February 18, 2005
Reggie Fowler And Resume Inflation
For those of you who might have missed it, the potential new owner of the Minnesota Vikings looks to have engaged in a little bit of resume inflation:
Fowler's original bio claimed he played in the NFL and CFL and played in the Little League World Series as an 11-year-old, and implied that he earned a business administration and finance degree from the University of Wyoming.
The Star Tribune reported Wednesday that the claims were incorrect or overstated. Fowler, a former University of Wyoming linebacker, never made it out of an NFL training camp and doesn't appear in player databases for either league.
He's since backtracked, and issued a brand new set of paperwork. Over the course of my career, I've worked on a number of corporate bios and fact sheets, and if it's one thing I know, it's that you never, ever publish one of these things without the approval of the person you're writing about. In a lot of places, that means a signed form used to record official approval of the text.
Now, it's easy to see how an innaccuracy could make it's way into a version of a document like this. PR people ride shotgun with folks like Fowler all the time, and if he uncorked one of those stories in an interview, it isn't a surprise it could wind up published. But no PR firm worth its salt would just make it up.
Maybe it might be time to start asking other questions.
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06:20 AM