Spoiler alert: ESPN’s Schefter will keep on tweeting about draft

Adam Schefter is among those coming under fire. The avid tweeter is being accused of ruining the NFL draft for some of his followers.

John Mitchell at Breakingtackles.com was upset. Mitchell didn’t enjoy that the ESPN reporter revealed upcoming picks to his 1.56 million twitter followers before they were formally announced.

Mitchell writes:

It started innocent and actually kind of cool with Schefter reporting all the trades and who those teams were probably going to take with that pick. But then it got flat out frustrating as pick-by-pick went by with Schefter tweeting out the results for everyone to see. I thought it would stop once the flurry of early trades did, but it did not.

What is the cost of being the first to report the draft picks? 1.5 million followers being robbed of the draft experience. You want Roger Goodell to be the first to announce the draft pick. Not an ESPN reporter who happens to find out the information before anyone else.

The whole Twitter thing has created an interesting dynamic with the draft coverage. On the one hand, reporters like Schefter have clear marching orders: Be first with breaking news everywhere, especially on Twitter. Breaking news includes who the Bears will take with the next pick.

However, as I wrote earlier, that means Schefter is in essence scooping his network. While Chris Berman & Co. speculate on air about who the Bears, or any other team, will select, his followers already know the answer. There goes the suspense.

Much to his critics’ dismay, Schefter intends to keep on tweeting. In an email, he writes:

I approach the draft just like any other NFL news story. When I learn informaton, it’s my job to report it. I didn’t report every pick; I was more interested in the trades, actually. But if someone felt it detracted from their experience, they could have unfollowed me or not paid attention to Twitter. ESPN does a tremendous job presenting and broadcasting the draft, and I work to do my job as effectively as the people around me.

To be fair to Schefter, there were plenty of other outlets disclosing upcoming picks. If you really want to be kept in suspense, don’t look at Twitter during the draft.

Schefter also had a reply to this passage on Breakingtackles:

I’m not sure if Schefter has kids, but if he does Christmas morning must really suck around the Schefter household. “Hey kids, I got you a Tonka Truck.”

(Addendum: I was informed that Schefter is Jewish. And as a friend of mine points out, I guess he can take to ruining eight nights worth of gifts instead.)

Schefter writes:

My children aren’t always happy with me either, but for now, they’re stuck following me. Sadly for now, they can’t unfollow me. Poor kids.

 

 

 

11 thoughts on “Spoiler alert: ESPN’s Schefter will keep on tweeting about draft

  1. Schefter is a beast, I follow him on twitter but avoided looking at my phone in order to enjoy the broadcast. He’s doing his job and Mitchell’s just trying to make a statement to get some run. Maybe next year the NFL will adopt the movie theater policy and request all viewers to turn off all electronic devices.

  2. I wouldn’t ask him not to do his job. However, I unfollowed him as a result of his reporting the picks. I may take the time to re-follow in the coming weeks, but I’m just as likely to replace him with Ian Rappaport (who I don’t presently follow) as a general NFL reporter.

    It is a double-edged sword. Beating people by 2 minutes doesn’t increase his credibility. Would not tweeting it hurt? Sounds like he believes it does.

    Knowing that all other teams are informed of the pick, and someone from one of those teams is his source, I don’t find it to be outstanding reporting. He didn’t unearth anything.

  3. These complaints are absolutely asinine. If you don’t like content on Twitter, simply unfollow or don’t look at Twitter. Why are we complaining about things so easily solved?

    • Yes. How dare everyone tell Schefter what to do! Why not tell everyone else what to do!

  4. As part of the BT.com crew, I’m glad to see this snafu get some press. Thanks for the post. While I agree that we can all just avoid Twitter during live events to keep suspense alive, there’s more to the complaint.

    Good for Schefter that he’s an insider’s insider, but what’s the point of tweeting the picks a minute before they happen? We’re all going to know soon enough in the way that the NFL prefers- presented on live TV, streaming video, and draft tracker. Getting the edge of a few extra seconds isn’t really that impressive, and it sort of undermines the telecast and draftcasts being done by his own network and the NFL itself.

    It seems like the league would have a rule against leaking picks. Maybe Goodell wasn’t prepared to face the awesome might of the Twitterverse.

      • A rule against not leaking picks before they actually happen. Because until Goodell announces the pick, it’s not made. Minor detail…

  5. wow. quieter whines on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. and more ridiculous than a Farrelly Bros. marathon. get over your entitled BS, people, esp. Mr. Mitchell (and try hard to dig those panties out of where they’ve bunched). get some perspective, and if you want to watch the broadcast, cut the stitches and let your beloved digital device of choice separate from your hand for an hour or two. if you don’t care about the broadcast, enjoy the tweets while watching Person of Interest, as I did. sheesh.

  6. I feel like you people missed the point of what Mitchell was saying. He was checking Schefter’s tweets to check for reports on the trade (because ESPN was doing an awful job of reporting them. I personally was left confused when a random team would replace another and be picking, and the details wouldn’t be released for like 5 minutes). And Schefter was ruining his good job reporting the trades by tweeting EVERY pick (which he did). So checking to see trade info would be ruined by being greeted with a pick.

    I understand, and agree, with Mitchell. If I wanted to see the details on a trade and had a pick ruined for me (multiple times) I’d be disappointed.

  7. A major point of my piece was why Schefter felt the need to announce the picks literally just minutes before they were made. It’s not a major scoop, and it actually takes away from ESPN’s coverage of the draft. And yes, I understand that I have all the power in the world to hit the unfollow button or close out twitter, and I didn’t. That’s my fault, but that wasn’t the main point.

    It’s not any kind of entitlement or anything of the sort either, da. And like I pointed out in the piece, I have nothing against Schefter. He’s a great follow on twitter, he just wasn’t last night, in my opinion.

    I know it wasn’t his intent to spoil any of the suspense, but that was my takeaway from it. I appreciate the post though.

  8. While I was rather busy that evening on draft night & didn’t have much time to check Twitter for every pick & see all of Schefter’s tweets, I did talk to some people who actually turned off ESPN after the first couple picks because Schefter was tweeting everything out a minute-plus before they were announced. That hurts the network, which Schefter should be trying to help since he works there.

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