There has been a lot of speculation about who the sources were for ESPN’s bombshell story about the ongoing power struggle within the New England Patriots organization, and one person who had the finger pointed at him doesn’t appreciate it.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy — a lifelong Patriots fan and someone who has been invited to the team’s private Super Bowl celebrations — wrote on Friday that he has “high level sources” who told him Michael Lombardi was one of the main sources for Seth Wickersham’s piece. Here’s Lombardi’s supposed motivation for airing out the Patriots’ dirty laundry:
I’ve heard everything from he is slowly getting phased out of Belichick’s inner circle, to he has a huge ego, to he hates Belichick’s kids, to he hates Matt Patricia. Whatever his reasons may be my sources are confident this all comes from him.
Lombardi, an advisor to Bill Belichick’s coaching staff from 2014-2016, has vehemently denied having anything to do with the ESPN piece, even offering to take a lie detector test to prove it.
Appearing on @OMFonWEEI, Mike Lombardi responded to @stoolpresidente claim that he was leak for ESPN story: "I hope he's got good legal counsel because isn't that defamation of character right there?"
— Ryan Hannable (@RyanHannable) January 5, 2018
Lombardi also offered to take a lie detector test to prove that he was not the leak. @BarstoolRadio
— Ryan Hannable (@RyanHannable) January 5, 2018
Lombardi now works for The Ringer, but he spent years as an NFL executive working with people like Belichick, Bill Walsh and Al Davis.
None of Wickersham’s sources were named, so all we can do is speculate. One line of thought is that Belichick himself may have even been a source, as the main takeaways from the story made Tom Brady look bad and the coach look like he’s getting pushed around.
