ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter's journalistic integrity is being called into question after an embarrassing email exchange with a former Washington Football Team executive surfaced this week.
In an email from roughly a decade ago, the veteran football reporter, who has long been one of the faces of the Worldwide Leader's NFL coverage, appeared to submit a story draft for approval to former WFT executive Bruce Allen, the Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday.
Allen is a key figure in the WFT harassment investigation, and he was the recipient of the shocking bigoted emails that cost former Raiders coach Jon Gruden his job.
Schefter, corresponding with Allen during the 2011 NFL lockout, apparently sent a story about then ongoing labor negotiations for Allen's approval.
Schefter seems to grovel in the missive, at one point calling Allen "Mr. Editor."
"Please let me know if you see anything that should be added, changed, tweaked," Schefter wrote. "Thanks, Mr. Editor, for that and the trust. Plan to file this to espn at about 6 am ..."
The email was apparently discovered during the course of the investigation into Washington's workplace culture, which was initiated after several female employees came forth in a 2020 Washington Post expose to describe a hostile environment where they were subject to years of harassment.
When asked by the LA Times for comment on Schefter's questionable practices, ESPN seemed to stand by its reporter.
"Without sharing all the specifics of the reporter's process for a story from 10 years ago during the NFL lockout, we believe that nothing is more important to Adam and ESPN than providing fans the most accurate, fair and complete story."
New York Times reporter Kevin Draper shared an interesting nugget for 49ers fans from 2017, regarding four-time All-Pro linebacker NaVorro Bowman.
As Draper noted, Bowman’s super agent, Drew Rosenhaus, reached out to NFL teams to let them know his client was on the trading block. Allen then forwarded the email to Schefter, who reported it the next day.
As for Bowman? He was eventually cut by the 49ers after they couldn’t find a suitor. Three days after Schefter’s tweet, Bowman signed a one-year, $3 million deal with the Oakland Raiders.
While Schefter is in hot water for his “Mr. Editor” exchange with Allen, this Bowman leak is more of a cool peek under the hood at how the NFL media machine works.
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