Pat Burns died today, then commented on his own death?

"There is absolutely nothing going on today," says Mary Paoletti as we search twitter for news and a potential Wicked Good Sports story idea.  We spoke too soon.  There WAS nothing, that was until the Pat Burns saga began.

For anyone outside the sporting world who does not know who Pat Burns is.  Shame on you.   Pat Burns is a legendary coach in the National Hockey League and former coach or our dear Boston Bruins.  Unfortunately Burns was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.  Many media outlets over the past couple weeks have been reporting that Burns' condition has been deteriorating.

This morning CTV in Ottawa reported that Burns lost his battle with cancer.  So, as all news stories do, the topic then went through twitter faster than anyone could say... he is alive!  That's right readers, Pat Burns did not die.  In fact, he probably got to read the stories celebrating his life before they got pulled from their respective sites.

 A family member of Burns commented saying, "Pat is surprised to learn he's dead."  Even Burns got to comment on his death. (as weird as that sounds)  "Here we go again," Burns told TSN's Bob McKenzie. "They're trying to kill me before I'm dead. ... I come to Quebec to spend some time with my family and they say I'm dead. I'm not dead, far [expletive] from it. They've had me dead since June. Tell I'm alive. Set them straight."

How many times do people get to comment to the media about their death?  Today's CSN lesson of the day: don't rush a story just to be the first to get it out.  Get the facts straight, check them several times, then you can write the best, most credible story you can.