I'm sure most of you have read the article in question by now, but Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports has come out and said that Reggie Bush and the Saints are expected to part ways. What I can't tell is if he's taking an educated guess based on the drafting of Mark Ingram coupled with Bush's twitter reaction or if he's actually got inside information?
Here's two points Cole makes in the article that are news to me. I follow the Saints about as closely as any non-reporter on the entire planet, so either I just missed the boat here or I'm not privy to Cole's sources. Both are plausible I guess, but I still question these statements:
1. Cole says, "he has so far declined to take a pay cut when the subject was broached before the NFL lockout began."
2. Cole says, "Bush said in January that he didn’t expect to return to the team"
Have either of these items been public knowledge before this article came out? If anything, in January I remember Bush specifically saying he was willing to re-work his contract and that he wanted to remain a Saint. Then, prior to the draft, Sean Payton came out and said:A. We want to keep him
B. He has a good handle on the economy and the market, and I believe we'll be able to work out a reasonable contract to keep everyone happy.
Neither of those public comments by Payton made just recently give Cole's "facts" any sort of validity whatsoever. Am I missing something here?
The one thing that gives me pause is that no one is blasting Cole for being a liar. My gut tells me he's running with a story based solely on what he saw transpire last night and he's taking a ridiculous amount of liberties. He could still be right about Bush leaving. Let's face it: that's a real possibility that's probably helped by his twitter comment, but I question the statements he uses to back up his claim.
But why aren't the Times-Picayune writers calling him out for having his facts wrong? Why isn't anyone on the Saints coming out and publicly saying that that's not accurate? Yahoo! sports is hardly the mecca of football news, but still, it's respected enough that you would think their writers wouldn't blindly make stuff up.
So what do you think? Is this news to you as well? Is Cole a sloppy journalist or does he have information on the negotiations that apparently no one else is privy to?