The New York Daily News announced Thursday that longtime Jets beat writer Manish Mehta will no longer be covering the team. Per Keith J. Kelly of the New York Post, Mehta had his credentials revoked earlier this year for stalking the son of Jets general manager Joe Douglas.
WFAN afternoon host Craig Carton first alluded to a stalking incident involving Mehta during his radio show with Evan Roberts last month. Despite having no access to the team, Mehta had inexplicably been filing columns up until Thursday’s ouster. Mehta’s former colleague, Charles McDonald recently left the Daily News for a new positon at USA Today, but not before posting a cryptic tweet that many assumed was about Mehta. “Getting back into more national coverage now that I’m not being used to hold up the façade that a certain Jets writer still has access to the team,” McDonald wrote, implying he had fed Mehta quotes for his articles after the Jets banned him from their facilities.
As of now, it’s unclear if Mehta’s removal from the Jets’ beat means he’s been terminated or if the Daily News is simply reassigning him. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk on NBC Sports suggests Mehta’s departure was prompted by an upcoming Washington Post article detailing his stalking allegations. Mehta, who maintained an active Twitter presence (he’s been a vocal critic of coach Adam Gase), appears to have either deleted or deactivated his account.
Despite Thursday’s events, the Daily News has vowed to continue bringing readers “uninterrupted coverage” of the Jets, who are off to Seattle to face the Seahawks in Week 14.
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