Did Kirk Minihane just troll his way into exposing the NFL Insider Industrial Complex?

The polarizing Barstool Sports personality has broken every major Patriots story since their season ended, including the team’s re-hiring of Josh McDaniels. Minihane posted his scoop Tuesday at 3:42 p.m. EST. “Sources: Josh McDaniels will be named offensive coordinator of the Patriots. Announcement is imminent,” he said.

Approximately 50 minutes later, Ian Rapoport shared his report. “Throwback: The #Patriots are expected to hire Josh McDaniels to be their offensive coordinator, sources say, his third stint in this role,” posted the ubiquitous NFL Insider.

Then the deluge began. Suddenly, nearly every so-called “Patriots Insider” was reporting the same piece of news: McDaniels was returning to New England. They all credited an unnamed “source.”

No word on whether it was the same one…

The Patriots are hiring Josh McDaniels to be their offensive coordinator, per source.

A familiar face in New England, McDaniels is back for his third stint with the organization. pic.twitter.com/JyXgqbSCaj

— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) January 21, 2025

The Patriots are hiring Josh McDaniels as their offensive coordinator, per source.

— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) January 21, 2025

Josh McDaniels it is https://t.co/EC0uoE84BW

— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) January 21, 2025

Sources w/ @DougKyed: #Patriots expecting to land Josh McDaniels as their new offensive coordinatorhttps://t.co/BPylsNIzlq pic.twitter.com/ztfT0kNqKB

— Andrew Callahan (@_AndrewCallahan) January 21, 2025

News story: Patriots expected to hire Josh McDaniels as offensive coordinator; will serve as top mentor for QB Drake Maye. https://t.co/KOO6ggBOEc

— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) January 21, 2025

The whole exercise of crediting sports reporters for “scoops” is nothing more than media glad-handing. But that’s precisely the point. Whenever a venerated insider like Adam Schefter or Rapoport breaks a transaction, their names are plastered everywhere. Every reporter “can confirm” the story, while mentioning that Schefter or Rapoport “had it first.”

But that wasn’t the case for Minihane, though ESPN did mention on its ticker that “Barstool Sports” broke the McDaniels news.

How often do you see this on the ESPN ticker? pic.twitter.com/nDwYnc5fqy

— Ben Koo (@bkoo) January 22, 2025

As a host on Boston’s WEEI, Kirk Minihane rose to ratings prominence as a sports talk radio host who claimed to hate sports. He would hammer the Red Sox, the station’s broadcast partner, as well as his colleagues for arguing about starting rotations and defensive game plans.

Rather than call out players, Minihane preferred to castigate beat writers and talking heads, whom he accused of covering for each other. Minihane recognized Boston fans–or at least those who listen to sports talk radio–actually held a deep antipathy for many of the region’s sportswriters and pundits.

He played to their resentment, and positioned himself as the ultimate truth-seeker, battling a biased and entitled sports media establishment.

Sound familiar?

“I’ve been doing it since I was at EEI,” Minihane told me. “I just don’t like that they are the lords of ‘this player, this owner, this guy needs to be held accountable,’ and then you just ask them why they’re not crediting the guy who broke [the story], and they run away. It’s like a secret club. I’ve never understood it.”

Minihane’s latest expedition started Jan. 5, when he declared on his show the Patriots would hire Mike Vrabel as their next head coach. One week later, that’s exactly what happened.

But the story was not considered “official” until Rapoport relayed it.

“The next head coach of the New England @Patriots will be Mike Vrabel. That’s all I can tell you for now. But I can tell you that’s 100% going to happen.”https://t.co/rKX1AzPjiz pic.twitter.com/nvAf2Urt09

— The Kirk Minihane Show (@kirkminshow) January 6, 2025

#KirkWasRight https://t.co/htBRJW5BIE

— The Kirk Minihane Show (@kirkminshow) January 12, 2025

Sensing a theme, Kirk Minihane  followed up with another report 10 days later: Patriots exec Robyn Glaser was leaving her role with the organization. A long-time Kraft lieutenant, Glaser ascended to become the team’s executive VP of football business, and a maligned symbol of the Patriots’ downfall.

If the news came from a respected member of the NFL Insider class, it likely would’ve been taken as gospel. Instead, it was struck down.

