In this day and age, everyone is a reporter – as many athletes and celebrities on the wrong side of a camera phone often find out the hard way.

When it comes to my job, that means rumors can pop up on blogs and message boards before anybody in the media gets a whiff of it or can put it out there. Many times, I'm led on a panicked wild goose chase, a la Braylon Edwards for what seemed like the entire spring of 2009 and a supposed trade of Mario Manningham to the Bengals for Keith Rivers that never materialized.

But we in the media would be naïve, stupid and stubborn to think we're the only ones who can and will be on top of breaking news. And so that brings us to another rumor involving the Giants and Rivers that popped up on a forum called "Big Blue Huddle" last night. A poster there said a source told him the team is close to acquiring the Cincinnati Bengals linebacker and is "pretty sure … this is going down."

Someone alerted me to the post last night and I did some checking. If this one is out of left field and completely bogus, no one has told me that yet. In fact, I get the impression the Huddle's sleuth is hot on the trail of this one. As I said on Twitter, there might be some fire behind this smoke.

Adding to my suspicions is the fact Rivers is in the area right now. The former USC standout, whom the Bengals selected ninth overall in 2008, tweeted to someone Tuesday night he's "stopping in NYC" on his way back from a trip to France and Italy. Of course, if you follow his timeline, you'll see he stopped here on the way out as well.

In some ways, a trade for Rivers would make sense for the Giants. They’d get a guy who has a lot of talent at a position of need and would be buying low because he missed all of last season with a wrist issue that required surgery. Sure, that would be a concern but it’s not like it’s, say, an ACL – the injury Jonathan Goff is trying to overcome.

And since the Bengals recently re-signed outside linebacker Manny Lawson to a one-year contract plus have Thomas Howard on the other side, Rivers would seemingly be expendable. After four injury-plagued years, perhaps they're weary of Rivers, who missed the final nine games of his rookie season after Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward broke his jaw on a crack-back block – a hit that resulted in the "Hines Ward Rule" that outlawed blind-side hits to the head or neck area of a defender.

Then again, on the surface, the Giants' acquiring Rivers wouldn't seem to make sense because he's been a weak-side linebacker his entire career. The Giants pretty much have two of those already in Michael Boley and Jacquian Williams, who is coming off an impressive rookie season. Jerry Reese did mention Boley as a candidate to move into the middle, however, and there's always a chance Mathias Kiwanuka could bounce back to end should Osi Umenyiora head elsewhere. Or maybe it's as simple as the Giants' thinking the 6-2, 242-pound Rivers can play the middle.

Yeah, I’m taking some liberties in the above scenarios but I’m just trying to point out there could be some contingencies the Giants can see but we can’t at this point. Or the rumors of an impending trade could be bupkis.

But I don’t sense that at this point. So stay tuned.

* * * *

Good story today from The Record's Jeff Roberts, who reports TE Jake Ballard needed microfracture surgery in addition to getting his ACL repaired.

Mike Garafolo: mgarafolo@starledger.com