While WEEI colleagues universally pledge their support and best wishes to John Dennis, a few more details have come out, thanks to a Boston Globe piece from media writer Chad Finn.

WEEI empathetic as John Dennis checks into rehab

Phil Zachary, the vice president and market manager for Entercom Boston talked to Finn about the events that led up to Dennis deciding to enter inpatient rehabilitation for alcohol abuse. His comments are interesting.

This has been going on for awhile, as back in February, Dennis first took time off for rehab, initially on an outpatient basis. He then apparently came back to work (feeling insecure because Glenn Ordway was filling in?) and tried to return to the program after only a couple days off.

While Dennis said in the statement and to Steve Buckley yesterday that it was one drink at the Red Sox home opener which made him realize he needed help, he apparently had enough that he called in sick on Tuesday – which turned out to be an inopportune day for that – and that’s when the decision was reached to enter the inpatient side. (Does anyone have a video of Dennis on NESN “gesticulating animatedly” during the game?)

While all statements are such that it is made to look like this was all Dennis’ idea, reading between the lines, it sure appears that he was “encouraged” to take this step.

Zachary refers to Dennis as having a “Hugh Hefner type of party animal” type of persona, which combined with Kirk Minihane’s statements yesterday that Dennis was straight out of Mad Men, really give you a picture of the lifestyle the 63-year-old Dennis leads.

***

Celtics in six!

That was Mike Gorman’s prediction on CSNNE’s Celtics Preview show last night.

A local media person making an upset pick for the home team? Awesome.

Of course, minutes after this prediction, CSNNE went to Sports Tonight hosted by Mike Felger and Greg Dickerson, who proceeded to laugh at the idea of the Celtics even being competitive against the Cavaliers.

Maybe if Lebron, Irving, Love and JR Smith GOT HIT BY A BUS, the Celtics MIGHT be able to take Cleveland to seven games HAHAHAHAHA!

Click.

Some are still clinging to the notion that making the playoffs is a terrible thing for the Celtics. (Hello, Chris Gasper!) I just don’t get that thinking. At all. The difference between drafting 16th and 10th in this draft isn’t going to make or break the Celtics future.

The team has plenty of assets and cap room going forward, and a rising star for a coach. Why not get this coach, as well as players like Marcus Smart a chance to face the best in the league in a postseason series? There is no downside to this.

For Isaiah Thomas, long road to success ended in Boston – Adam Himmelsbach has a feature on the Celtics guard, whose basketball journey is well worth the read.

Bruins make Chiarelli the fall guy – Joe McDonald says that the fired GM deserved better.

It’s not about the ace; Red Sox require competence more than anything from rotation – Tim Britton looks at the Sox just needing their starters to be average.

How one of Red Sox’ most important pitchers has rediscovered his most important pitch – Rob Bradford has Joe Kelly getting his slider back.

No Offseason – Super Bowl hero Malcolm Butler is the latest player to chime in on the Players’ Tribune, and he wants to be remembered for more than just that one play.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

48 thoughts on “WEEI Boss: John Dennis a “Hugh Hefner type of party animal””

    1. You ask a really good question. I hope he keeps up the drum beat for the death penalty in spite of the Richards family’s position.

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      1. Callahan and Minehan discussed this at great length this a.m. We hear from the Richard family in the Globe but what about the other families of those who were killed or who were maimed? Does their opinion matter less or does the Richard family opinion matter because it fits the Globe’s agenda? There was no “counter point”, just the Richard family opinion.

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        2. They also clarified or reiterated that the Richards are for Life Imprisonment only if he agrees to drop all appeals. If he wants to appeal then they have no problem putting him to death.

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  2. How is Zachary able to publicly comment on such a sensitive, human resource issue about one of his employees? Also, ironic that LB is on the radio thumping his chest about how he cracked a Bud Light at 4:00 AM this morning before work watching hockey highlights. It may have been only one beer, but it still does not portray well on a company that seems to employ two of the biggest drunks around in Byers and Dennis.

