With another week almost in the books, many Boston sports fans look forward to getting the Patriots on the practice field next week.

It seems that all that radio hosts want to talk about it whether he will be here beyond this season, but has it really hit Patriots fans that Darrelle Revis will be playing for the Patriots this season? Darrelle Revis.

Kirk Minihane is not being punished for his remarks about Erin Andrews earlier this week.  Nothing has come of the comments of Lou Merloni and Tim Benz on Andrews, which some would say are even worse.

(Thanks to Ken Fang for listening and transcribing that exchange.)

Believe it or not, the exchange sounds even worse than it reads.

Minihane did apologize this week with a statement on the WEEI website, but I hope that when he returns from vacation that he apologizes on the air as well. He said the remarks on the radio, he probably should apologize on the radio as well.

Kirk Minihane too good for low-brow antics – Chad Finn leads off his media column today with more on the Minihane comments, and whether Kirk is too good to resort to this type of stuff. I don’t know that he is. I thought he was a decent guy, but his total ingratiation with the hate that John Dennis and Gerry Callahan spew has been disturbing.

Paul Azinger thinks Tiger Woods fixed what wasn’t broken – The Open Championship is this weekend, and Bill Doyle has the ESPN analyst saying the Woods changed his swing too much and it has pretty much ruined him.

Jim Bouton still as opinionated as ever – If you read Ball Four growing up, you might be interested to hear what the former Seattle Pilot is up to these days. Stan Grossfeld checked in with Bouton, who resides in Massachusetts.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

28 thoughts on “Friday Notes – Is Minihane Too Good For His Comments?”

  1. Bruce….. I see you refer alot to the “hate that D&C spew” What specifically are you referring to? I listen and quite frankly I don’t hear anything different on there than what I hear on Felger and Mazz. In fact F&M are sometimes worse. I hope you’re not going to bring up some 10 year old comment again.

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    1. To attempt an answer, I’d offer some contrasts between “takes” various hosts espoused:

      G+Z: Gresh is no fan of EA, as many are not due to the perception of her getting a pass for looks vs. actual skill. I don’t have a transcript or audio, but he criticized the style and professionalism exhibited during the Wainwright interview. No problem there. You’re attacking the person’s approach for just that, and it has nothing to do with their gender. Minihane, instead, resorted to calling her a ‘bitch’. You might score a few bud lights during a frat party, but you’ll do nothing but lose a professional argument using that language–and, in today’s world, you’ll get torched on social media.

      F+M: When the US allowed the last minute goal to Portugal, during group stage, they were one of the many hosts who criticized Lalas during the postgame coverage ESPN had. Both were critical of Lalas’ approach of being “soft” on the USMNT, and not being critical of the coach or players. Fine. I get what they’re doing. Their argument–which has been articulated by many others–is that if soccer in the US wants to become mainstream, it can’t have a “soft apologist” approach Lalas and others offered. They–ESPN by proxy of covering the World Cup–have to be critical of the team/coach/players, identical to how many European countries (UK) are. At any point did F+M–or, anyone else offering up a similar-style of criticism–tell Lalas to “die in a fire?” Nope. Saying that is unprofessional (to me).

      So, lets go back to the topic at hand. Criticizing EA for being mediocre in terms of professionalism and how she handles the job is, to most, offering up an opinion. Doing the same by using words like “bitch” or “cunt”, or “bimbo” is just pure unprofessional. Moreover, the language is ‘sexist’ and you sound silly using it.

      See the difference? You won’t satisfy everyone but it’d mitigate the ‘outrage’ that accompanies each instance of someone ‘saying something they’d want to take back’.

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      1. I do certainly see the difference. But it doesn’t answer my question in the least. I asked specifically about the “hate” that D&C “continuously spew”. Again, I hope he’s not referring to something they said 10 years ago. Otherwise I really don’t see anything different that D&C say than what F&M say. But thanks BSMfan.

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        1. If you go back in the D+C (minus Minihane) history, there’s numerous incidents of them offering up views. Their incidents are well documented here and elsewhere, but notable stuff is Metco, blaming Jen Martel in not doing more prior to Remy’s son murdering her, etc.

          F+M might offer up some “hotsportztakes” but they’re not blaming domestic violence victims for not doing more before their abusive spouses murder them, using unnecessary racial slurs, etc.

          I’ll defend free speech but not if someone is racist, homophobic, sexist. You’ll lose many going there and be on a pretty lonely island.

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          1. I will say that you’re way off on the Martel issue. They were very critical of Jerry and his wife but never Jennifer Martel. You couldn’t be more wrong. Maybe it was another show.

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          2. About 4 months ago, on March 24, 2014:

            On WEEI this morning, the ever-sensitive Gerry Callahan actually had the gall to say that Remy’s previous victims were “culpable” in the death of Jennifer Martel. He insisted that despite a history of the court system letting Jared Remy right back out onto the streets, that they should’ve risked their lives and testified against him.

