Red Sox Reporter Jessica Moran Resigns After Rumors Of Her Relationship With Red Sox Manager John Farrell
Here we go again with the Red Sox media circus before a game is even played.
The Boston Globe dropped this story of Red Sox reporter Jessica Moran of Comcast SportsNet New England resigning from her job after rumors of her relationship with Red Sox manager John Farrell began spreading. Both were asked about the relationship for the story, and both declined to confirm that they were an item. Also, it should be noted that Farrell said that he has been separated from his wife for the last two years, and they are in the process of getting a divorce.
Now, Red Sox fans have been down this road before. We saw this with Will Middlebrooks and Jenny Dell, and with a much less public fling between a certain sideline reporter and a player who has quite a big name here in Boston. In the case of Middlebrooks and Jenny, I didn’t care about that. I thought that Jenny was more than capable of keeping her job and continuing to do it well. Sure, people would’ve given her a hard time, but her job wasn’t really to be critical of the team. Her job was to stand there and ask, “What was going through your head during that at-bat?” and “How does this win feel?” You can date a player and still ask questions like that. No harm, no foul.
When it comes to Jess and Farrell, people were a little less accepting of this one, because she had to be more critical of the team in her role than Jenny did. Full disclosure, I’ve heard the rumors of Farrell and Jess being a thing since last year, and out of curiosity, I specifically watched how she spoke about him on TV to see if she ducked and dodged any objective reporting, and she didn’t. At least from what I saw. If this Globe story never came out, and you never heard the whispers, then you would never be able to tell that they were seeing each other. From what I saw, she was able to separate the job and the relationship with Farrell just fine.
I don’t think she should have been fired for this — which it doesn’t seem like she was — but I also think it was the right call to resign. It’s unfortunate, because I think she was great at her job, but that’s one hell of a distraction for both of them now that everybody knows. And honestly, I think media and athletes date a lot more than fans realize. It just, for some reason, gets exposed in Boston way more than it does in other markets. I mean, especially in baseball with a 162-game regular season, one month for spring training and another month for the postseason — these people are together a LOT, so it shouldn’t surprise anybody when stories like these come out.
The big thing that isn’t being discussed enough about this story is who ran the story. The Boston Globe. Who owns the Boston Globe? John Henry. What else does John Henry own? The Boston Red Sox. Who had to sign off on this story before it was published? John Henry. I’m sure the conspiracy theorists will have a blast with this one, and it’s the ownership’s own fault. They have a reputation for running smear campaigns with people before they run them out of town. We’ve seen this on several occasions now. And it’s always through the Boston Globe. Is this their first attempt to begin the process of removing Farrell from the equation here in Boston? Let the speculating begin.