Eagles beat writers again took a pounding this week as The Orlando Sentinel’s Chris Harry scooped them all with a report that Eagles franchise running back has undergone knee surgery a MONTH ago and has begun a “rigorous rehab he hopes will whip him back in the form he displayed for most of the 2008 season.”
The Daily News’ Les Bowen played catch-up yesterday afternoon…
Agent Todd France told the Daily News today that Eagles running back Brian Westbrook did indeed have a minor arthroscopic procedure on his left knee, more than a month ago. Asked if Westbrook would be fine for minicamps, France said: “He’s already fine. This was a long time ago. It was basically just a cleanup.”
The Eagles never announced Westbrook’s procedure. His left knee was a continuing irritation to him last season.
You read it right there…”The Eagles never announced Westbrook’s procedure.”
If Eagles beat writers are waiting for the Eagles to announce ANYTHING – they should start practicing their copy writing skills, or their car washing skills – because that’s all they’ll be good for.
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Same deal as Runyan…if the player and the team took all the necessary precautions to protect Westbrook’s privacy, there’s nothing to scoop, because there’s no access to that information.
Channel 3, 6, 10, CSN, 610, 950, ESPN, SI, NFLN, Fox, PFT, KFFL, Glazer, Mortenson, Clayton, all Philly and suburban papers missed the story. Are they all to blame??? Or are the Eagles just doing a good job of protecting the privacy of their players?
If it happened once, maybe you can blame the beat writers. This is the 2nd time, and there may be other players that have had procedures that the media doesn’t know about. Tough to pin this on anything other than the Eagles doing a good job of locking everyone down, and keeping their players’ privacy rights in place.
Pairface,
I understand your point and have no intention of taking this further. However, how can you excuse a reporter from the Orlando Sentinel getting the word on this? Or the fact that Bowen plainly calls himself out by stating that we waits for the Eagles to inform him that the team’s #1 player is going under the knife – albeit for very minor surgery.
It’s the rehab that’s the big story here – it proves they are not keeping tabs on Westbrook. Also, the cat from the San Francisco Chronicle blew everyone away with the Dawkins news – can we also come to the conclusion that these Eagles beat writers were asleep at that switch as well?
Shouldn’t Dawkins been followed around daily until he signed with the Eagles? No one in the town even SPECULATED he would bolt for the highest bidder.
Weak reporting – very weak.
I think Pairface is right here. The Eagles just have their organization locked down. Would your really want to be the guy on the inside to get caught leaking stuff when NFL teams are laying off people all over the place? Plus the Eagles are not the Cowgirls. They’ve bread a culture down there where blabbing to Ed Werder is commonplace and JJ had to start grandstanding to get people to stop. As long as Westbrook is healthy and ready for camp I don’t really care anyway.
What’s the difference between rehabbing and working out??? Westbrook could have been rehabbing his knee WITHOUT having surgery. I don’t see how a reporter would possibly know whether or not Westbrook had surgery, based on his workout/rehab routine.
As for the Dawkins story, the guy that broke it was a Raiders/AFC West beat writer, and had a source close to the Broncos. I can easily see how this guy got the story before the Philly writers did, because I bet most of them don’t have reliable sources in Denver.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m definitely not an apologist for the media. I think they do as much harm as they do good, because their goal isn’t to serve the public interests as much as it is to sell newspapers, ratings, etc. But in Westbrook’s case, the Eagles have established that they will control what medical information gets released to the media, and what doesn’t. They have privacy laws on their side, and their employees have incentives in place to follow their orders (mainly, through keeping their jobs). Frankly, I don’t see where there’s any incentive at all to help out a writer, outside of bribery. Les Bowen isn’t going to hire a trainer if he’s fired for leaking info.
So you are telling me that a Raiders beat writer broke a Broncos story involving one of the most storied Eagles players of all time and that’s OK with you?
I’m not passing judgment on the Philly writers one way or the other regarding the Dawkins story (as you are). I just presented a possible reason as to why the story was broken by a guy who has better sources in Denver than any of the Philly writers do. If Dawkins went to another NFCE team, then I would probably see it your way.
But you see the connection here, right? The Raiders are in the same division as the Broncos, so this guy has good sources close to the Broncos. It wasn’t a Tampa or Minnesota writer that broke this story out of the blue. THAT would be a reason to call the Philly writers onto the carpet.
All of Denver’s major league sports teams are in different conferences than the Philly teams. So it’s not really a market that I would expect Philly writers to have reliable sources in. New York or Washington, then yes, I would have higher expectations of the writers.
Shawn Springs at 33…LMAO!