Did ESPN Just Fire Jason Garrett Before The Cowboys Did?
FRISCO - On Thursday night, ESPN's Ed Werder issued a fairly innocuous-but-truthful tweet that is reflective of notes and updates that dozens of media people covering the Dallas Cowboys have also issued: The meetings phase (is) expected to conclude soon with Garrett not part of organization.''
There is little argument there. Werder doesn't scream out that this is an "exclusive'' because he knows it isn't. The "expectations'' have been that Dallas and its decade-long head coach would part amicably and those "expectations'' have been in place since the Week 16 loss to the Eagles and those "expectations'' have been even more firmly in place as this week, Garrett has said "goodbye'' to dozens and dozens of co-workers at The Star.
But ESPN editors have taken the Werder tweet and molded it into something else entirely, a claim that they know the Cowboys are firing Jason Garrett. In fact, in this headline: "Cowboys to move on without Jason Garrett, source says'' ... they even claim to have a "source'' that not even Werder claims to have.
But that’s not even close to what Werder tweeted. And he didn't tweet it for the same reason I and other media people covering the Cowboys didn't tweet it:
It is, as of yet (I'm writing this now at 4 a.m. CT Friday) simply not true.
"It's gonna be true'' is not the same as reporting that "it's already happened.'' (Ask young DFW TV guy Mike Leslie, who learned a hard lesson when he irresponsibly reported on Monday that Garrett and his entire coaching staff had been fired - which was not only untrue but also impossible, because none of the involved parties had even met yet.)
Werder wrote on Thursday night that "Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones have moved slowly and with ‘abundance of care and respect’ for Jason Garrett.'' This, of course, you already know if you read this space (or follow colleagues like Bryan Broaddus and Jane Slater and Werder; the "respect'' theme has been written in cement since Sunday night following Dallas' Week 17 finale.
But the final and official decision to release Garrett? I'm not sure the reported Thursday "Final Meeting 3.0'' ever even happened as I am told not all of the principals were at The Star on Thursday. Meanwhile, I've done my best to tamp down the idea of Garrett moving into the front office by explaining the hierarchy there as it involves Will McClay.
And at 10:22 p.m. Thursday, Slater (obviously responding to the ESPN editors' breathless "scoop'') checked in with a truth:
Why has ESPN taken Werder's perfectly responsible tweet and twisted it into something it isn't? Somewhere between "an honest mistake'' and "a desperate grab for a thick slice of 'America's Team' click-bait pie,'' I suppose.
It will become true on Friday or on Sunday or on Tuesday. But it's not yet true that the Cowboys have dismissed Jason Garrett. Slater and Broaddus and you and I and Werder and ESPN all know that.
It's ESPN's customers who don't.
