Ok Joe, let's examine the obvious. The only new info FLorio adds is the NFLPA rule that GM's can't contact a player directly, which is not some obscure rule. Here is the PFT article:
CASSERLY THINKS CORNRICH GROUP STEERED NEAL TO NEW ENGLAND
Ron Borges of the Boston Globe, who seemingly takes perverse pleasure in knocking the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick, reports that an agency with strong ties to Belichick might have steered clients Adam Vinatieri and Stephen Neal toward returning to the team.
Neil Cornrich, per Borges, has "long been closely associated with [Belichick], once boasting on his website that he was Belichick's agent and acknowledging that he did work as his attorney." With Cornrich serving a one-year suspension for using proprietary NFLPA research data in conjunction with his work as an expert witness for General Motors in the wrongful death action filed by the estate of Derrick Thomas, Vinatieri and Neal had been working with Jonathan Hurst, of Cornrich's firm.
As to Vinatieri, Borges reports that the guy whose foot provided the difference in each of the team's three Super Bowl victories had "doubts that Hurst was considering all the options available to him" in getting offers for Vinatieri. "It seemed to Vinatieri that Hurst was pushing him back to New England," Borges writes. "Whether Hurst was or not, Vinatieri told people in Green Bay he feared that was the case."
So Vinatieri hired Gary Uberstine, and Uberstine quickly placed Vinatieri in Indy.
As to Neal, Texans G.M. Charley Casserly was suspicious as to whether the veteran Patriots guard really was a "free" agent. After Hurst "refused" to bring Neal to Houston for a visit, Hurst told Casserly: "It's just not going to work out."
So Casserly tried to contact Neal directly.
''I left a message on his cellphone," Casserly told Borges. ''I don't know if he got it or not. I never got to talk to Steve. But our offer was a signing bonus between $5 million and $6 million. It probably would have ended up at $5.5 million. The average of the [four-year] deal would have been $3 million a season, including the signing bonus. Go look what they signed him for."
Neal's signing bonus was only $3.2 million, according to Borges.
''You figure out what happened," Casserly said. ''He was never really a free agent. It was all just for show."
Although Casserly amazingly (and unwisely, in our view) went on the record with his comments, the article raises new questions regarding Borges' objectivity when it comes to the Patriots. For example, Borges doesn't mention that his own paper ran an AP item indicating that Neal had visited the Vikings and the Bills. Another article from Nick Cafardo of the Globe said that Neal also had visited the Dolphins. The fact that Hurst took Neal on three visits undermines Borges' implicit suggestion that Hurst wouldn't let Neal talk to other teams.
Borges also fails to mention that, if Casserly's version of the events is true, it means that Casserly has admitted to an attempt to negotiate directly with a player who is represented by an NFLPA-certified agent, which arguably violates Article VI, Section 1 of the CBA.
Casserly's decision to characterize the re-signing of Neal by the Pats as an inside job also has curious timing, given that Casserly reportedly is under consideration for a job in the league office. With the Krafts quickly gaining more and more influence in the NFL, why risk making enemies through a gratuitous attack on the team they own?
It'd be interesting to see what Neal has to say about all of this. The fact that there's no indication in Borges' item that he tried to reach the player himself makes us wonder whether there might be even more to this one that Borges conveniently has overlooked.
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Now..............
JoeSixPat said:
The fact that Casserly was in violation of the NFLPA?
You don't find it odd that, although die hard fans on this site and other boards didn't pick up on that, this guy, who follows 32 other teams on a website he runs on a part time basis comes up with that aspect within hours of the article going to print?
Again, it's a relatively simple rule that all coaches, GMs are aware of. The one thing Florio does well is cover contracts, both individual and the leagues.
JoeSixPat said:
You also find it to be a coincidence that the die hard fans of Patsfans and other sites didn't pick up on the fact that Borges failed to call Neal himself to factcheck these items while Florio did?
Florio didn't call Neal. Per the article: "It'd be interesting to see what Neal has to say about all of this. The fact that there's no indication in Borges' item that he tried to reach the player..."
That mean, A. Florio didn't call NEal. and B. he assumes, correctly, that Borges didn't either since there was not the typical "Neal could not be reached for comment" or "Neither Neal or his agent or the Patriots" would comment". Without such things in this or any other news article, you can assume the journalist did not contact those sources. IT's journalism 101 and if none of the 'diehard Patsfans' here mentioned it it is probably (I dearly hope) because it is, yes, obvious.
JoeSixPat said:
You also find it to be a coincidence that Florio also picked up on another fact that seemed to escape most Patsfans members as well, namely the fact he had visited other teams?
I can retireve every article that has ever mentioned Neal in about 2 minutes.
You're argument that how could Florio do this so quickly when other 'fans' didn't is silly. He is a professional and despite his warts he gets paid for a reason.
JoeSixPat said:
PFT relies on leaked info coming from credible and not so credible sources. But in this case you DON'T think his info came from a Patriots source?
Sometimes it has sources, often it is just editorializing on articles that run in local papers. A lot of the PFT articles are crafted that you would think they did some leg work on it but when you strip down the facts and look at how it is sourced (ie. "per Borges' artciles Casserly said....") you'll see there were no calls made, no new info, and not even fact checked.
I mean I don't want to hit you over the head with the obvious - but its completely obvious that article was prompted by someone within the Pats organization who was pi$$ed over the sloppy one-sided Borges article and decided to give Florio the ammunition to shoot back.
Not only is it not obvious, it is pure conjecture on your part. If anything the artcile clearly states that he did not do any other interviews. If he had he would have inserted "our source tells us..." ...or something of the like to show that they did their own work. Never underestimate the ego of a journalist.
Top off all this interesting information that Florio "independently" came up with when no one else did with the final "FU" from someone who wanted it to be noted that, given the Kraft's influence within the NFL, that Casserly's bid for Commissioner was now DOA, and I think its pretty clear that while Florio might be good - he's not that good a reporter. (and in fact, he's not a reporter as well - he's a guy who gets leaked info and posts it on his website)
I don't know what this has to do with the price of tea in China.
Florio is an internet junkie, who searches stories and editorializes on them. He loves to boast about his sources and scoops but this is far less common that him just reading between the lines of news artticles and spinning it into a column.
I really hope you read articles about politics, war etc. with a more discerning eye to see what is and what is not, obvious.
