I think what you should ask yourself is why would Richie claim he would like to maybe come back in September and then purposely have a "source" blabbing to the press about Jon not allowing him to come back in July.
Or you could ask yourself how funny a joke is where Jon is too broke to buy his own NFL team, so he tells Richie to **** off and he screws his own (and the band's) future and career because that will of course make him gain more money to do just that.
They're so clueless and desperate for some scoop, they won't even notice how stupid their made-up stories sound, or maybe they don't care because they know there will always be someone who will gladly just spread the bullshit around without question.