A STUNNING CASE OF INTERNET NFL PLAGIARISM

Plenty of former NFL scouts are using the Internet as a tool for staying in the game even when not gainfully employed by an NFL club. As to two former scouts who once worked together for the Browns, Mike Lombardi and Chris Landry, a league source has pointed out to us stunning similarities between their most recent columns. Landry writes a “Scouts Notebook” for Sportsnet.ca. Lombardi currently writes for NationalFootballPost.com, and is believed in some league circles to be positioning himself for the Lions’ G.M. job. One of them clearly has borrowed without attribution of any kind the thoughts and the words of the other. Compare the items for yourself -- Landry’s December 1 column is right here, and Lombardi’s is right here. Here are some specific comparisons. (We’re rotating which one we put first so as not to create the impression that we’re accusing one of them of being the guilty party.) On the Browns . . . . Writes Landry: “You have to feel for Romeo Crennel. The Cleveand Browns head coach is going to be under heavy scrutiny the next four weeks and his starting quarterback, Brady Quinn, is lost for the season. What amazes me is why the Browns need four weeks. I suspect they already know what kind of coach he is right now. The issue is whether general manager Phil Savage will try to save his job at the expense of Crennell.” Writes Lombardi: “I feel bad for Romeo Crennel. He’s going to be evaluated the next four weeks and he loses his starting quarterback. What amazes me is why the Browns need four weeks. I suspect they know what kind of coach he is right now.” On the Steelers . . . . Writes Lombardi: “Pittsburgh is really playing well right now and doing a better job of protecting Big Ben. I never thought the Steelers could win on the road with Max Starks at left tackle, but they are. Holding the Pats to one third-down conversion was just amazing. When they play on a fast track, their defense is even faster.” Writes Landry: “Pittsburgh is really playing well right now and doing a better job of protecting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. I never thought the Steelers could win on the road with Max Starks at left tackle, but they are. Holding the Pats to one third-down conversion was just amazing. When they play on a fast track, their defense is even faster.” On the Patriots . . . . Writes Landry: “The Patriots are not the same team on defense, and their lack of speed is really hurting them. They will spend the whole off-season repairing their defense.” Writes Lombardi: “The Patriots are not the same team on defense, and their lack of speed really is hurting them. They will spend the whole off season repairing their defense.” On the Broncos . . . . Writes Lombardi: “The Jets should not feel too badly about that game yesterday. The Broncos can throw the ball on anyone, and they attacked the Jets in the best fashion — all nickel runs and no two-back sets.” Writes Landry: “The Broncos can throw the ball on anyone, and they attacked the Jets in the best fashion which includes all nickel runs and no two-back sets.” On the Jets . . . . Writes Landry: “The Jets’ Darrelle Revis is a Pro Bowl player for sure this season. I rarely ever see a pass completed on him when he is locked on man-to-man. However, first round pick Vernon Gholston still looks stiff.” Writes Lombardi: “The Jets’ Darrelle Revis is a Pro Bowl player for sure this season. I rarely ever see a pass completed on him when he is locked on man to man. . . . Did anyone see Jets first rounder Vernon Gholston running after Jay Cutler? He looked like Herman Munster trying to turn and redirect.” On the Buccaneers . . . . Writes Lombardi: “The Bucs, particularly Jeff Garcia, are hard to watch on offense, but they are so good on defense. Garcia struggles to make plays and is so erratic in the pocket.” Writes Landry: “The Bucs have a defense that could make a run at the New York Giants but offensively they are just not good enough. Quarterback Jeff Garcia struggles to make plays and is erratic in the pocket.” On the Chargers . . . . Writes Landry: “The season is unofficially over for San Diego. The Chargers just cannot get off the field on third down, and now that Rivers is not playing well, they are struggling on offense. It is hard to get things done offensively when you only have the ball on average for 28 minutes.” Writes Lombardi: “It’s over for San Diego this year. The Chargers just cannot get off the field on third down, and now that Rivers is not playing well, they are struggling on offense. Forget about LT, Rivers needs to carry the team, and it is hard when you only have the ball on average for 28 minutes.” On the Chiefs . . . . Writes Lombardi: “The Chiefs played 15 rookies and first-year players and still won the game. Great bounce back game for the Chiefs.” Writes Landry: “The Chiefs played 15 rookies and/or first-year players Sunday and still beat the Raiders.” On the 49ers . . . . Writes Landry: “The 49ers won on Sunday with less than 200 yards of offense. They are the first team to come from the West Coast and win on the East Coast this year.” Writes Lombardi: “The 49ers won a game with less than 200 yards of offense. They are the first team to come from the west and win on the east. Congratulations.” Wow. That’s nine instances of one guy apparently plagiarizing the other. (The only other possible explanation is that they somehow worked on the items jointly and agreed to use the combined work product in their individual columns, but that would (in our view) make both of them guilty of, at a minimum, duping their employers into believing that their submitted work product was their own.) The problem is that both items are dated December 1, with no time stamp. The first comment to Lombardi’s item was posted at 9:53 a.m., but without a time-zone designation. Landry’s column has no comments added to it -- which isn’t all that surprising given that it’s an NFL column on a Canadian web site. So, for now, it’s impossible for us to determine which guy borrowed from the other. And even though we’ve had our gripes with Lombardi, he deserves the same benefit of the doubt that Landry will receive. Still, by all appearances, one of them is the culprit and the other one is the victim. We just don’t know which is which at this point. We trust/hope that each man will be taking swift and meaningful steps to show that his own item was prepared and posted well before the other guy’s showed up. This situation is too clear -- and, to those of us who bust our butts in this business to come up with original content, too insulting -- not to be fully and completely investigated and rectified. UPDATE: It’s even worse than we initially believed. Compare Landry’s November 24 column to Lombardi’s November 24 column. And compare Lombardi’s November 17 column to Landry’s November 17 column. There could be more; after Florio Jr. is dropped off at school I’ll take an even closer look at the archives. SECOND UPDATE: Apparently, the culprit is Landry; his December 1 column also contains word-for-word excerpts from an item posted by one of Lombardi’s colleagues.