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    1. Orlando:

      When you first asked this question I agreed with you. It does seem wrong. But I woke up this morning with the point of view that Dennis probably told everyone that they are free to discuss his issues. It is why he gave the direct statement to the Herald and why he gave the story to Buckley. I think he realizes that trying to keep this all quiet is not going to work so he should allow his “friends” to spin this in the best possible light.

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  3. I’m sincerely glad that John Dennis is getting the help he needs, but I for one never bought the “one drink epiphany” that the early stories put out there.

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  6. sorry, I can’t take the “high road” when it comes to Dennis… If somebody from 98.5 had to go in for rehab ( or ANYBODY in the public eye for that matter) John Dennis and company would be mocking them endlessly… so for those of you inclined to mock Dennis over this matter I say, mock away!

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    2. I’m struck by the adolescence of someone at age 63 who says that they need to ‘grow up.’ And, NO…he doesn’t get any points for whining, “Well, at least I ADMITTED it!” That kind of rationalization is even MORE adolescent.

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    3. Look, I’ll get the obligatory ‘I hope he gets better’ out of the way. I sincerely hope he is able to spend the rest of his life sober.
      That said, if you read his twitter feed, and the way he mocks his followers endlessly… any crap he gets from people, will have some justification. Not all of it, but some of it.
      He has been on such a high horse, for so long, that the fall has to be painful.
      But hey… good luck, Dino!

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  7. Bruce:

    You make an extremely astute observation. For the life of me I could not figure out why WEEI would bring Ordway in to sub for Dennis. Perhaps it was a warning that he was replaceable if he can’t get things under control. I find it equally interesting that this week they are trying Gary Tanguay in that role. I wonder if Andy Gresh does a spin in the chair before this is all said and done.

    WEEI had looked like it was moving towards stability. I guess all was not calm behind the glass veneer. If they really are auditioning new guys for the morning show, I wonder if they are not as confident Dennis will return permanently and if his rehab is going to take more than a month.

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    1. It’s a little off subject but I would like to see a morning show of Denis, Gresh and little Curt . They will be pissing at each within hours. Great radio

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    2. Good point on that one. I think the comment Finn made over on SoSH about “Tanguay, unless Ordway breaks in” plays right into that theory.

      Maybe it was so bad where it was the dirty secret, just everyone kept their mouths shut. Kinda odd considering that media gossip spreads like wildfire. Also, while JD might not be the most “friendly” on-air, he knew to not piss coworkers off since the second you do that, your dirty laundry will be aired somewhere else. When people commented on it, I never heard otherwise.

      (Kinda contrasts the McHenry/ESPN stuff. Many personalities can be and are absolute a**holes.)

      As for the return, I have to think that unless he says he needs a year off, how could they not let him return? Part legal and part him being a fixture of the morning show. I get that in this business, you can’t take too much time off, since people will flip the dial and be done (Brian Williams).

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    3. I think it’s typical from that outlet. Instead of looking for a fresh voice they’re reaching into the past with old names. They deserve their second class status.

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    1. He wussed out under intense peer pressure from the host with the highest ratings in the market.

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  10. I wish Dennis luck. He’s not my cup of tea in general (by which I mean to say I don’t listen to his show or read his Twitter), but that doesn’t mean I can’t hope for the best for him anyway.

    As for the Celtics — It’s hard to lose when everyone else is determined to suck more than you. I can see the argument where they shouldn’t have traded for Thomas, but they already failed at getting to the bottom of the barrel last year, and I think we can rely on Brooklyn’s picks to be fairly useful. So I’ll just enjoy the show for the next 4-6 games.

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  11. I disagree with Bruce about Gasper’s hot take. Personally I have no problem with the Celts not being lottery bound again. However there is a logical argument to be made about the difference of six spots on the draft.

    The hot take about this topic that has no rational basis is that of Adam Kaufman, host of Celtics at Seven, on 98.5. For weeks made the case of value in making the playoffs and was dead set against wanting to see the Celts be lottery bound. Than we found out that they would play the Cavs and he suddenly switched to the other side of the debate.

