On Monday night, Pittsburgh wide receiver Jon Baldwin told Chris Steuber of NFL Draft Scout/CBS Sports that he'd go pro. Baldwin had some choice words in doing so.
A twist in the Jon Baldwin story
This caused Pittsburgh reporters to go into a fervor – how could a website get the scoop before us! So they tracked down the Pitt sports information department, Baldwin’s parents and Baldwin himself. Baldwin’s parent denied the notion that their son was going pro. Baldwin issued this statement via the SID to the media:
Yesterday, I received a text message from a reporter at a time when I was very emotional. Because of everything that happened, I wasn’t using the best judgment and am very sorry about the things that were printed. I love my teammates and coaches at Pitt. I have not made a final decision on the NFL Draft. My only focus is on my commitment to my team and preparing to win our bowl game next month.
In other words, Baldwin will officially go pro after the bowl game.
This has me a bit fired up, though. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, probably embarrassed they didn’t break the story, decided to throw Steuber under the bus. In their coverage, the Gazette’s Paul Zeise decided to use words like “reportedly” and “According to Steuber” when referring to Baldwin’s decision to turn pro.Typically when a journalist uses those terms, they’re doing it to cover their ass legally in a cops and courts story. In this case, using “reportedly” and “According to Steuber” implies that Steuber made the whole story up.
I don’t know Steuber personally and have only interacted with him occasionally on Twitter. But for my money, he’s as good of a draft analyst as there is online in regard to working the news. That’s probably why CBS Sports hired him. Heck, that’s why I follow him and 1,388 others do too.
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