At this time of year during the NFL offseason, I’m reminded of a major faux pas committed by yours truly. Perhaps you’ve read this story before. If not, for me, it was a lesson learned.
Back in 2004, less than a year after we launched what was then Ravens247.com, a source leaked a Ravens schedule to me prior to the official release and it was spot on. The schedule attracted attention to our site, provided sticky content and helped to attract a new audience. The next season, the same source leaked the 2005 Ravens schedule and given that the prior season’s leak was rock solid, I didn’t hesitate to publish it. If betting information was provided on the schedule’s authenticity, I would have labeled it a lock!
Unfortunately it was wrong. Very wrong!
Every. Single. Week.
I actually didn’t think that it was mathematically possible to be wrong for all 17 weeks, but there it was, for all to see. How embarrassing!
Believing that our posted 2005 schedule was 100% accurate, just as it was the year before, fans made travel plans that they ultimately had to change. The Ravens received calls from irate suite holders who were told that they would be the first to know of the new schedule. Chad Steele reached out to me and was understandably irate.
I remember there was a mini camp not long after this horrifically published schedule leak and I thought not to go, to instead hide from the embarrassment and the in-person scolding that I was certain the Ravens PR staff would deliver. But I went anyway. I figured that I had to face the music.
Shortly after I arrived, Kevin Byrne pulled me aside and said (paraphrasing), “Tony, if you think you have some breaking news, run it by us. If you’re wrong, we’ll tell you that you’re wrong. If you’re right we’ll either confirm it or say nothing. If we say nothing, it’s up to you to decide what to do with the information.”
It was then and there that I decided that unless we were absolutely certain, Ravens247.com would not enter the world of “BREAKING NEWS”. We’ll leave that up to the national guys not named Jason LaCanfora.
But, with that said, there are others, many on Twitter, who claim to have knowledge of scheduling information prior to the actual release. One of which is @NFLGameLeaks. Here’s what they’ve posted as the Ravens schedule. To me, it looks insane, with 6 of the first 8 games on the road including the first three. The point in posting this is to have a little fun. Let’s see how they do so that in 2023 we’ll know whether to pay close attention to @NFLGameLeaks or to entirely scrub the from our social media feeds.
That said, color me skeptical.
Oh, and don’t go making travel plans based on this schedule!
P.S. Be sure to read the update below!
UPDATE: (1:02PM)
Well, we didn’t have to find out until 8PM to determine whether or not @NFLGameLeaks was legit or not!
guess who just got 10k followers by literally making up a bunch of NFL games because I was bored and faking out almost the entire football twitter landscape? this guy right here. pic.twitter.com/ZBIUnwbEZF
— NFL Schedule Leaks (@NFLGameLeaks) May 12, 2022