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    1. They’ve got the draft pick ammo to move up if they want. They have several first rounder’s due to them over the next few drafts, including a protected first rounder from Dallas, two unprotected first rounder’s from the Nets, a possible first from Minnesota down the road (depends on how things shake out on the other end of that trade, which was Denver/Minnesota — it’s complicated), not to mention the first rounder due to them from the Clippers this year from the Doc Rivers deal. They’ve also got a curiously large number of second rounder’s due to them, which always could be thrown in as “deal sweeteners.” I think making the playoffs, even if they go out in four straight, and picking 15th or 16th overall this year was probably better for the franchise’s long-term prospects than going back into the lottery. Being in the playoffs gets them seen on national TV a couple of times, and also signals any would-be free agent targets that the C’s are a rising young team with a very good young coach and are, therefore, a potentially attractive FA landing spot. (Of course, they have to overcome the “Boston is cold in the winter and the club scene in LA/NY/Miami is better” factor — those seem to be the most important factors for a number of free agents these days, unfortunately.)

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  12. Would have been a good day yesterday to get those Deflategate findings out, no?

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    1. So the NFL is releasing the schedule tomorrow. Next week is the draft. Is there a chance the NFL will sandwich the release of this report between the schedule party and the draft party? We could be looking at a May release date for this stupid thing.

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      1. And what about the tampering? I guess they are going to award the Patriots an extra pick via the Jets on the eve of the draft?

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        1. No kidding right. Maybe Goodell could use time he allocated for daily meetings with the media on resolving these issues.

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  13. C/M/T was, uhhhh, something this morning. Tanguay’s employment as a member of the media in the town is baffling.

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    1. Tanguay could not think fast enough on his feet to discuss politics with the other two. When it comes to sports…he is just MEH. Together it was deadly. Bring back the Big O.

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  15. I think some enterprising young chap (not me I am too old) could have a very successful website that tracks and tries to make sense of the things that Gary Tanguay has said in the last hour on WEEI. Start with when he called Minihane soft (the guy ran the freakin’ marathon yesterday) and go from there. How long will it take the suits at WEEI to figure out what took 4 years for the suits at 98.5 to realize…Tanguay is death on the stick (its old wrestling industry lingo…kayfabe and all).

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      1. Heenan was good but you are right not that good. Heenan might have even been better than the Grand Wizard. ahh the good old days…when good was good, bad was bad and wrestling was fake ya goof!

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        1. Classy Freddy Blassie was the best. If you don’t think so, you’re just a pencil-necked geek 🙂

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          1. In my office is a picture of me with Fred Blassie…I was 11 years old. My father at the time worked for Hasbro and he took me to the NY licensing Show. At the WWF booth (that tells you how long ago it was) Fred Blassie and George “the Animal” Steel were signing autographs. I was hooked for life. I do admit to being afraid that the Animal was going to eat my pen but he was really nice and signed the autograph. That picture of me and Fred Blassie sits next to my picture of me with Jim Helwig…no warrior make up, and the one of me standing next to Billy Jack Haynes…god he was a big guy.

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  16. Calling Dennis a “Hugh Heffner” type is just a nicer way to say that he’s an old immature pig.

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  17. MFB played a clip today from CSNNE of Merloni absolutely crushing Felger about his anti-Ortiz crusade that has been going on for 10 years now. It was a great listen and I wish Mazz would grow a set like Lou has to challenge that trust fund carpetbagga. 🙂
    Too bad he didn’t take job 6 years agobut then yet if this was how he was going to be with Mr.Baseball then he wouldn’t have lasted. Felger would’ve had him fired like he had Thornton from CSNNE and Gresh.
    Let’s see how many more gigs Lou gets on CSNNE now after having the nerve to challenge the smug king of Boston sports talk.

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  18. For the NFL mediots that flip-flop between asking the question, “Has the NFL reached the saturation point?” and “Isn’t great that the NFL keeps spreading things out and keeping people interested?”, note that the the MLB regular season and the NBA and NHL postseasons are in full-swing, but two of the top-ten Twitter trends this evening are simply about the NFL regular season schedule being ANNOUNCED. “#Thanksgiving” and “#NFLSchedule”

    My god…

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    1. Update: The schedule has been released to the public and now five of the top ten Twitter trends in the USA are NFL related. No, I don’t think the NFL has a saturation “problem”. I think the American public has an NFL addiction problem. LOL

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