It’s not often you see ESPN reporter Mike Reiss get heated, but that’s what happened on Wednesday afternoon as Reiss appeared on Felger & Mazz on 98.5 to discuss the situation with Brandon Aiyuk.
After the 49ers wideout spurned New England, causing them to walk away from the deal, Felger spent Wednesday inferring that the Patriots lost out on Aiyuk because he believes the club wasn’t willing to “blow him away” with guaranteed money. That’s an interesting angle to just throw out there, given that no reports were made when it came to where New England was from that standpoint.
But where Felger went too far was inferring that Reiss had the details on the team’s “aggressive” approach he reported on ESPN’s SportsCenter Tuesday night simply coming based on a direct leak from the team, essentially accusing Reiss of providing information on their behalf to put the Patriots in a better light given that they were walking away from the negotiations.
That inference set off quite the exchange, with the normally reserved Reiss letting his displeasure be known.
“I’m sure it’s a legit offer, but then there’s a difference between legit and blowing a guy out of the water,” Felger told Reiss. “And that usually comes with the guaranteed money. We all have to agree. So the guaranteed number is the key number, is it not?”
“I think that’s very fair, Mike,” said Reiss.
“So that to me, and I think the Patriots have a history of having a lot of bells and whistles in their contracts,” Felger continued. “I say bells and whistles. I don’t know how you would describe it. A lot of qualifications. There are strings attached, or there historically have been in their contracts, per game, roster bonuses, things of this nature. So I’m just curious because to me, Mike, it feels the only way you’re going to get a Brandon Ayuk is if there is a no strings attached, massive guarantee offer. That, to me, is their only path to a guy like that?”
Reiss then stopped Felger, asking him if that insinuation regarding the club’s “history” was based on prior to this year, or this past offseason.
“So let me ask you this, Mike. You mentioned their history with contracts. What is the history that you’re referencing?” asked Reiss. “Is it from 2000 to 2023? Or does that include this offseason?”
“Okay, so this offseason,” said Felger. “It, I guess, does not include this offseason.”
“So don’t you think that’s important? I mean, we’re talking about a totally different thing, right?” asked Reiss.
“Well, I don’t know,” said Felger. “Mike, you tell me, you follow this, so the new contract, does Michael Onwenu not have any per-game roster bonuses?”
“I think he’s got weight bonuses. I’ll check on that, Mike,” said Reiss. “I don’t have that off the top of my head, but I think you hit at, to me … so I haven’t been listening to you guys, and I’m ready to fight if you want to fight. But listen, the thing for me that I get people texting me, tweets coming up in the notifications, I think the insinuation that bothers me is that you think, Mike, that this information is coming from the team. So you think that the team would tell me that and that I would go on SportsCenter and report that. I have to be honest, Mike, I’m actually a little bit insulted by that, if that’s true. I don’t know if that’s true because I haven’t been listening.”
“It’s definitely how I feel,” said Felger. “It’s okay to have team sources. And that’s okay.”
“You can feel that way,” said Reiss. “You can feel that way. But the fact that you think that I would go on SportsCenter on that platform and just say that based on something from the team? That’s why I wanted to call in. You’re creating a perception with listeners that that’s the way this works. That’s incredibly dangerous. Think about all the people involved in this. You have the agent, you have the player, you have four teams, but you are just going to narrow in that the team, ‘Hey, we’re going to tell Mike this. He’ll go out and say it.’ That’s not the way this works. That pisses me off because you’ve been in this position, and you know that that’s not fair, and it’s not accurate in this case.”
“Okay. I mean, I used to do it,” said Felger. “They would tell me stuff, and I’d report it.”
“No, Mike, you would check it,” said Reiss. “Mike, if they told you something, you would go check with the other side because that’s the right thing to do.”
“Sometimes,” said Felger. “Sometimes I did it, and it burned me.”
From there, Tony Masserotti then asked a jaw-dropping question, asking Reiss – as if he’s not a reporter with over 20-years in experience who also works for the biggest sports company on the planet – if he followed protocol when it comes to confirming an initial source.
“When you report a story, do you try to get information validated on both sides?” asked Masserotti. “Because I know that some… And let me just say before you even answer, I oftentimes would get information from one side, and I would say, ‘according to a source,’ if it was a credible source. And then I got to a stage where my employer at that time said, ‘Listen, we’re not going with one source anymore. We want two.’ So I was going to ask you, does ESPN have any standard in that? And I didn’t want to ask you outright which side did you get it from, but did you have to get it from multiple sides?”
“Absolutely, Tony,” replied Reiss. “In this case, if you’re saying the team is ‘being aggressive,’ you better have it from more than just the team. You can’t just take the team’s word for that. That’s what to me is stunning that you would think that. It’s actually insulting.”
The interview eventually ended on a positive note, with the two sides ultimately ironing things out as they discussed some additional areas of the team. But it was a reminder that making comments off the cusp when it comes to questioning a reporter’s standards is absolutely unfair.
Felger’s a button pusher, there’s no question. And he and Masserrotti are both masters of what they do. At the same time, it’s one thing to make comments regarding ownership and the team. It’s another to make an accusation when it comes to the motives of someone at Reiss’ level.
Anyone who has followed Reiss in-depth knows that there are quite a few major stories that he often won’t write about if he doesn’t have the full picture, which has always been his approach. Accuracy trumps everything in his mind, and he’s absolutely been consistent from that standpoint.
Reiss is one of the best Patriots writers in the region, and he’s also one of the kindest and most genuine guys you’ll ever meet. That being said, the saying, “You shouldn’t confuse kindness with weakness,” was absolutely on display Wednesday, and good for him for setting the record straight.
(There were some additional interesting discussions between the two in this interview, and the full transcript is now available via this link.)
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
You know what is really sad? That Felger has an audience. It speaks to the ignorance, negativity and false bravery of fans, listeners, social media and media overall. As you said – Push the button. Push the negative button being more accurate. So easy to do for ratings and money. Yet so, so unethical. Standards and character should matter.
It’s disappointing. And what’s ironic is that they pushed for this outcome (Belichick’s departure) all of last season, and now they’re likely scrambling a bit given that interest as a whole has dropped both online and on-air. I don’t know how the ratings have been over the summer, albeit based on some of his comments, it sounds like they’re down, likely because people have low expectations and the casual fan just doesn’t care. That seems to be having both stations essentially stir the pot and find a wasp nest to kick for the sake of trying to garner listeners/eyes. I… Read more »