The MMQB spend the newsiest day of the NFL year with the biggest news-breaker in the NFL, and the result was a great piece full of scoops about the guy with more scoops than anybody.
Let's look at the top five here.
1. ESPN treats him like he's the President. Seth Markman, the head producer of all of the network's NFL coverage, decided at one point Schefter should no longer be responsible for driving himself (he lives in the New York City area). Time behind the wheel was time better spent reporting. So now every time Schefter is on the company's Bristol campus, a driver ferries him around -- even when he's staying in a DoubleTree hotel across the street from the Mothership.
When on campus, ESPN assigns an associate producer specifically to shepherd him to and from all his various media appearances throughout the day.
2. He's so good at his job it has to be demoralizing to his colleagues. Years ago Markman created a scoring system to track news-breaking throughout the free agency period. The most news-worthy free agent (according to Markman) is worth 50 points, and the list descends from there. Every scoop is scored -- it's serious, too: at one point Schefter loses 29 points to an ESPN colleague when her tweet posts three seconds before his -- and the scoreboard is distributed throughout ESPN's NFL staff. Last year Schefter finished with 616 points... 461 points ahead of his next closest competitor.
3. Sometimes Schefter makes the news he breaks.Then someone from the camp of a headline free agent calls, asking Schefter for advice. The player has whittled his choice down to two teams: one that has a winning culture and one that was offering more money. Schefter dissects the decision from both sides, laying out the pros and cons. He even looks up the state income taxes and calculates the difference with each team. “He wants to win; he wants to play, right?” Schefter asks. “What’s most important to your guy?” As they hang up, the caller agrees to let Schefter know when the player will sign.
Back on SportsCenter for another hit, Schefter is checking his phone and fidgeting in his chair again when his microphone falls off. A producer notices and instructs an assistant to get into position to fix it. This seems to happen fairly often. As the TV feed cuts to B-roll of Kirk Cousins, the assistant sprints onto the set, reattaches the microphone to Schefter’s tie and sprints back before the video ends.
At another point, Schefter served as an adviser for free agent wideout Alshon Jeffrey.
In the middle of Schefter’s flurry of calls, Alshon Jeffery (49 Markman points) rings him, wanting to know how much money the other free-agent receivers are making. Players sometimes contact Schefter with questions like this because he likely has that information even if he hasn’t reported it, as is the case here. Indeed, as they talk Schefter receives a text saying that Torrey Smith will be signing with the Eagles.
Schefter goes through the contract numbers on Smith, Jackson and Pierre Garçon, slowly, so Jeffery can apparently write them down. “It’s all about the guarantee, Alshon,” Schefter says. “It’s all about the guarantee … Your average per year could be $100 million. It doesn’t matter. If they’re going to guarantee you the majority of the contract, that’s what you want.”
4. Game recognize game. At one point in the day, Schefter received an email from Adrian Wojnarowski -- the Adam Schefter of the NBA -- wishing him luck. He didn't need it.
5. Being on TV sometimes gets in the way of... well, working as a reporter for a TV company. At one point Schefter is told no when asked if he could skip a SportsCenter hit. At another, he reports while on the air. “Well, we’ve got a lot going on right now, if you don’t mind me not looking up, right now, very sorry ...” Schefter keeps talking to the camera with his head down, announcing the Bouye and Reiff news to the world while typing to break the news on Twitter at the same time."
