Don Yee Impersonator Who Duped Ron Borges With Brady Story Called Him, Had Been Exchanging Texts for Weeks

Ron Borges is going to be in hot water with the Boston Herald after publishing a “Tom Brady wants Jimmy Garoppolo money” story based on “sources” that turned out to be a prank. The guy who pranked Borges, identified as “Nick in Boston” claimed that he started texting Borges pretending to be Tom Brady’s agent, Don Yee, after he saw someone post Borges’ number on Twitter. It began a few weeks ago, as they discussed Tom Brady’s thumb and Ty Law’s Hall of Fame candidacy by text.

It escalated, though, yesterday, after the imposter sent a text in the wake of the Jimmy Garoppolo contract news, that Borges went for hook, line, and sinker. He wanted to talk to Don Yee, though, and the imposter said they actually had a brief phone conversation where he pretended to be Yee, and told him “run with it or don’t.”

Borges has a history of plagiarism, and was fired from the Boston Globe a decade ago. He also has a lengthy anti-Belichick history so he was primed to fall for something that put the relationship with Brady in a bad light. Getting duped is one thing, but failing to check up on it while then citing multiple sources is another. Actually following through and checking would have quickly revealed this story to be a hoax.