Longtime Boston Herald reporter Ron Borges was catfished by a fan who posed as Tom Brady’s agent on Thursday night, and the result was a bombshell story that claimed Brady is planning to hold out for more money this offseason. The story has since been pulled from the internet, but we have some unfortunate news.
It made it to print.
— Bruce Allen (@bruceallen) February 9, 2018
For those of you who haven’t heard the backstory, it is truly surreal. A Patriots fan named “Nick in Boston” called into WEEI’s “Kirk & Callahan Show” on Friday morning to explain how he pulled off the prank. It started when someone tweeted out Borges’ phone number, so Nick texted the reporter and pretended he was Brady’s agent, Don Yee. The prankster was then able to convince Borges that Brady plans to hold out for a new contract because he’s angry over how much money Jimmy Garoppolo got paid with the 49ers.
Borges’ column claimed he had multiple “sources,” but the text messages Nick shared make it seem like he was the only source.
Obviously, this is as bad of a look as it gets for Borges. He didn’t find a way to confirm that he was actually speaking with Yee nor did he use common sense, as Brady has always taken less money to allow the Patriots to build contending teams. But apparently Borges didn’t go above an editor’s head and publish the story on his own, otherwise it never would have made it to print.
