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Brett McMurphy Doesn’t Need a Media Company

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Brett McMurphy is in the middle of the biggest week of his professional career. The former ESPN college football reporter has grabbed headlines this week for his investigative report that lead to Ohio State placing head football coach Urban Meyer on paid administrative leave.

The whole story was reported for and published on McMurphy’s personal Facebook page. He is a guest on Richard Deitsch’s Sports Media podcast on The Athletic this week. The headline from their conversation has been McMurphy’s assertion that in 2018 you do not need the backing of a major media company to break a story.

“When I first got to ESPN five years ago I thought, man, I’m at ESPN, this is awesome, it’s unbelievable. Obviously it raised my profile nationally and all that stuff. But what I found out in the last 18 months is you can stay relevant on Facebook or Twitter if you’ve got good information…people are gonna find you. In a weird way, we don’t really need these giant media corporations because we can get our message out. I think you’re seeing this with a lot of athletes that, basically when they have any type of news, they just post it on their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, instead of going the traditional route of calling up a writer and having them break the story.”

McMurphy also described the reasons why and situation that lead to him posting such a long and well-researched story to Facebook.

“I was part of the mass layoffs at ESPN last April and I had 18 months left on my contract. So we had non-compete clauses in our contracts. What that means in simple terms is if I wanted to go work for another company I was free to but by doing so ESPN was no longer required to pay me the remainder of my contract. So to get paid the remainder of my contract…I could not work for a third-party. However, I was able to tweet on my personal Twitter account. Also put information on my personal Facebook account because that was not a third party.”

“So when I got laid off, I had a decision to make. You know, I could sit on my couch and eat lime Tostitos for the next 18 months, which I did a lot of anyway, and not work and hope I get a job in 18 months or I can continue to try to report news, break news, via Twitter or Facebook, and try to stay relevant. So when my contract is up in August of 2018, then hopefully I’ll be more attractive to be hired somewhere else. So basically that’s what I did. I said I’m gonna bust my ass and I’m gonna try to keep working.”

“I just figured the way the industry was, if I didn’t stay relevant or try to stay relevant, any value I had to a future employer 18 months ago would diminish greatly if I wasn’t doing anything for the following 18 months. So I kinda worked while I wasn’t working, if you will, and tried to stay relevant, and here we are.”

The story about former Ohio State WR coach Zach Smith and the domestic violence accusations made by his ex-wife is not the first major story McMurphy has broken exclusively for his social media followers. He was also the first to report that Mississippi State had hired Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorehead as its new head coach, that Scott Frost was leaving Central Florida for Nebraska, and that the NCAA was considering adding three new bowl games for the 2020 season.

Deitsch also asked McMurphy if he considered going to ESPN with the Ohio State story in hopes that it would find a larger audience that way.

“That didn’t cross my mind because by doing that I’d be telling them what story I had and then that would be a mistake cause then they would pursue it. And secondly, that’s not something that they would get a quick answer out of. I’d have to go through their legal department…Honestly I didn’t really think about it.”

“I didn’t have any thoughts of trying to sell this story to anybody. Certainly, I wasn’t paid. I didn’t pay Courtney Smith to talk to me or anything like that. I just said I’m gonna report this story and see what I can find out. I never would have envisioned it would have reached this point. Ultimately it started out that I heard there were some domestic violence issues with Zach Smith in his times at Florida. I did a couple simple public record requests. Got the information and then it’s been a marble down a mountain since then.”

The interview is absolutely fascinating. You can hear it here.

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Saquon Barkley to WFAN’s Tiki Barber: “Don’t Feed Into the B.S.”

Barkley said any narrative that he chose to go to Philadelphia over staying with the Giants is incorrect because New York never offered him a contract.

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Logo for the New Heights podcast and a photo of Saquon Barkley

Former New York Giants and current Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley made an appearance this week on New Heights, the podcast hosted by Travis and Jason Kelce. In addition to several football related topics, Barkley spoke about his war of words with WFAN host and former Giants running back Tiki Barber.

After Barkley signed with the Eagles on a three-year, $37.5 million deal, Barber said that Barkley was “dead to us,” referring to New York Giants fans. Barber has said those comments were more about what the fans were thinking and were “tongue-in-cheek.” Barkley came back at Barber on social media and said he was a “hater” since he came to New York.

