NFL Offseason: Reader Beware of Media Rumors!

Readers, beware! You have now entered the time-tested historical frenzied period, commonly known as the NFL offseason.

You know that you should know better, but you see one alarming headline after another scrolling across the TV or the computer, and it is hard to ignore them. What if one of these stories were actually true?

There are so many so-called experts out there who feel that if they don't out-scoop the competition and have the leading article at least once a week, they will be losing national credibility and will no longer be known as the official insider that usually follows their name.

Forget how often these scoops or rumors are accurate, it is clearly a case of quantity over quality, which as we all know, is a recipe for disaster and mockery.

To illustrate my point, let's take one typical day and, kind of like Jack Bauer of "24" fame, dissect a 24-hour time frame and look at some of the nonsense that can be fed to us as if it were gospel.

We will start this exercise with Jan. 10 and proceed from there to Jan. 11, summing up events on four separate topics that provides testimony to the statement of: Reader, beware!

SUBJECT No. 1: Head Coach Jack Del Rio of the Jacksonville Jaguars

Story Line: Following the sudden departure of USC head coach Pete Carroll to the Seattle Seahawks, Del Rio is thought to be a strong candidate to take over the USC Trojans.

Rumor Mill Piece No. 1: ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that there is a "feeling in the building" in Jacksonville team HQ's that Del Rio will have a difficult time emerging from Tuesday's meeting with owner Wayne Weaver as the team's head coach.

Rumor Mill Piece No. 2: Los Angeles Daily News reports that USC has sent Del Rio a contract.

Rumor Mill Piece No. 3: Sports Illustrated's writer Peter King reports that Jack Del Rio is making calls to potential staff members in anticipation of leaving Jacksonville for USC.

Bottom Line: Del Rio emerges from meetings with owner Weaver to confirm that he is going to be back for the 2010 season in Jacksonville and that the other reports were figments of other people's imagination.

SUBJECT No. 2: Washington Redskins New Head Coach Mike Shanahan

Story Line: Shanahan has a wide following of various NFL coaching personnel who he has worked with over the years and would not have much trouble in assembling a hand-picked coaching staff of his liking. 

Rumor Mill Piece No. 1: Mike Zimmer, the first choice of Shanahan to be the Redskins defensive coordinator, decides instead to sign a three-year contract extension to remain with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Rumor Mill Piece No. 2: Alex Gibbs, offensive line coach and widely regarded as the "Zone Blocking Guru," shuns the efforts of Shanahan to follow him to Washington, and instead agrees to join Pete Carroll and become part of the Seahawks coaching staff.

Bottom Line: Shanahan loses the top choices he had at these different key positions and needs to go scrambling back to the drawing board. It also calls into question the drawing power of his name and puts a little bit of tarnish on his reputation or appeal.

SUBJECT No. 3: Oakland Raiders Head Coach Tom Cable

Story Line: Following a dismal season, Tom Cable is very much on the hot seat and may not be the Raiders head coach for much longer.

Rumor Mill Piece No. 1: NFL.com writer Steve Wyche calls Green Bay Packers assistant head coach Winston Moss a potentially strong candidate to succeed likely-to-be-fired Raiders head coach Tom Cable. 

Rumor Mill Piece No. 2: San Francisco Chronicle beat writer David White reports that Al Davis will meet with head coach Tom Cable on Jan. 11 to discuss all the reasons why he will be fired.

Bottom Line: The Oakland Tribune reports that no meeting between Davis and Cable occurred on the 11th. In fact, the report says that Davis is still undecided about the future of Tom Cable. Reports of his firing are unsubstantiated. It concludes that Davis is amused at the media speculation schedules.

SUBJECT No. 4: Brian Schottenheimer, Offensive Coordinator of the New York Jets

Story Line: AFC East rival Buffalo Bills are attempting to line up viable head coach candidates for an interview, and Schottenheimer has some ties to new Bills GM Buddy Ryan, who worked with Schottenheimer's dad, Marty, when they were at San Diego.

Rumor Mill Piece No. 1: Jay Glazer, NFL insider, tweets that Brian Schottenheimer will not take any interviews for head coaching jobs while the Jets are in their playoff run.

Rumor Mill Piece No. 2: New York Jet's beat writer Rich Cimini said that he expects Brian Shottenheimer to stay with the Jets for another season.

Bottom Line: The Jets did in fact give Buffalo permission to interview Schottenheimer, and the interview will occur sometime this week. Interestingly enough, there was a quote by Jets head coach Rex Ryan that appeared on Bills news items at BuffaloBills.com today:

“I really don’t want to be honest what I think, because I want him here,” said Ryan of Schottenheimer. ”He did a great job of mixing in the run and the pass and he called the game like a head coach. We could have called some more passes or some different plays, but we wanted to control the clock. Before the two-minute, he took a lot of time off the clock and just doing a tremendous job. I realize we’re only going to have him for as long as we’re in this tournament, but we enjoy having him right now.”

To be sure, some of these story lines may actually come to fruition, but just this brief exercise has been able to demonstrate that much of what comes out from the scoop-hungry media has much in the way of believability.

Before you pick up the phone to call your friends to share the next rumor or sensationalized headline you read, just remember: Reader, beware!