Over the last nine years, Molly McGrath has worked as a college football reporter at ESPN and has worked across several marquee broadcasts, including the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, men’s college basketball contests and ESPN/ABC Saturday college football matchups. As she is slated to take part in coverage of the NFL Draft on ESPN platforms this April, McGrath was recently in Indianapolis at the NFL Scouting Combine to speak with a variety of personnel to gain inside information and enterprise stories.
While at Lucas Oil Stadium, McGrath also appeared as a guest on Thursday’s live edition of The Pat McAfee Show. During her segment, she was asked if she had been speaking with venerated football insiders Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter, along with practicing the amount of screen time required to execute the job.
“I’m not trying to be an insider where I’m trying to break news,” McGrath replied. “I’m more trying to be an insider for context because I want these coaches and GMs to trust me inherently, and that’s a part of covering game broadcasts, right? Coaches tell me stuff every week that’s off the record that would be breaking news if I were to tweet it out, but I want them to know that they can trust me.”
McGrath added that she is having conversations throughout the week that include off-the-record information, divulging that if she were to share some of these details on social media, they would be classified as breaking news. Adhering to journalistic principles and ethical reporting, she utilizes the information for context, and it helps her more effectively approach conversations with players and other general managers. There are also instances where she will ask permission to embargo certain information until NFL Draft coverage commences.
“I just want them to trust me and know that I’m not going to spill their secrets or tweet anything out,” McGrath said. “I think that’s the biggest value that I can bring is just to be trusted.”
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