Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy signed his franchise tender. The Associated Press, via the USA Today, wrote an article about it saying:
"A person familiar with the situation says defensive end Greg Hardy has signed his franchise tag tender with the Carolina Panthers.The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the signing has not been made official."
Like any other news outlet they tweeted the story out on their Twitter account.
AP Source: Panthers Hardy signs franchise tender http://t.co/KJ5Zza3Nfn
— USA TODAY NFL (@usatodaynfl) March 4, 2014
The folks at Pro Football Talk responded taking exception with claim that their sources had secured the information.
@usatoday_nfl . . . Their source was everyone else who had reported it three hours earlier.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) March 4, 2014
Of course maybe the Associated Press waited to get information from their own sources instead of relying on everyone else’s. Maybe the Associated Press was late, but shouldn’t that just be a point of pride for organizations that had the story first?