I acknowledge that writing about the story of sports as a way to still do waiver and keep going with my 100 days of writing about writing is a bit of a stretch. That . being said, there is solid value to it all. Journalists–especially sports journalists make their careers off this stuff, and people want to hear a good story. Better–people want a goos mystery to solve. Consider the Curious Case of Tom Brady. Two particular stories jump out at me.
The first story is that of a team not wanting Brady. He was apparently interested and the team decided to stay with the QB they had. This is back in 21, mind you. This arose from an episode of The Shop where athletes and celebrities sit around a mock-up of a barber shop and talk.
(I’m still figuring out the tech, so if this winds up messy I apologize)
Back in 21 Bleacher Report referenced this and, of course, speculated on who the MF in question was. They quickly ruled out Derek Carr, which is funny because a year later speculation points at it actually being him. The point is, we love a story. We love to count people out or in and polarize ourselves like the descendants of tribesmen we all are. This is the way of sports story.