According to Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated , you don't have to read between the lines to see how close Warren Sapp came to losing his job with NFL Network for the Jeremy Shockey tweet. "We decided not to fire Warren," said Mark Quenzel, the NFL Network senior vice president of programming and production. Quenzel said he spoke with Sapp on Thursday and made clear to the analyst that he is not a reporter. He would not say if Sapp is facing specific discipline outside of saying he remains employed by the network. "Our reporters are held to a very specific standard as to what needs to happen before they report the news," Quenzel said. "Warren went into an area where he is not an expert. He understands what his role is with the NFL Network. At the end of the discussion, he said he understood the protocols and the procedures we go by to report the news. He said he understood what his role is with NFL Network." Asked by SI.com if he knew who Sapp's source was, Quinzel said he had an idea but "the issue for me is not who the source is, how he [Sapp] got it, where he got it, or whether he believes it or not. My issue is he did not follow the news-gathering procedures that we have." On that point, Quenzel said there are written editorial procedures in place at the NFL Network about reporting news for both employees and independent contractors such as Sapp, who is not a full-time employee of the network. Sapp will be back on the network's air, but there is no specific date for his next appearance. Source: The Redzone
NFL Network Analyst Warren Sapp Came Close To Being Fired Over Snitch Tweet Sometimes it's best not to know how close you were to happiness... :icon_cry:
That's bullcrap, any reporter would get crapcanned for this and he doesn't because he's dumber than a reporter? Calling complete horsecrap on this, and it's not just because I'm a reporter for a living.
Eh, I'm not holding my breath, libel/slander are extremely difficult cases to make successfully, and the burden lies on the plaintiff to absolutely prove falsehood, which is really really tough, especially here. But it's stupid that if sued he probably gets to defend himself with reporters' privilege (not naming a conf. source) and all that crap, but he's too dumb/ignorant to be considered one by his company to the point where both his stupidity and a job title that isn't his work to his advantage on both fronts. Just my obviously biased appraisal of Sapp's situation.
It'll be a while before we see Sapp on NFL Network, I'm sure they are removing the butthole until crap dies down a bit...Sapp is a crapty analyst anyway it would be no great loss if he never showed up on TV again... <crossing fingers>
SO did he actually report this on the air, or was it just a tweet? I'm not real clear on that and it seems like if it was his personal twitter then the reporting standards that NFLN requires arent applicable.
apparently shockey didn't show up for a radio interview yesterday because he was in meetings with his lawyers......... anyone who thinks this won't become a lawsuit (or get settled out of court) is kidding themselves ............. what Sapp did was really bad ........... this was not an innocent 'rumor' that media talking heads spout around ......... this was something that could definitely cause a free agent to not get a job at all, costing him millions of dollars.
