Albert Breer tears NFL Network a shiny new asshole

[TheWalrus]

Sports leagues and sports teams now commonly hire reporters to cover their own operations. Which raises an obvious question: How can a reporter behave independently when the reporter necessarily isn’t?

Appearing Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub’sToucher & Rich show, NFL Network’s Albert Breer pulled back the curtain on working directly for a sports league.

“I’ve been there five-and-a-half years and it’s a very limiting place in a lot of different ways,” said Breer, who is leaving NFL Network to join TheMMQB.com. “The rules were one way when I got there, and they’re very, very different now. And there are a lot of stories that I haven’t been able to do that I will be able to do now. . . .

“I think when I got there, there was very clearly a wall between us and the league. It was one of the first questions I asked when I left the [Boston] Globe is, ‘Am I going to be able to do the job the way that I did at the Globe?’ And the people that were there at the time said, ‘Absolutely.’ And that held true for a little while. That wall’s now gone and it’s a big reason why, probably two, three months ago, I just decided we’re going to stop talking to them and we’re going to find somewhere else to go. I’m glad I found a really, really, really good place to go and hopefully we can do some real good stories there.”

Breer, who lives in Boston, hasn’t been able to do many stories about the Patriots since the “on to Cincinnati” press conference, where he pressed coach Bill Belichick on whether he has provided enough assistance to quarterback Tom Brady, which in turn helped cement the mantra.

After that press conference, NFL Network yanked Breer off the Patriots’ beat. He toldToucher & Rich that this doubled his travel burden. (That, in turn, resulted in needless travel expenses for NFL Network.)

“[Y]ou’re taught for all these years to challenge people, and that’s your job and everything else,” Breer said. “I think you guys got a first-hand look at what happened when I started challenging people. Over the last year-and-a-half, I don’t think that’s any secret. . . . I don’t think they can stop me now. I don’t know.”

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/04/23/breer-pulls-back-curtain-on-working-for-nfl-network/

It's been true for a long time now... the only reason to watch NFL Network is for its specialty programming. The Top 10 shows, the A Football Life shows, its Super Bowl specials. Other than that, there's no reason to watch. None. And the same thing extends to its draft coverage, which used to be good but which has become ****ing awful. You might hate ESPN. I get it. That's no reason to watch a **** eating broadcast that would be embarrassing if it was on Indonesian state television.

If Dolphins Digest is beneath you, NFL Network should be beneath you. Avoid avoid avoid.

 

[Sons Of Shula]

Not shocked nor surprised in any way fashion or form; the networks are a sham. Kudos to Breer. I'll be looking forward to his work in the future. I'm sure he's just itching to dish out some goods now that he's out from under the umbrella of the league.

 

[BobDole]

Makes me wonder what Eisen - the only person worth a **** on that waste of a channel - has to say about all this. Being yet another puppet of Goodell can't be good for ratings ...

I like how there's no good venue to watch the draft on. You either get kiper bitching about every pick that he didn't call while simultaneously praising every single prospect - with mcshay sitting there with the appropriate deer in the headlights look (would love to know what dirt the biggest hack in the business has to keep that job) - or you have nfl network, which no longer offers any tangible reason to pay attention whatsoever. I feel like the nfl network follows the Tyler perry approach to garnering watchers - hire morons and pander to the lowest common denominator of human society. Go football

 

[Phinatic8u]

I don't even watch the draft anymore.

I just look at the feed on NFL.com to see who was picked.

 

[uk_dolfan]

He doth protest too much

"they wouldn't let me cover my home team" boo hoo, Darlington lives in Miami and spent half his time at NFLN covering the Redskins.

 

[Spesh]

I canceled NFL Network years ago.

It was a steady stream of problems that killed it for me but i can still recall the exact segment i watched that caused me to yell "DONE":

A group of talking heads sat in a circle discussing players they'd build a franchise around. After a couple of solid selections, i believe DeMarcus Ware was brought up, Jamie Dukes decided to make an...unconventional pick. Michael Vick. While Michael Vick was in prison. Not the 2005 Michael Vick. The Vick that was walking out of prison. Why? Because Vick threw to people in prison. You know, probably.

Oh, and their habit of leaking every draft pick selected before it was announced was total amateur hour horse****.

 

[JPPT1974]

I will still watch the NFL Network. But it seems Breer seems to be glad to be out of there.

 

[cltchperf]

I have to admit nfl network has gotten stale the past few years. But I still watch nfl network too. Most likely because it's the only football channel, so there isn't another option. ESPN is not much better and only certain shows, as I don't care for or like baseball to watch. Hockey is boring to me and I only vaguely follow UFC. There's college basketball that I like, but only interest is when my team plays and most of my interest is during the big conference tournaments and the big dance of course. It's really nfl that's my sport.

I do like the top ten and other things on there. I like the nfl network's version of 30 for 30 which is A football Life. Though the best one's were the first season. I like the Walter Payton once and Tom Coughlin, as well as Reggie White and Jerome Brown. But the talking point stuff has become the same. However, one think I appreciated recently was them replaying the past nfl drafts. ESPN doesn't do that and though I know who the fins picked, sometimes I forget which year they picked a certain player. I know t hill was 2012, but for a moment I forgot it was 2011 for Pouncey. I do like follwing past picks and liked they had a marathon on yesterday of drafts of 2011, 2012, 2014 and last years. They skipped 2013 draft for some reason.