David Scott of ESPN’s Front Row did a Q/A with Vince Doria about the backstory for last night’s news about Michael Sam.

Sam’s representatives wanted both ESPN and the New York Times to break the story. As a result it required some coordinating.

What was the arrangement with the New York Times?
In a conference call last week that included Howard, sports editor Jason Stallman of the New York Times, and me, we determined that both outlets would do their interviews (yesterday), and we would break the story simultaneously at 3 p.m. ET on Monday. That was the timetable Bragman wanted. I don’t think Jason nor I was terribly comfortable with holding the material for 24 hours – we knew other media had been chasing the story, and might decide to break it without an interview – but those were the parameters. We also were made aware that Howard had enlisted Cyd Ziegler and OutSports.com [Ziegler is co-founder of OutSports] to do a behind-the-decision piece on what was transpiring.

So, how did it come about that the story broke on Sunday night?
The interviews were scheduled to take place mid-day Sunday West Coast time at Howard’s home in Los Angeles. Chris Connelly would be there for us, along with lead producer Greg Amante and feature producer Sharon Matthews. Tim Hays, a coordinating producer in our Enterprise Unit (which produces our Outside the Lines pieces), would oversee production back in Bristol, preparing material for television, ESPN.com, ESPN Audio and other ESPN platforms.

On Sunday morning, Howard informed Jason and me that he feared the story might come out shortly. He had information about specific outlets that had knowledge of the story, and feared it might break at any time. It was mutually agreed upon that both ESPN and the Times would break the story at 8 p.m. on Sunday, with ESPN airing and publishing it on all our platforms. The time was a reasonable one for both entities to get their interviews, both text and video versions, and prepare them for air and publication. We had the usual concern, as any entity would, the story would break before we reported it. As it played out, no one broke the story in advance, and ESPN and the Times had exclusives at 8 p.m.