On occasion, ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter likes to dabble in breaking news in other sports. He’s been known to dabble in the world of NBA scoops when an agency contact has something for him, but mostly his crossover insider work happens in college football.
On Monday, Schefter brought word that Sacramento State was in discussions with Michael Vick to become their next head coach as the team looks to make a move up in level to FBS in the near future. In his tweet, Schefter mentioned the $50 million Sacramento State touts as its NIL funding in its effort to move up a level. That figure drew the attention of Doug Gottlieb, who is rather famously splitting time as a national sports radio host and the head basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and he decided to take a jab at Schefter.
Schefter responded first with a very straightforward reply, noting to Gottlieb that the school’s NIL collective has already announced the $50 million figure to insist it was not a made up figure by an agent (even if plenty have questioned the legitimacy of that number, which is $50 million pledged for 10 years if they move up to FBS).
However, he was not satisfied with that being his lone response to Doug calling him out for just repeating things agents tell him, and decided to take the blowtorch to Gottlieb 13 minutes later — which I like to imagine was entirely spent with his finger hovering over the “send” button before saying, screw it, and letting it rip.
The funniest part of this is Gottlieb is far from the first person to take issue with the current state of news-breaking in sports, which often doubles as carrying water for agents and sources, and he’s not the only one to question Sacramento State’s NIL funding numbers. However, he is the only one doing that while coaching a college basketball team that has been really bad and trying to still host a national sports radio show at the same time. That opens himself up to get absolutely dunked on by Schefter here, who did not miss his shot — which is apparently a constant in Gottlieb’s life right now on and off the court.
