Tuesday morning, Craig Carton went on his FS1 show and said this about the Eagles collapse:

“I can tell you that it is a problem that would splinter any group of men. Any group of men. It is a real, significant problem and it cannot be fixed… I’m not gonna tell you any more than that. But I know what the problem was, I know they’re trying to fix it. And I don’t think it can be fixed. So it will be very interesting to see if a high-profile player is no longer with the Eagles going into this season.” 

Carton, who has a dubious track record with the truth, reiterated that he can’t tell us what actually happened, like a little kid saying “neener neener” to you in middle school. So fans and media have to decide whether he’s actually got something here or just being a humongous tool bag.

Adam Schefter, who does a weekly appearance on John Kincade’s show, was asked about it this morning and said this:

“None of that shit happened,” but what exactly is the “shit?” Carton won’t tell us. There’s a rumor going around that someone slept with someone’s wife or girlfriend, so my guess, when I saw that Fanatic tweet, is that Schefter was telling us that allegations of infidelity are false.

I went back into John’s show to find the full exchange and add some context (my emphasis in bold) –

Kincade: Yesterday, a report on Fox Sports 1, I’m even (hesitant) to call it a report, you have a broadcaster saying he knows the real reason the Eagles collapsed last year. But he wouldn’t share it or talk about it. When you look at what happened to the Eagles and what you know about the Eagles down the stretch, can you point to anything you can lend an ear to, or was it more of a breakdown collectively across the board, coaching, playing, and all kinds of other factors?

Schefter: Um, you know, by the way, I don’t even know if the National Enquirer would write something like that.

Kincade: We agreed at the beginning of today’s show that it was a capital B bullcrap. That’s where we were. 

Schefter: And by the way, I (messaged) somebody at the organization yesterday and said ‘what is this?’ And the text back, the quote was, ‘none of that S word happened.’ None of that S happened. 

Kincade: Good.

Schefter: And that’s what qualifies as a report, you can just go say whatever you want, and it gets clicks and people care about it. Was somebody with another player’s woman or – who knows? Who knows? I’m just telling you that somebody in the organization was pretty adamant that none of that happened. Look, I think people are looking for a reason that their season went south. And I just think they got blown out at home by the Niners, the season unraveled, they never got it back together. It was injuries, it was chemistry, it was confidence. It was momentum. It was all those things. Was somebody sleeping with someone else’s woman? Maybe? I don’t know. 

Okay, so just so we have this straight, Carton says this is a real significant problem that can’t be fixed. Fans pass around a rumor that somebody slept with someone’s wife or girlfriend. Then Schefter says an organizational source told him “none of that shit happened,” before ending the exchange with Kincade by saying “Was somebody sleeping with someone else’s woman? Maybe? I don’t know.” Consider, too, that Schefter’s source could be Howie Roseman, Jeffrey Lurie, the NovaCare chef, or anyone really. There’s a large portion of Eagles fans and media who think Schefty gets his information directly from the top, and they’ll sometimes pair that with the allegation that he’s carrying water for the GM and owner.

So, as always, it falls on us to take what little information we have here and decide what we want to believe. As easy as it is to drag Carton, crazy shit happens and always will. People thought Joe Santoliquito was full of baloney, then backed off when more Carson Wentz reporting came out. Similarly, did anyone think that the Sixers GM’s wife would create a handful of burner accounts to criticize the players? Probably not, but it happened. That doesn’t necessarily mean we should believe a guy who went to jail for securities and wire fraud not long ago, but we’ve learned enough over the years that you should never rule anything out.