By LUIS GONZALEZ
The New England Patriots woke up to an awkward breakup post by backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, except the Patriots did not trade or cut the QB.
At around 4 a.m., Garoppolo’s Instagram saying a concise goodbye to Boston. While the third-year QB has had his time this year on the trade block, it appears that his Instagram was hacked and has not been traded or released.
The post lasted around four hours on his profile and has been deleted since then. Below is a screengrab of the post from Garropolo’s Instagram (the gray box only covers the comment section).
NFL news media have been working tirelessly around the clock for the last week because of the opening of free agency.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport summed up the situation best for the aforementioned news media members.
“Spoke to someone close to Jimmy Garoppolo who had no knowledge of any trade and believes it’s a hack. Alas, it’s 5:26 am now & we’re all up,” Rapoport wrote.
He also gave an update this morning on NFL Network’s show Good Morning Football and provided some insight of the early morning flurry.
“Here is the latest from RapSheet on the Jimmy Garoppolo Instagram story,” he wrote.
The whole situation brings up the importance of maintaining multiple legitimate sources to confirm a story before it its published, especially during the free agency period.
Front office personnel from NFL teams and countless sports agents are currently participating in a dance to gain leverage over each other, to get the best deal for their party.
The dance involves leaking information to reporters in hopes of starting published rumors and put pressure on the other party to conform to their side of the bargaining table.
With the feed-the-beast mentality, it would be easy for someone looking to get some clicks on their new blog and make a name for themselves, might publish the leaked information and it may not be true.
Having multiple sources to confirm a story solidifies it, allowing it not to be subject to a rich man’s leverage war.
Rapoport, in the tweet, showed how reporting during a whirlwind time should be done. With solid confirmation and not believing the first thing that is seen.