The conspiracy theories between the Worldwide Leader and not properly covering stories for personal reasons have struck again, and once again, they involve ESPN’s relationship with Brett Favre.

This time, Favre is not directly related, but his agent, Bus Cook is. And ESPN’s potential courtship of Favre for an analyst position may be directly impacting their coverage of real-life football news.

You see, Cook is not only Favre’s agent, but he’s Jay Cutler’s agent as well. And as the story goes , according to Fox Sports’ John Czarnecki, Cook and Cutler were asking out of Denver before the Josh McDaniels-Matt Cassel-Jay Cutler stories hit the headlines.

According to lead theorist Mike Florio at ProFootballTalk.com (HT: SPORTSbyBROOKS), Cook has not exactly been working to fix Cutler’s situation in Denver. Cook has been at Cutler’s side throughout this whole mess with Denver brass, sitting in with him in meetings and spinning the story later. Cook has been saying all along that this problem was started by the Broncos, but if you believe Fox Sports, then clearly there were issues before this.

So where does ESPN come in? The theory/allegation is that ESPN is treating Cutler and Cook with kid gloves, allowing Cook to say what he wants to unchallenged, while telling a very favorable story of Cook when they need to. All this to keep Cook happy so that his bigger client, Favre, signs on at the Worldwide Leader.

Exhibit ‘A’ comes from John Clayton, in his ESPN.com mailbag:

Cook, Jay Cutler’s agent, has done nothing in the Cutler mess other than offer his support. People may be getting a wrong perception of Cook. He’s not a Scott Boras. He’s not trying to play hardball. Remember, Steve McNair and Brett Favre had long, successful careers in their cities, and Cook was their agent. In fact, Cook’s willingness to sign both to long-term deals made sure the Tennessee Titans and the Green Bay Packers, respectively, kept their quarterbacks as long as possible. But when trouble comes, Cook will fight for his client. Remember, it was the Titans who kept McNair off team property when they were ready to move him. The Favre problem was between Favre and his bosses. Cook just had to do the dirty work. In the Cutler affair, he just has to sit back and watch and be with his client in all meetings. The problem is between Cutler and his coach.

The rebuttal to that, from ProFootballTalk.com, is simple:

Wrong.

The problem is that Cutler has a stick up his butt, and that Cook either planted it there — or Cook is keeping coach Josh McDaniels from removing it.

If Cook were a problem-solver and not a problem-maker, he’d encourage Cutler to have a one-on-one meeting with McDaniels, and Cook would stay out of it. Cook also wouldn’t have been peddling the notion that the team has wronged Cutler given that, as reported by John Czarnecki of FOXSports.com, Cook had asked the Broncos to trade Cutler before the Broncos ever tried to.

Based on ESPN’s history with Favre, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to find out that they are treating this story in this suspicious way, with the bigger story — to them — being their ability to land Favre as an analyst.

I don’t know the details of Cook’s history, but from a conspiracy theory perspective, this sounds plausible. We’ll keep an eye on Cutler’s story and how ESPN covers it compared to other outlets.

Share this story...

Discussion

No comments for “The ESPN-Favre-Cutler-Cook Saga”

Post a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.