If you've been reading my blog for a while, first let me both thank you and express my sympathies. I'm humbled that anyone would read my blog for any period of time, but even I look in bewilderment on some of my older posts on here. Did I really write that stuff?
Anyway, if you've read my blog regularly you would know I enjoy a weird, juicy news story when one pops up. I think I found the strangest and most convoluted story I've read in a long, long time today.
The highlights are that ESPN had hired a 22-year-old woman as a freelance writer and discuss betting on various sporting events. She's apparently fresh out of college from the University of Oregon and somehow gained notoriety in a remarkably short period of time. ESPN sought her out to write on their Playbook page, but over a period of time evidence started piling up suggesting this woman had concealed her true identity and lied about her background. As more people came forward with their experiences with this young woman, ESPN ultimately decided to sever ties with her.
This is undoubtedly one of the most bizarre stories I've ever read. First, I'm kinda surprised that ESPN would actually want to recruit anyone to write about sports gambling and advise readers on what are the hot bets to make. Seems a little hypocritical to me, given how each of the four major sports have worked hard to prevent their players and other employees from gambling. But hey, that's just me.
The idea that a 22-year-old adult could be so well versed in gambling is quite staggering to me, given that the legal gambling age is 21. Maybe I'm naive, but how could anyone so young make the kinds of connections and have the knowledge to not only make smart bets on sports, but write a blog regularly about it? I turn 33 later this year, and I've never gambled in my life. Part of me wants to just to say I did, but I couldn't fathom plunking down $1000 on a regular basis betting on various games and events. But this is a girl fresh out of college! Where does she have this kind of cash laying around? And she's clearly not a newbie at this at all, so she's had access to the money and the bookies to be betting for years. Something isn't right here.
But it gets weirder. In reading more about the details of the mysterious Sarah Phillips and her history with ESPN, I found an article on Deadspin that digs deep into some of the individuals who had dealt with her over the years. I honestly don't understand half of what I had read, but from what I can gather, it sounds like she had scammed several people into giving her money in exchange for her "team" building websites for her victims (maybe that's how she scored so much money to use on gambling).
I realize that ESPN hires freelance writers all the time, as does any other news-reporting organization. As such, they wouldn't have ever met Phillips face to face in choosing to hire her since she's based out of Oregon. But what I find peculiar is the part about how very few photographs she had submitted resembled one another. Something like this shouldn't pass the smell test. Different hair colors is one thing, but half the faces in the collage of pictures of her posted on Deadspin don't look the slightest bit alike.
There are so many other areas of this story that mystify me. But for the sake of argument, let's say "Sarah Phillips" is in fact a false identity and this woman scammed both private citizens and ESPN. What legal penalties and consequences would she face? Since no one met her face to face, I don't see how the police could successfully track her down, especially since they don't have an accurate photograph of her appearance. Sure, the people she had scammed out of thousands of dollars have legit claims, but I don't see how she could be subpoenaed into court when no one knows her true identity (or if she's even a she, really).
I definitely intend on reading more about this story, should any additional details come out. ESPN will obviously avoid discussing it as much as possible, and considering the story is a small blip on most radars I imagine it'll be difficult to find updates on it. Still, I find it fascinating that such a con game could have gone on for so long and affect a company like ESPN.
No comments:
Post a Comment