In explaining what made him upset about Barber’s response, Barkley said he didn’t think it was right to be attacked by a former player.

“I love seeing NFL guys, I love seeing OGs, I love seeing you guys, you have a platform, this is a place where you know ball, you can talk, you can educate fans,” Barkley said. “Maybe use that time to show, ‘Maybe this is why Saquon is going to Philly’ … the business side of it, use that to show, I’m not saying you got to have loyalty to me because I don’t care for that, to be honest, but you are an ex-NFL player, an ex-NFL athlete, don’t feed into the B.S., let fans do that, they’re supposed to do that, they’re emotional.”

Barkley said any narrative that he chose to go to Philadelphia over staying with the Giants is incorrect because New York never offered him a contract.

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Joe Buck Misses Calling Baseball But Says He’s Already Called it for “A Lifetime”

“People go, ‘Do you miss calling baseball?’ — I did it for 35 years, that is a lifetime in broadcasting…I feel like I put my time in.”

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Credit: Richard Shotwell AP

Longtime sports broadcaster Joe Buck gave up calling baseball when he made the switch to ESPN and, while he says he misses the sport, he’s called 35 years’ worth of the sport. On the latest edition of Nothing Left Unsaid with Tim Green, Green asks his former broadcast partner about the lack of baseball in his life. While Buck says he misses parts of baseball, he doesn’t miss all of it.

“People go, ‘Do you miss calling baseball?’ — I did it for 35 years, that is a lifetime in broadcasting…I feel like I put my time in. I did 24 World Series — that’s a lot, 24 more than I ever expected to do on national television. What I do miss is calling the game for the home crowd. I do miss the local stuff, where you go into the booth, and you’re the Cardinal announcer, and when the Cardinals win, ‘Yay,’ and when the Cardinals lose, ‘Boo.’ When you do the network stuff, it’s like death by 1000 cuts. It’s, ‘you hate my team, screw you,’ and it gets in your head and it takes a little bit of the fun out of it…I don’t miss the stress that comes with all that, but I do miss calling baseball for [a local team]…You show up, you’re not just there for an organization, but for their fans, and you’re kind of rooting along with them. That’s fun. And so, I miss that, but as far as the national stuff, I don’t miss a lot of that.”

Buck reiterated points he made months ago on 810 WHB with Jason Anderson. “I miss doing local baseball. I miss putting on a headset and being the eyes and ears of Cardinal fans, Royal fans, Rangers fans, whatever,” Buck said back then. “That’s more fun than being Switzerland and getting all the junk that comes with it.”

He stopped calling baseball when he and longtime football partner Troy Aikman moved from FOX to ESPN to call Monday Night Football. While he said publicly that he would miss calling the World Series, he also said the 2022 World Series would have been his last anyway. Buck says he may one day feel compelled to call baseball again, though, saying, “I’ve never said that before, but I just feel like I’m 53, basically 54, [and] I think it’s too early to say nevers at this point in my life. I think at some point, I’ll get the itch again.”

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Former Red Sox Pitcher Jonathan Papelbon Joins Roster of ‘Foul Territory’ Hosts

“I am joining the Foul Territory podcast full-time, no more guest spots…I’m coming in and I can’t wait to pop a bottle on this year’s baseball season.

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The already-stacked roster on Foul Territory just got its closer. Jonathan Papelbon, formerly of the Boston Red Sox, Washington Nationals, and Philadelphia Phillies, announced today that he was joining fellow former All-Stars A.J. Pierzynski, Todd Frazier, Adam Jones, Lorenzo Cain, Brock Holt and Jason Kipnis on the show.

The podcast also features former MLB Network host Scott Braun and former 11-year MLB catcher Erik Kratz.

“I am joining the Foul Territory podcast full-time, no more guest spots,” Papelbon said in a video posted to his X account. “Whether it’s a big Ohtani gambling scandal or me giving you baseball gambling winners…I’m coming in, no bulls—-, real talk, and I can’t wait to pop a bottle on this year’s baseball season.”

Papelbon has been a contributor to the show in the past as a guest but will now join in an official capacity. He has also contributed to linear and digital content for NESN since 2021 and will reportedly head to the booth this year.

The former closer will join Alanna Rizzo on the Foul Territory network, who was brought on just a week ago to co-host the podcast’s live program, Fair Territory, with baseball insider Ken Rosenthal.

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