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Boston paper pulls Tom Brady story due to apparent scam, suspends columnist

The Boston sports media scene can be … interesting.

The latest drama involves a Boston Herald reporter apparently being duped by a WEEI listener and writing a story involving New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s salary demands. Longtime Boston reporter Ron Borges wrote an explosive story for the Herald that Brady planned to sit out OTAs unless he got a contract that was similar to former Patriots backup Jimmy Garoppolo’s five-year, $137.5 million deal with the San Francisco 49ers. Then on Friday morning, the Kirk and Callahan show revealed that listener “Nick in Boston” had texted Borges pretending to be Brady’s agent Don Yee.

WEEI did some victory laps over Borges being duped, and the Herald took the story down.

On Friday afternoon, the Herald released a statement saying it had suspended Borges’ column:

“A column by Ron Borges in today’s Herald regarding Patriot Tom Brady’s salary discussions was based on information which proved to be false.

“The Herald apologizes to Brady, his agent Don Yee and the Patriots, and to our readers for this erroneous report.

“Borges’ column has been suspended pending further review.”

The story seemed odd because Brady has never demanded high salaries. He has consistently taken less than market value from the Patriots to help the team acquire talent around him.

In 2007, Borges left the Boston Globe after he was accused of plagiarism. He was hired by the Herald after that. Borges has been a fixture on the Boston media scene for more than 30 years.

The Patriots have had plenty of drama recently. This time they just got caught in the undertow of some Boston sports media drama.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady after Super Bowl LII. (AP)
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady after Super Bowl LII. (AP)

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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!