By now, you've probably heard at least a mention of the rumor that former Vikings' quarterback Brett Favre was going to appear on the upcoming season of the hit television show Dancing With the Stars. If that sounds like a stupid rumor, it's probably because that's exactly what it is. . .both stupid and a rumor.
Dan Shanoff has a rundown of how the entire thing got to the point that it did. Here's the story.
-On Monday, former Arizona Cardinals/New York Giants/St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner was being interviewed by an AOL entertainment gossip columnist, presumably because Warner made an appearance on DWtS himself. When he was asked which football player he would like to see on the show, he said, "Hey, why not Brett Favre?" Keep in mind. . .this wasn't a rumor or even speculation. This was just a WAG by someone with no actual connection to the show outside of being a former contestant.
-On Wednesday, Bleacher Report mentions the Warner quote. Mentions, mind you. . .doesn't say that it's a rumor or anything like that. Just mentions what Warner said.
-This gets picked up by KCCI in Des Moines, Iowa. They say that Bleacher Report was reporting a rumor that Favre was going to be on the show. . .when, to Bleacher Report's credit (and we don't give them a lot of credit here, so that's pretty important), they said no such thing.
-Well, the folks at USA Today pick up on the KCCI story, and report that the rumor of Favre being on Dancing With the Stars is "bubbling up." From what, I don't know.
-From there, it gets picked up by Mike Florio and the gang from Pro Football Talk, citing "numerous media sources, including USA Today." Well, "including" USA Today, "numerous media sources," in this case, is approximately two.
So, basically, Kurt Warner's one-time, off-the-cuff opinion statement to an internet gossip journalist turned into "OMG BRETT FAVRE IS GOING TO BE ON DANCING WITH THE STARS" in the span of about 48 hours.
Why? Two reasons.
1) Fact checking is hard
2) It's Brett Favre
And people wonder why, exactly, it is that the media obsesses over #4. . .because, largely, he's still a hot topic of conversation.