Patriots cite 'reports' about own QB swap

The New England Patriots have had an interesting week with regards to how they’ve handled their own social media team.

Just last Thursday, the team was caught scrubbing comments from its own reporter, Evan Lazar, about the locker room “teetering on a mutiny.” That cover-up, of course, became a national storyline. And now, the team has pulled something equally as strange.

News broke Tuesday that the third overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Drake Maye, will replace veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett as the team’s starter. And instead of citing team sources for today’s move, the team cited “multiple reports.”

Team-run media is already an odd endeavor, straddling the line between respectable journalism and public relations. But it seems like if a member of the Patriots’ media team wanted to confirm the move, they should have pretty direct access to a team source.

This makes the decision to cite outside sources seem like one designed to artificially create some separation between the team’s decision and its own media apparatus.

To make things even more bizarre, the report on the Patriots website was written by Lazar, who was apparently too critical of the team’s handling of the quarterback situation less than a week ago.

The whole thing smells funny and is a reminder that team-run media is typically at the beck and call of others within the building, and should usually be taken with a grain of salt.

[ New England Patriots ]

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