Hurley On T&R: Chris Mortensen Just Can't Admit That He Was Wrong
BOSTON (CBS) -- Chris Mortensen continues to stand by his own DeflateGate reporting ... even though he deleted his tweet which broke the news. What's more, the ESPN reporter now claims that Robert and Jonathan Kraft each reached out to him to apologize "for the way things had gone down," according to Mort.
With NFL Network's Albert Breer co-hosting with Fred Toucher on Friday morning, the guys had Michael Hurley of CBSBostonSports.com to discuss the latest with Mortensen.
Ultimately, Mortensen claiming he received an "apology" might be a stretch of the word.
"When he talked to Dan Le Batard a month ago for his sort of non-explanation explanation ... he said that he talked to the Krafts and that they said it was never about him being the target and things like that," Hurley said. "So if a month ago it was that and now it's an apology, maybe it's just sort of a twisting of words. But I think the Krafts would certainly remember if they issued an apology to a reporter who shared that false information."
Breer called it a parsing of words, and Hurley agreed -- for the most part.
"I think to some degree it was sort of apologizing that he's become a target of a lot of fans' scorn and a lot of rage," Hurley said. "But also, when Robert Kraft took the podium and said he still can't believe how the false information was allowed to be spread out there for months without any explanation. I think that says a lot more about what the Krafts think about the whole situation."
Where Breer and Hurley disagreed was on the perceived impact of Mortensen's report.
"I'd argue that that wasn't such a big piece of the story that it would have changed things significantly," Breer said of the NFL's refusal to correct the false information to the public at large. "I mean, it was an important report, but I don't think it changed everything the way some people are saying it did."
Breer pointed to the front and back pages of the New York tabloids, which featured Brady and deflated footballs before Mortensen came out with his report.
"I think [Mortensen's report] was huge. I think it was the biggest thing," Hurley said. "And the New York tabloids, they put Brady on the back cover for about 30 straight days, it seemed. I think before that Mortensen report it was sort of a quirky what's-going-on-here story, are the Patriots up to something? You had some people overreacting -- I remember the Sports Illustrated story by Mike Rosenberg that said the Patriots had super-secret cheating TV screens to watch replays out in the parking lot. So some people got carried away, but I don't think it was a massive story until the 2 PSI report came out."
Breer reiterated the presence of DeflateGate stories on the front and back pages of both New York tabloids.
"I would say the New York tabloids have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with the Patriots. I think you'd have to agree with that," Hurley said. "I don't think [DeflateGate] was nothing, but once the 2 PSI report came out, it became unexplainable by science, it became an issue of obvious cheating."
Breer then said that nobody, really, knew much at all about the PSI level of footballs, or the rules, or anything, and Hurley pointed out that Mortensen should have done his homework before releasing his report.
"Even Mort said himself back then that he didn't know what the rules were, and I think that's another error that is as big as any," Hurley said. "You get this information where 11 of 12 footballs are 2 PSI under, and you report it, and you say you didn't even know the rules, then you should probably grab a rulebook, check it out, do a little bit of research before you run with that story. I think it was o'clock on a Tuesday night -- if it was delayed another half-hour for some research, I don't think that would've been the worst thing.
"It was a story. I'm not saying it was not going to be a story. But that really launched it to 'scandal' status."
Overall, Hurley couldn't quite understand why Mortensen refuses to admit he was wrong.
"The runaround that he gives, I don't understand why he can't just admit that it was wrong information, because that's not really up for debate. The information that he reported was wrong," Hurley said. "And he wants to hang on the 'significantly' part of it, OK, but he didn't report 'significantly.' He reported the numbers, and the numbers were wrong, and I would just prefer someone say, 'You know what? I was wrong.' I'm wrong a lot, a lot of people are wrong a lot, and they just can say it. And some people can't."
On ApologyGate, Fred got to the bottom of it: "If they only could just get in a room and smooch, that would solve everything. When you can't see the visual smooch from Robert Kraft, there's a lot of problems."
The guys also discussed the importance of clarifying information that turns out to be false, the best way to go about doing that correcting, the merits of accountability, and Tom Brady's anger at the whole situation. Listen below!
