because of this column.