            To their credit, Kirk Minihane and John Dennis immediately stepped back from this statement. Callahan though, insisted. From his twitter feed, he appears proud of his stand, retweeting someone who said he’d never come across worse than today

            http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com/2014/03/gerry-callahan-previous-remy-victims-are-culpable-in-death-of-jennifer-martel

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          3. Ok. But that’s not blaming Jennifer Martel. Doesn’t make it better, but it’s not blaming Martel as you said. Stupid? Yes. But not sure I would qualify it as “hate”. Stupidity ok Hate. No.

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          4. You could not be any more blatantly incorrect.

            Full Definition of CULPABLE

            1
            archaic : guilty, criminal
            2
            : meriting condemnation or blame especially as wrong or harmful

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          5. Yes, I know they tried to blame someone, but they are not blaming Jennifer Martel. They are trying to blame previous “victims” of Jared Remy, not Jennifer Martel. If you listened at that time, they stated that had previous girlfriend had filed complaints, etc, then Jennifer Martel might still be alive. They never blamed Martel.

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      2. Felger in particular hammered Lalas–and rightly so–for having nothing whatsoever to say. (Felger wasn’t alone, even among Boston media, in doing this.) And it is kind of a no-brainer: if you repeatedly say on the air that you have no words for what you just saw…then you need another job. I agree that Lalas was terrible. And criticizing him on his performance is perfectly fair–in fact, it’s their job.

        All of the radio guys–though I think old fence-sitter Ordway wasn’t so quick with an insult, under any circumstances–but all of them now use ad hominem as a regular feature of their commentary. Beckett still refers obliquely to Felger (and his no-hitter for the Dodgers turned my stomach), who happily branded him the Texas Tough Guy, and had plenty of other nasty words for him. As well as for Rondo, whom he alternately lableled a “puke” and a “punk”. It makes it almost refreshing when these guys restrain themselves to simply professional criticisms.

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    2. There are two things going on here.

      You don’t hear it (from D & C & K).

      Or you do hear it, but you don’t agree with Bruce’s description of it as “hate”, because, F & M do it too. (therefore it isn’t hate?) This part has me confused.

      As your comparison, they have completely different targets and I don’t even put Felger in the hate category. He’s a softie. Mazz is the angry, bitter one. Felger and Mazz never talk about celebrity culture or politics, but D & C & K and their listeners are clearly obsessed with these SuperMarket Tabloid Check-Out Line topics.

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    3. RoadToOctober –

      If you don’t hear the hate every single day for anything that they don’t approve of, then I don’t know what to tell you.

      Obviously you have some connection to them, as looking back through your posts, a good majority of them are spent defending D&C. That’s fine, I’m glad you like them.

      Their entire show is built on anger and hate. That’s just what it is. Hatred of anything that doesn’t fit into their very narrow views of what the world is about or should be. They push the envelope as far as possible on sensitive topics such as race and orientation, and put the emphasis in their enunciation so that you can tell very clearly how they fell about certain things. If Gerry says something in his patented whiny baby voice, you know he absolutely despises it.

      As much as you want to bury an incident that happened 10 years ago, as you repeatedly remind us, I’m sorry, but it did happen, but you’re the one bringing it up, not me.

      What you may be interested in knowing, is that despite all of the above, I listen to D&C a whole lot more than I do to Toucher and Rich. For all their flaws, D&C are much more a legitimate sports talk show, and when they turn to their professional side, are very good. They conduct good interviews, they have knowledge of sports and a sense of history, all which is sorely lacking on T&R, which consists of surface level sports talk mixed with frat-boy shenanigans.

      So if you think I’m constantly critical of D&C, know that it’s because I’m hearing them more, and not because I prefer the antics of the other station. If I’m not listening to T&R, how can I be as critical of what they’re saying on a daily basis?

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      1. I do listen to them more as well. Not sure I see it as defending them, just that when i see what I consider “piling on” on this board, I like to point it out. I don’t see criticizing something as hate. What Minihane said about EA is definitely hate. But legitimately criticizing things, i just don’t see as hate. If you do, then I would say that F&M are much more hateful these days than anyone on the airwaves. They never have a good word to say about anyone or anything. But that all being said, D&C is not for everyone, i agree. And I just prefer them over T&R because they actually talk sports, which is what I want when i listen to a “sports” station. Thanks for responding Bruce.

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      2. Bruce, hard to disagree with your statement. I tend to listen more to T&R (its a hockey thing, remember I’m a hockey guy) and I tuned in when D&C were out a couple of weeks ago, With Minihane with Metor, Bradford and Buckley the show was entertaining, funny, and sports related (Mr Skin aside). WEEI has to cut the cord with D&C. I think Minihane would be better around somebody who can tone him down and reel him in vs. getting his motor going and encouraging his hate. It is almost like they are having him do the dirty work for them and they will just point the finger at him. Having said all that there is no excuse for what he said.

