Brett McMurphy

Episode 17 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features college football reporter Brett McMurphy, who this week broke a major story on his Facebook account regarding charges from Courtney Smith, the ex-wife of a longtime assistant of Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer. Smith called into question Meyer’s claims he was unaware of a 2015 allegation of domestic abuse against the assistant. In this podcast, McMurphy discusses the timeline of his reporting; how he first contacted Smith; why Smith spoke on the record with McMurphy; what Smith’s reaction was to McMurphy’s questions; the duration of those interviews with Smith, the paper trail that McMurphy tracked down for his reporting including law enforcement records; why he broke this story on Facebook, why he could not write this for another publication because of his current contractual situation with ESPN; his expectations on how many people would read his story, what breaking the story on Facebook says about the traditional mantra that subjects will turn to big media; how Meyer forwarded the story with his responses duringBig Ten Media Days; why he finds Smith believable; whether McMurphy had lawyers vet his piece; why he didn’t reach out to Shelly Meyer; his concern about a negative backlash among some in the Ohio State fanbase; his thoughts on being laid off by ESPN in 2017; why he decided to appear on ESPN properties after they let him go; what his next for him professionally and this story You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and more.