Adam Schefter appears weekly on 97.5 the Fanatic via the Comcast Business Line.

The segment is usually pretty interesting. The crew of John Kincade, Bob Cooney, Jamie Lynch, and Pat Egan will pull some nuggets out of the ESPN Insider, who is generally very plugged into most situations around the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE.

Thing is, Schefter has a reputation for being Howie Roseman’s guy, and getting information from the Eagles’ general manager. That means there will be a hesitancy to comment on stories or opinions that center on Howie, and sometimes owner Jeffrey Lurie.

That manifested in curious fashion on Wednesday morning, when Kincade asked Schefter about the recent three-person effort at The Athletic, with Bo Wulf, Sheil Kapadia, and Zach Berman highlighting what looks to be more dysfunction at the NovaCare Complex.

Schefter seemed a little reticent in commenting on the story, which made for a somewhat bristly, yet cordial radio hit.

The entire interview is posted on the Fanatic site, but I’ve chopped up a smaller portion of it here:


Couple of thoughts:

  1. The Athletic is an ESPN competitor. Obviously an ESPN personality is not going to be over the moon to discuss an in-depth story from a rival media outlet. But to Schefter’s credit, he says it was a well-reported story that he doesn’t want to downplay.
  2. Schefter isn’t going to throw Roseman under the bus on Philly sports talk radio.
  3. Schefter is right when he points out that there is a level of dysfunction and disagreement within every sporting franchise or business. This is natural. Nobody is ever on 100% on the same page. Even during the Super Bowl season we had the report about Jim Schwartz trying to “usurp control of the team” or whatever that was all about (also, Doug didn’t even hire his own DC).
  4. I think Kincade and other local sports media personalities are overplaying the Eagles “dysfunction” story, just slightly. Most organizations go through ebbs and flows like this. We could say they were “dysfunctional” during Chip Kelly’s final year, then they corrected the problems and won a Super Bowl two years later. The highs in Philly are very high and the lows are very low. We know this.
  5. In a similar vein, the idea of “boycotting” the team, or whatever the hell Mikey Miss was discussing yesterday, is ridiculous. The Eagles are in a transitional rebuilding phase and will get their act together. They did it once before already (2016 to 2017). This isn’t Papa John Schnatter unloading an entire gatling gun into his own foot.

Interesting radio, though. Compelling. There’s a lot to read between the lines here. Kincade pushed the right buttons, Schefter responded appropriately, and it was an intriguing exchange.