ESPN's report on players wanting to play for Commanders omits that Bob Myers works for ESPN

On Saturday, an early-edition Sunday Splash! article landed from ESPN.

Citing unnamed sources, the item from Adam Schefter declared that unnamed players want to be traded to the Commanders. Here's the key sentence: "In recent weeks, there have been players who privately stated or told their agents that they want to be traded to the Commanders, league sources told ESPN."

OK, so how many? Two would be technically enough to make that statement true.

As one executive with another team asked PFT, "Doesn't this feel like a weird article?"

It's definitely unusual. Why isn't there a report that players want to be traded to the 7-0 Chiefs? Or the 6-1 Lions? And while I'm possibly not remembering it, I can't recall many (or any) occasions when a report emerged in the final days of the trade deadline in any prior year that players wanted to be traded to any one specific team because of the team itself.

Usually, a player from a non-contender wants to go to any contender. Sometimes, a player wants to be reunited with a teammate or a coach. Rarely if ever do one or more players want to get to one specific team in one specific trading cycle.

The deeper purpose of the report arguably resides in this line: "But even if the Commanders can't complete any trades by the deadline, the fact that certain players would like to land in Washington bodes well for the franchise in free agency and in years to come, league sources told ESPN."

Parse that sentence. League sources said that unnamed players wanting to be traded to the Commanders "bodes well for the franchise"? That's not fact, it's opinion. And it's not the kind of opinion that should receive the benefit of anonymous sourcing. That's true in this case, for one very important reason.

Beyond the fact that this is a prime example of the quid pro quo behavior that keeps Schefter at the front of the line for text messages about Washington-related transactions five minutes before they're announced, the article fails to include an important disclaimer. Bob Myers, a former NBA executive who has become a key contributor to the attempt to turn the previously embattled franchise around, works for ESPN.

Whether Myers's employment by the same company that employs Schefter had anything to do with Schefter's Commanders promo couched as actual reporting is one thing. The fact that Myers and Schefter both work for ESPN is another.

That fact should have been disclosed. And it wasn't.