The Boston Herald went to sleep proud of itself for landing the scoop that Theo Epstein is on his way to Chicago. They woke up to the Globe's comprehensive hit on the hard-partying 2011 Red Sox that's the only topic in town.
We don't know if this is an attempt to take sides in Boston's ongoing management vs. players battle, or something more innocuous, but today the Herald scrubbed from existence a piece that might have caused more waves. Running in Inside Track, the Herald's gossip section, it had eyewitnesses putting Kevin Youklis (last seen "[growing] more detached and short-tempered") snuggling with Nancy Brady, sister of Tom, at Sunday's Patriots game.
Headlined "Youk, Brady's sis spark rumors," the story no longer exists. It was automatically sent out at 8 this morning by the Inside Track Twitter account, but that Tweet has disappeared as well. No cache exists, and it's not yet to be found in Nexis, but luckily one Boston blog caught some of it in the brief time it was up. As quoted by The Boston Jam:
Kevin Youkilis denies that there's a romance, but our spies in the skyboxes say the Red Sox slugger and Tom Brady [stats]'s sis, Nancy, were looking veeeeery cozy as they watched 12 and the Pats cool the Jets at Gillette Stadium on Sunday.
"They were mugging it up in the box," said Someone Who Was There.
Obviously, the story is much less interesting than the story of why it was sent down the memory hole. We've reached out to the appropriate parties for comment and will update when we hear back.
UPDATE Feb. 10, 2012: It seems the Herald fucked up, and had the wrong Brady sister.