It’s been a strange couple of days on the mean streets of #Scooptown.
Major media outlets — and prominent NFL reporters and insiders — have ignored or downplayed the reporting from Pablo Torre (and PFT) regarding the 61-page ruling in a landmark collusion case. Beyond the NFL getting caught with its hand pressed to the bottom of the collusion cookie jar, the NFL Players Association has inexplicably failed to use the decision as a multi-bladed sword against the league.
With the exception of Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports and Albert Breer of SI.com/Prime Video, none of the prominent NFL insiders or reporters have touched the topic. And no one seems to be trying to advance the story, despite the existence of plenty of meat on the collusion bone.
Meanwhile, the NFL and the NFLPA continue to be silent. If anyone is asking them to talk, no one is reporting that they’ve failed to respond or said “no comment.” The people who cover the sport are allowing both sides to remain silent, with no pressure or scrutiny to explain themselves.
These voices who cover pro football for a living should be demanding something, from both parties. Issue a statement. Release the full decision, with exhibits. Anything. Instead, those whose bread is buttered directly or indirectly by the league are, unfortunately, abdicating their duty to pursue truth.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens next. While the pissing and moaning from the league and the union regarding our reporting has been minimal, they’ll surely make a chess (or checkers) move at some point. Perhaps they’ll recruit one of the reporters who are otherwise ignoring the story to be the vessel for leaking something that potentially pushes back on what has emerged. Our guess is that one or more of the reporters who have enabled the league’s and the union’s silence in this matter will gladly do it.
Still, the only thing the NFL and NFLPA should be doing at this point is releasing the decision. And the union should be doing much more than that. They should be holding a press conference to explain the ramifications of the ruling. They should be having strategy sessions with players, agents, and lawyers for planning future legal attacks on actual or suspected collusion. They should be (as one source with knowledge of the dynamics of the NFLPA suggested to PFT) taking the decision to the Department of Justice’s antitrust division and instigating a broad investigation of whether and to what extent the NFL is colluding in other ways. (Because it probably is.)
But we know how things work in 2025 America. Anyone who has been made to look bad by accurate reporting will try to turn the tables, both to demean the reporters and to distract the audience.
It hasn’t happened yet. It won’t surprise me at all if it does.
