St. Pete Times beat writer Rick Stroud blames Joe and others for taking him seriously about Marvin Harrision

Shame on you, Rick Stroud, seasoned Bucs beat writer for the St. Pete Times. You have done the unthinkable for a man in your profession.

On Friday, Stroud reported the Bucs’ possible interest in Marvin Harrison via his Twitter account. Then on Saturday Stroud followed that on Twitter by taking a shot at his Twitter followers for taking him seriously and fueling a national news story.

The guy’s got serious nerve.

People, if I tweet something bout Marvin Harrison it’s agent-driven speculation. If there’s news, I’ll post it on Tampabay.com. K? Sheesh

Stroud has the gall to label his Twitter account “NFLStroud” and tout there his status as Bucs beat writer and ESPN contributor, yet he expects nobody to take his Twitter comments about the Bucs seriously? You can’t have it both ways, Rick.

Bottom line here is Stroud got caught with egg on his face because a national story came from his Twitter account rather than his employer’s Web site, which would have seen tens of thousands of hits. And now Stroud is trying to tell everyone it wasn’t worth posting on TampaBay.com, the Times’ site, because it was “agent-driven speculation.”

Please, Rick. Joe and your readers are not stupid. As if you and fellow St. Pete Times scribe Stephen Holder never publish rumors and attribute it to someone else’s speculation? Of course you do. And you should. You are the Bucs beat writer!

Oh look, Joe found one such published Bucs rumor by the Times (among others) attributed to agent speculation.

…To that end, it’s become impossible to deny that a growing chorus of people around the league are talking about the Bucs when the topic of Tennessee All-Pro DT Albert Haynesworth comes up. Tampa Bay is considered by many NFL insiders to be a possible landing spot for perhaps this year’s top free-agent prize. And we’re not talking about media here. We’re talking agents and people in front offices — those in the know.

Publishing speculation about Harrison would have been appropriate sportswriting. It wouldn’t have been some sort of irresponsible rumor that could hurt someone, such as publishing buzz about some teacher dropping her skirt for a student or a governor having a bisexual past. We’re talkin’ chatter about a Hall of Fame free agent receiver possibly coming to the hometown team.

All Stroud had to do initially was post his original Twitter comment about Harrison on TampaBay.com and attribute it to the “agent-driven speculation.”

Instead he’s chosen to wag a finger of blame at those he invites to “follow him” on Twitter.