Browns Reporter Roasted After Getting Duped By A Phony Head Coaching Rumor From Random Dude

Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images


Only in the world of sports media are anonymous sources regarded as gospel.

Try approaching your wife and telling her an anonymous source claimed a hall pass is essential to a healthy, everlasting marriage. Actually, don’t. I’m typing this from my couch and it sounds like she brought her electric toothbrush into the bedroom?

In the sports media landscape, fake news is better than no news, even if it’s delivered by your cousin’s plumber’s parole officer.

Tony Grossi, a Browns and NFL analyst affiliated with ESPN, abided by the mantra and got scorched.

In an article for 3DownNation, Grossi, a Hall of Fame voter, claimed the team was “talking to” Toronto Argonauts head coach Ryan Dinwiddie, a phony tip given by a man with the totally believable Twitter handle @BeansieARamp.

Grossi went on to publish the fake rumor on his site, The Land on Demand, a subscription site that reportedly costs $8.50 a month.

If you aren’t familiar with Mr. Grossi, you may remember him as the victim of a Baker Mayfield tongue-lashing and eventual walk-off in October after Grossi asked Baker if he was happy about a failed drive.

Many Browns fans believed that Grossi had this coming.

How crazy would it be if Grossi and this dude manufactured this to trick schlubs like me into writing an article mocking a fake article intended to create more fake news. That’s some sports media inception shit.

Matt Keohan Avatar
Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.