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  2. What is it about Erin Andrews that makes these fucking assholes turn into even bigger fucking assholes? Is she that much more horrific and terrible than every other vapid talking head we encounter while watching sports?

    The absolutely nastiness of this- this idea a woman would be HAPPY to know that she’s being stalked at MULTIPLE HOTELS and photographed in the nude while she’s alone- is incredible. And the CASUAL way it’s thrown out there. OH OF COURSE she was thrilled. OF COURSE! It will HELP HER CAREER! The blatant sexism of that concept alone shows what a fucking cancer this station is. What an unprofessional bunch of jackasses. Congratulations WEEI. I’m talking about you, so I guess you win.

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    1. I think a lot of it goes back to the idea, that some people have, that Andrews was behind the whole stalking case, and that she knew it would be good for her career. Turns out she was right. Not long after she’s on Dancing with the Stars, and now she’s the number 1 sideline reporter for FOX.
      I don’t know if she knew about it or if she really is a victim and this has just worked out well for her in the end, but I do think a LOT of people think she was in on it from the get go. They think she took a PG-13 page out of the Hilton/Kardashian playbook and went for the fame.

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      1. That is about the dumbest observation I have come across in a while. Michael David Barrett, the stalker, got 30 months in prison. So your saying he took that on the chin to help her with her career? Man some people have way too much free time on their hands. Please stop thinking before you hurt yourself.

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        1. Relax jackass I didn’t say the theory was mine I said it was out there. Portnoy has written about it many times. And if you don’t think he has some influence then maybe you should stop thinking because it’s not working out for you.
          Again, I’m not sure what I believe, but when you find out Kris Jenner actually had her daughter and Ray-J do reshoots before the tape was leaked, well you start to wonder what people are capable of.
          There are short cuts to fame now and for some woman that means naked videos. I don’t know if she was in on it and I don’t care, but the original question was about why people don’t like EA and I tried to pass along what I had heard as an explanation. I could care less who’s on the sideline doing reporting because twitter usually tells me the info long before they do.

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      2. Agreeing with T Murphy here. I don’t think a woman welcomes a stalker into her life by thinking, “Wow, think of the PR I’ll get!”

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      3. The idea that she was behind the stalking is absurd. The idea that she used the exposure (no pun intended) as a springboard to celebrity status is not. Just check the timeline of her career and you’ll see that things opened up for her right after the videotaping incident. And she’d been on ESPN for a good 6 years before that happened. Her physical attractiveness had been there. If you watched ESPN, you knew who she was. The video brought her to the masses and mainstream entertainment opportunities followed. Everyone knew that, including Erin Andrews. And that is why a lot of people don’t like her. She isn’t offered Dancing with the Stars without that video being leaked, yet she takes it. She cashed in on being a victim. It’s not a crime, but it’s a turn off to a lot of people.

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        1. From 7/2/2012, via Deadspin.

          Two sources told us that ESPN offered Andrews more money to stay (one said it was a big pay increase; another said it was OK-ish). But the one
          thing ESPN wasn’t giving her: additional responsibility. The network didn’t trust her to host; she had already been passed over for the Monday Night Football sideline job, which went to Lisa Salters. She already blew her chance with Good Morning America.

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  3. Some news:

    @Ourand_SBJ NESN: Leah Hextall is leaving next month to Canada for a “soon to be
    announced opportunity with a Canadian broadcasting partner of NESN.”

    I figured she’d be next in line for NHL Network, given the bloodlines.

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  4. This Adam Jones is a real piece of work.

    He nitpicks, to death, every single move or perceived non-move made by coaches, managers and owners, while simultaneously mocking and tearing down all positive events and occurrences.

    So Johnny Gomes hits a pinch hit HR to take the lead tonight, but we’ve got to mock Gomes’ antics (none of which took place tonight) for a few minutes, complain about JBJ being pinch hit for (it’s too early in the game AND it’s early in the the season) and end the segment by joking about that even if the Red Sox do win tonight, they’re still really not any closer in the playoff race.

    I don’t understand why anyone that is a fan of our local teams would find this enjoyable to listen. Jones sounds as if he’s doing show for business traveler and tourist sports fans that want need to get their Boston hatred fix.

    But hey at least he’s talking about an actual game and not some celebrity BS.

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    1. Yeah, Amendolara played toward adolescents with his video game sounds and his generally happy-face attitude, but I enjoyed him a whole lot more than Jones. Adam Jones could rename his show “The Sourpuss from Six to Ten”. And I’ve listened to one of Mike Adams’ shows, in its relative completeness, in my entire life: randomly, the night of the EEI Christmas party when he locked himself in the studio and demanded a contract. And it was obvious then he was a self-aggrandizer who’s not nearly as funny, and not remotely the nice guy, he tries to portray himself as. For my money, the best evening program in sports radio is still Steve Somers’ Evening Schmooze.

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