I was one of the first to report yesterday that Michael Vick signed an endorsement contract with Nike. If you only picked up the news from a mainstream outlet that caught on later that day or this morning, you missed the true, original source of the story. Here it is:
(What started the Vick-Nike misinformation campaign)
It all started with a Tweet by a woman named Kathleen Hessert, at SportsBusiness Journal’s Sports Sponsorship Symposium in New York.
We later found out that Michael Principe, the president of Vick’s rep firm and not Vick’s personal rep Joel Segal, had mentioned an “endorsement deal” between Vick and Nike while serving on a panel at the symposium.
Now, if this was such an earth-shattering endorsement agreement with Nike, do you think Nike and/or Vick’s direct agent would want the news to get out that way? Of course not.
So it appears there’s chance that Segal’s boss either exaggerated the nature of Vick’s agreement with Nike in what he thought was an off-the-record setting, or just got the whole thing wrong.
The big mistake though was made when Segal later affirmed the news to the main media. That’s when the damn broke.
I’ve heard a couple people this morning blaring that Vick’s was LYING!!! about the whole thing. But ask yourself, for such a high-profile deal, what’s the benefit of completely making it up? Obviously if you’re totally misrepresenting a deal with a company like Nike, you’re going to get embarrassed.
What really happened here, in my opinion, is that once the Twitter buzz broke, and blogs like SbB started to distribute the news to the masses, Principe and Segal made the regrettable decision not clarify the agreement immediately. To steer the story back on course.
I don’t think there was anything malicious in the misrepresentation by Principe and Segal, more an excited exaggeration that Vick was back in the fold. That a basic agreement had been struck by the two parties.
But it’s quite clear that Nike didn’t view it that way, and I should’ve known when PETA spokesman Dan Shannon told SbB yesterday that he hadn’t heard from Nike prior to the deal: “Nope, as far as I’m aware we never heard from Nike prior to them re-signing Vick. If we end up doing anything in response to this I’ll let you know.”
That should’ve been a big tipoff that there was no deal of substance. Goodness knows that if Nike were to do a big deal with Vick, it’d consult with animal rights groups first.
12:37 pm on October 1st, 2009
This is why mainstream news outlets and traditional journalists rip on new media/blogs — because source and fact checking is non-existent with them. I love reading blogs as much as anyone and have gotten some great stuff but there does need to be some form of journalistic responsibility, too.
1:09 pm on October 1st, 2009
typo:
“thats when the DAM broke”
1:29 pm on October 1st, 2009
I tell all my friends or people in general how awesome this blog is, all as big of sports fans as me, and none of them have even heard of this site nor do they check it out….just makes my wonder why Brooks thinks he has such an effect on everything, like his blog is the reason for any event taking place in the sports world?? makes no sense…but blog is great either way, just always find it funny when he says something like “we first reported this, everyone got the news from here, and it caused this not to happen” when all my friends knew the same news, and saw it on ESPN or one of a million other sports sites, radio or TV and never heard of SbB…
4:10 pm on October 1st, 2009
Doc,
I just reported what was Tweeted. SBJ reported it as fact as soon as it could. As did other outlets, b/c “news” came from a credible source. Judgement call.
Blazing Saddlebags,
You’re totally right. Unlike political and entertainment media, which features huge indie bloggers, sports is diff. b/c there’s a monopoly. ESPN has no interest in promoting indie blogs, why would it? And when it has no competition, it doesn’t have to report any material scoop an indie blog may have. ESPN decides what’s important and what isn’t important.
But make no mistake, blogs do have an influence on what’s reported out there. Just not credited. If you were in the biz, you’d know that.
Reality of the situation. Doesn’t bother me, I’ve got a great gig and enough people know about SbB to keep it going forever.
But that’s why so few sports fans have ever heard of ANY sports blog out there. The monopolistic nature of sports media.
9:02 pm on October 1st, 2009
Or maybe he was testing the waters to see what kind of reason it would get.
7:58 am on October 2nd, 2009
See why women dont belong in the sports world with there gossip, they suck, a women will always get you in deep doo doo, anytime they please, wasnt it also a women for sports illistrated, that started the hidden steroid pages of players, and Erin Andrews just go away you little trouble making skank. Guys you let these women into sports thats crazy, just stand on the side and wear sexy little cheerleading out fits and SHUT UP!!!!