Felger & Mazz: Mike Reiss Calls In To Challenge Felger
Mike Felger and Tony Massarotti had a surprise guest on Friday afternoon, as ESPN's Mike Reiss called in to try to clear things up about his coverage of the New England Patriots.
"I heard you say my name and that you think that reporters who always say it's the agents fault are 'in the bag for the team,'" Reiss said. "That was really what prompted me to call, Mike, because honestly, in the same sentence, you said Adam Schefter's been reporting every bit of Patriots news. So what would I be 'in the bag for the team' for? The assumption is that I wouldn't want to write anything negative on the team, so that they would feed me information. But if all the information is going to Schefter, well, I'm either an idiot ... I guess I just don't understand where you're coming from."
Reiss then defended himself and his reporting, before Felger started challenging him about the reporting that went on during the whole Wes Welker saga and how the signing of Danny Amendola came to be.
Felger questioned the accuracy of a lot of news that's been reported this week, particularly about the timing of offers to Welker and an agreement with Amendola.
The resulting conversation was some must-listen audio.
"On Tuesday, when free agency started, if he knew the offer he had was two [years] and $12 [million] from Denver, why are the numbers that [Welker's camp] talking with the Patriots totally in another zipe code?" Reiss said to explain that the Denver offer did not come until after Welker stopped talking with the Patriots. "It doesn't add up."
"I don't know -- you saying him asking for three [years] for $24 [million] is the first I heard of that," Felger said of Reiss' report of what Welker wanted from New England.
"Well, it's a good piece of information that adds context to it," Reiss said. "That's reporting, Mike."
