NFL Referees Association Demands ESPN Apologize, Disputes Report
The NFL Referees Association demanded an apology from ESPN following a report that a “league official’’ who handled footballs in the AFC Championship Game had been fired. In a statement released on Thursday, the NFLRA emphatically denied that any “game official’’ had been fired and demanded ESPN retract reporting by ESPN Insider Adam Schefter.
“No NFL Game Official has been fired in connection with the circumstances involving footballs used in the AFC Championship Game,’’ Jim Quirk, executive director of the NFLRA, said in the statement obtanied by multiple media outlets. “Our members have and will continue to cooperate fully with the NFL’s investigation into this matter, and we request an immediate retraction of this story and a public apology to our membership.’’
[fragment number=0]ESPN tweaked language in a report published on Wednesday in an apparent attempt to clear up any confusion about the identity of the person fired after he was discovered to have sold game footballs. Schefter initially described the person in question as “league official’’ during an on-air appearance on Wedneday, but a published “Outside The Lines’’ report available on ESPN.com on Thursday described the person as an “NFL employee.’’ Schefter’s report about the person being fired after the AFC title game raised questions about a previous “OTL’’ report about a Patriots staff member supposedly attempting to insert an unapproved ball into the AFC Championship Game.
Pro Football Talk reported Thursday that the NFL employee who was fired is Scott Miller.
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