John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Every time someone breaks a big NFL story you can always bet that a few other reporters will soon rush to refute that story quoting a source of their own.

Yesterday, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reported that a deal for 49ers QB Alex Smith was “effectively complete.”

La Canfora’s report seemed to be supported by other reports, one from Ian Rapopport of NFL.com that said the Chiefs were the team most interested in Smith and another later from Gregg Rosenthal, also of NFL.com, that claimed everywhere he went at the NFL Combine, he was hearing that Alex Smith to the Chiefs was all but a done deal.

Well now we have our first report refuting the La Canfora report.

Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee is reporting that a source told him that no deal for Alex Smith is in place and that the 49ers are still shopping the former No. 1 overall pick.

Barrow’s could be right here and the entire La Canfora report could just be a smoke-screen by the 49ers to drive up the market for Smith.

It all comes down to who you think has the best sources. Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports or Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee.

Somebody is reporting some misinformation. It will be interesting to see if La Canfora responds to Barrow’s report.

Either way, we likely won’t find anything concrete out until March 12th when the 2013 league year starts and free agency officially begins.

Who do you believe?