Dov Kleiman landed in the danger zone this week. Kleiman claimed the recently retired Tom Brady might balk at his purported multimillion-dollar deal with Fox Sports. Brady chimed in on Friday to call it “fake news,” Unfortunately for Kleiman, he wasn’t the only one.
Andrew Marchand penned a column in the New York Post in which the sports media reporter completely dismissed the idea that he had anything to do with the report or that the information was factual.
“It is rare for a reporter to agree with a subject about the term: Fake news. But Tom Brady and I are completely in sync over the internet wildfire concerning the aggregation of comments I made on Brady and his future as Fox Sports’ No. 1 analyst during the podcast I co-host with John Ourand,” Marchand wrote.
Marchand claimed he initially planned to ignore it but eventually decided to write the column. He included his full quote on the subject, vastly different from the aggregated claim that Kleiman tweeted.
Marchand concluded his column with, “I say the same to all the aggregators. Appreciate you thinking of me, but Brady is right – at least for now – this one is ‘Fake News.'”
Here’s what Marchand actually said, transcribed by himself in his article:
“We’re a year away from when he said he’s going to potentially call games with Kevin Burkhardt replacing Greg Olson on the number one team. So next year we know it is Burkhardt and Olson. Then he has a 10-year, $375 million contract that he’s supposed to start in the 2024-25 season. We have the Brady Meter. Now we’re gonna have to bring it out more and more. It fluctuates.
“It was at 51 percent that he’s going to do it to 49 percent, with the reasoning it’s so much money, he’ll try it for a year. However, I’ve talked to a couple people recently close to Brady and I kind of feel like I’m going more 49 percent chance he does it, 51 percent chance he doesn’t. I don’t think he wants to travel that much — obviously he’s going to go private. I think Brady’s a guy who if he’s in, he’s all-in, so he’s not going to be showing up day of games like Joe Buck and [Troy] Aikman do sometimes. He’s going to be there early if he’s going to do it. So it’s going to be a [three]-day event – again – cry me a river for that type of money, for five-and-a-half months.”
The aggregation machine will indeed roll on even after all this nonsense. But, as they say, follow the speed limit. And to Marchand’s defense, the aggregators need to be more responsible. They get flack as it is, and the road rules on the Web have changed so much. But a level of responsibility here shows how quickly something can turn into something it isn’t. Especially when you’re dealing with someone like Tom Brady and his level of fame.
Of course, it’s all the funnier when you remember that Boomer Esiason once claimed Kleiman was a plant… … … for Brady.
[New York Post, The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast]
