ESPN and Josina Anderson are in hot water and have apologized over a callous report she did on Sportscenter that focused on Michael Sam's showering habits as a way of him fitting in with his new teammates. Since Michael Sam came out as the first openly gay football player before the NFL draft, there's been a heap of media attention placed on him and the team, but nobody expected a report like this. The apology has not satisfied St Louis Rams coach, Jeff Fisher at all and he is hopping made and not going to take it.
ESPN's apology for reporting on Michael Sam's showering habits did little to satisfy Rams coach Jeff Fisher, who blasted the "unethical" SportsCenter segment on the openly gay rookie defensive end.
A day after Josina Anderson focused her story on whether Sam was showering with any of his teammates at Rams training camp, Fisher called her professionalism into question. "I think it's unethical," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Wednesday.
"Not only the piece itself, the content. The manner in which she did it."Anderson brought up the touchy issue after detailing how one Rams player told her that Sam was "respecting our space." "Another Rams defensive player told me that 'Sam is respecting our space' and that, from his perspective, he seems to think that Michael Sam is waiting to take a shower, as not to make his teammates feel uncomfortable."
That's where Anderson crossed the line, according to Fisher.
"Obviously she came in, in all likelihood to see if there was gonna be a roster move at the 75 cutdown as it relates to Mike Sam. That didn't happen. But she needed to do something, and it's my understanding that she manufactured this story.
"She was out of line because she went and contacted several players on their personal time. Misled them with questions and then put this piece together."
Fisher is saying that she manufactured the story and misled players. This almost as bad as a call of plagiarism against her so I imagine management will be looking into this very closely. It's going to be hard enough for Michael Sam to make the Rams opening day roster and this only makes it worse for him. How she felt that playing the "shower card" was going to help her story is beyond me.