Albert Breer, SI‘s senior NFL writer and a regular on the Boston airwaves, said on the radio that Glaser wasn’t leaving. “She’s still there, I know that. So that’s wrong. That’s not right,” he offered.

Soon, the wagons started circling…

Two people told me today that the Robyn Glaser news floating around X is false. She is still with the Patriots

— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) January 16, 2025

Two days later, ESPN’s Mike Reiss reported that Glaser was, in fact, stepping down.

Sorry? https://t.co/kWkVTIEMLJ

— Kirk Minihane (@kirkmin) January 17, 2025

The debate over who gets to determine what’s news and what’s dismissed as innuendo isn’t unique to sports media. There’s a widespread reckoning with the news media, as tens of millions of Americans turn off TV news and turn on their favorite streamers. Americans’ trust in the mainstream media remains at an all-time low, and that trend extends to sports. ESPN’s brand is bludgeoned, due to years of budget cuts, declining quality and political attacks (some fair, some not).

It’s hardly a unique story. The gatekeepers are losing control, and they’re scared.

In the world of sports media, the gatekeepers for the most valuable commodity, NFL intel, appear to be impenetrable. We know from Schefter’s leaked email to Bruce Allen–he forwarded the former Washington exec a story about the 2011 lockout for approval and called him “Mr. Editor”–that he works in concert with NFL front offices.

The same is almost certainly true of Rapoport, who literally works for the league. Jay Glazer works for Fox, Mike Florio works for NBC.

Need I go on? They all work for properties that are directly owned by, or have multibillion-dollar financial entanglements with, the NFL.

It’s probably not a coincidence that when one of them breaks a story, an avalanche of confirmations follow. Nobody is reporting the news at a time that’s inconvenient for the hand that feeds.

Look at Schefter’s analysis of the Patriots’ coaching search. Jerod Mayo was fired on Jan. 2, and it was apparent on Jan. 3 that Vrabel was the front-runner. But it would’ve been uncouth to acknowledge that truth, because the NFL mandates that teams follow the Rooney Rule.

So the Patriots conducted two sham interviews with Byron Leftwich and Pep Hamilton, both of whom didn’t coach in the league last season (Hamilton hasn’t coached since 2022).

Sure enough, Schefter spread legitimacy to those interviews, saying on the radio Jan. 8 that Vrabel to the Patriots was not guaranteed. “I don’t think it’s going to be that quick,” he said.

Four days later, Vrabel’s hiring was announced.

Quick!

Schefter, of course, had the story…

Here’s how Adam Schefter broke the news of the Patriots hiring Mike Vrabel on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown: pic.twitter.com/DvdFbJyuiX

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 12, 2025

With Schefter’s iron-grip on info, everybody is left to fight for scraps. A protectionism comes into play.

It used to be that anybody affiliated with pro sports–players, coaches, team officials, league execs–needed reporters to get their message out there. But now, they don’t. Players can post their thoughts on social media, and league sources can funnel their stories to broadcast partners.

That includes agents and personnel people, who famously “information trade” with Schefter and his ilk.

It all comes down to: “what can you offer me?” For most old-school newspaper and TV people, the answer is nothing.

For Minihane, the answer is entertainment. He says people who work for the Patriots listen to his show.

“I have a lot of fans of my podcast who work for the Patriots. They would rather me have the story than [the Boston Globe],” he said.

That brings us to the other reason why Minihane probably isn’t getting his due credit: he’s a troll. His endearing traits as a broadcaster can be personally alienating.

For example: he often cold calls Boston Globe CEO Linda Pizutti, who happens to be Red Sox owner John Henry’s wife.

“Kirk, Kirk. I really wish you wouldn’t do this,” she said on his show Wednesday, after receiving an unsolicited dial. “I think you’re a great person. I just don’t like you calling me, and doing ‘live to tape.’”

Kirk Minihane kept up his interrogation.

“You’re the managing editor of a newspaper. And you won’t take questions? That doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

“I’m not doing a surprise interview,” she replied. “I hope you’re doing well. I’ll talk to you soon.”

If Pizutti truly means she’ll talk to Minihane “soon,” it’s clear she won’t be the only power-broker to do so.

Disclaimer: Alex Reimer worked with Kirk Minihane on WEEI from 2016-18.