You would think that ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports, would make sure a quote was real before publishing it. After all, a simple check with the source would erase any doubt.
However, when you don't cite your source and publish the quotes anyway, you deserve to be made fun of.
ESPN Soccernet took made-up quotes from Yahoo sports' Dirty Tackle blog and published them as if they were real. Dirty Tackle made up some humorous quotes from Barcelona star Lionel Messi that ESPN took a little too seriously.
In their "Off The Ball" column, ESPN didn't credit the quotes — which were about Messi playing for Barcelona, even after his own death — to anyone. They quickly removed that part of the post, but the evidence lies within the URL address:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/931353/off-the-ball:-ronaldinho-party-hotline,-lionel-messi%27s-ghost?cc=5901
After rumors about a possible move to Real Madrid for Messi swirled around, Dirty Tackle made up these quotes that they labeled as "future news" and related it to "nonsense":
"When I eventually pass on, I will only play ghost football at Barcelona. I am happy there. No amount of spirit money will tempt me.
"Real can offer whatever they want, but I will not go. My ghost will play for Barcelona forever. Maybe it will fly around in the clouds for fun sometimes, but it will never scare people and it will never play for another club."
Sounds like reasonable stuff to publish without any research.
