Clearing the Air on Maroney
Last night, the Associated Press ran a story about the Patriots running game that included the following line:
Maroney, who gained 252 yards on 54 carries in the first three games, ran well in practice Wednesday but took some plays off and won't play Sunday against winless Miami.
We put a story up about it quickly, but a few things didn't seem right.
1. This should have been the lede of the article. It was buried in the sixth paragraph as a throw-away line. We've found this sort of thing often indicates a mistake.
2. All Boston outlets have indicated that Maroney has improved steadily over the last few weeks and has a good chance of playing this week. At the very least, he'll be a game-time decision unless the AP had somehow cracked the Belichick fortress with some super scoop.
Anyhow, we kept looking and found this edited AP article posted on the Boston Herald, with this quote.
"(Morris) won’t play Sunday against winless Miami, but Maroney is likely to return."
We edited our post, including what we knew, but a few fantasy sites (which make sure to check Rotoworld as policy), too the original story and ran with it.
Some writer or editor made a major mistake somewhere, but the second version makes a lot more sense. Recently, NFL.com has re-posted the story saying Maroney is out and some readers have let us know about it.
I suspect the version from the Herald, not the one on NFL.com, is the correct one. In the end, we won't really know until Sunday morning. Just like the Patriots want.
Update: I emailed Adam Schefter from NFL Network. Despite the reports to the contrary, he confirms that Maroney is far from ruled out of this game. It was a misunderstanding related to the AP article.
Update2: Realizing their error, the AP issued another Maroney update Thursday. He said he won't force things just because Sammy Morris is out, but his status is up in the air.
Comments
Ha. I really think it was just a writer/editor error that has gone a long way in this information age.
Posted by: Gregg | October 18, 2007 04:22 PM
So the patriots are paying off low level AP beatwriters in order to confuse defenses now? When are they going to realize that they are good enough without all of the shenanigans. Well at least Bellichek cuts his sleeves off so we know there is nothing up there.
Posted by: John | October 18, 2007 04:36 PM
any team that cheats for 6 years should be able to beat anyone in the league
Posted by: gary | October 18, 2007 05:31 PM
Thing is, you don't have to pay off anyone...just tell two different reporters two different things, and both will get reported...
Posted by: John | October 18, 2007 11:57 PM
Whoever wrote this small story needs to go back to English 101 and learn the basics of writing again!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Rodney Del Rio | October 19, 2007 09:16 AM
The way the sentence is phrased leads me to believe the writer meant to use the word "start" instead of "play":
"He won’t play Sunday against winless Miami, but Maroney is likely to return."
Wouldn't have jumped out during a spell/grammar check.. But the editor should have noticed the discrepancy between "won't play" and "likely to return."
Posted by: Foot | October 19, 2007 09:49 AM
The bottom line is that the Patriots piss off fantasy owners. Do i have a laptop, no! Do i sit by the computer waiting for the game time decision to trickle down to me, no! Have i been caught twice with my pants down, yes!
Posted by: Paul | October 19, 2007 09:57 AM