First T.O. Contoversy?

[RayFinkle]

Why would he want Reed's number three, or four, years from now?

and why would a CFL team prevent Hardy from wearing a number a guy on the Bills has?

[The Dean]

and why would a CFL team prevent Hardy from wearing a number a guy on the Bills has?

 

 

I think I know what you are trying to say, but I admit I'm not certain.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

Bills announce Terrell will wear No. 81

 

Will start selling Terrell No. 81 Jerseys on Sunday....

They started selling them on Tuesday.

[Lori]

They started selling them on Tuesday.

You could order one on Tuesday. They'll be on the racks in the Stadium Store starting at 11 a.m. on Sunday, and the store isn't normally open on Sundays out of season.

[Billsinfla]

Who is James Hardy?

[DazedandConfused]

Well Dazed, as someone recently posted about Andre Smith, I suspect that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

I'm not gonna change your mind, nor you mine. But I implore you to read this link with patience and fairness.

 

http://www.slate.com/id/2172695/pagenum/2

 

It's not particularly praiseworthy of the site but I think it's fair enough.

 

Bottom line in my opinion on this (which you criticize) is that he started out as a blogger/rumor monger. He is an admitted provocateur. But he has evolved over time (I've been a reader for years) and despite his constant self-deprecation, a good journalist and one who has broken and maintained momentum on several big stories.

 

Without Florio Michael Vick might still be playing in the NFL and Chris Landry might still have a job.

 

He is independent and not bought and paid for like most reporters these days.

 

When he publishes a rumor he explicity states it as such.

 

And he increasingly has good sources and has a high "batting average" on stories.

 

He publishes a lot of unattractive stories which are not picked up by mainstream media sources. His present coverage of the NFLPA leadership struggle is compelling and nearly singular.

 

He is more than competent, extremely relevant and continues to raise his game.

 

He is well enough respected that he's a regular guest on the Dan Patrick Show and the Jim Rome show.

 

As a student of journalism and someone who worked in television and newspapers, I would choose ProFootballTalk if I had only one resource for the culture of the NFL. As the article states:

 

"Veteran reporters like Peter King and Chris Mortensen have a symbiotic relationship with the NFL and can't afford to jeopardize their positions by publishing stories that will hurt the league."

 

Florio left ESPN after one week because they meddled with the content of his stories. They didn't want him stepping on toes.

 

I think your treatment of him is unfair. He is incredibly committed to his work, he is credible, fair, interesting, and very intelligent.

 

 

I did take the time to read the article and actually went back and looked at the original PFT article on T.O and you are right I felt that both really sort of proved the points I was making:

 

1. Florio does not hold to what seems like a reasonable traditional standard for journalism

 

To me this standard is to quote statements for the two (or more actually as most complex stories really have more than 2 sides and traditional journalism utterly fails the reader as it almost always tries to boil things down to two and only two sides) sides of a dispute.

 

The article makes a flat out contention that Hardy may have been T.O.'s first victim and then fails to quote Hardy feeling victimized, T.O. slamming Hardy (though Florio himself tries to interpret quotes for TO as "translating" into flat statements that he is not gonna pay Hardy but on the face of it this is not what T.O. is maintaining with specific words so Florio has to translate it for us) and fails to quote any third party (like the Bills organization or even other players) about this issue.

 

In fact, it would seem that if Florio merely worked a little harder, he MIGHT actually get into what can actually be a real issue here that the Bills organization seems to have taken Hardy's # away from him and given it to T.O.

 

Who set-up the TO locker and made up a T.O. Bills jersey with #81. Was it Brandon who ordered this? What does this say about how the Bills value and treat any of their players.

 

Florio simply seems to fail to ask the Bills what gives and what are they doing. The quote he does have from T.O. says nothing about any victimization effort by T.O. of Hardy or even how Hardy feels about these actual events, but the quote from T.O. would totally support a story that the Bills are behaving in a high-handed manner to one of their young players.

 

Instead Florio hatches a conclusion to start this article that the reign of idiocy by TO has begun when he actually committed no act in this. He then translates TOs statements into something that support his original incorrect theory and actually misses what may be an interesting piece of interplay here.

 

He then proceeds to go further off into la-la land hinting at a likely future even though his own article shows the base premise not to be true.

 

2. My second point was that Florio is a hack.

 

Actually his reportage on the Vick matter shows what Florio can do when he is covering a real story which has complicate aspects in his area of legal knowledge. He is a hack in that he seems to want to blow up the relative trivia of jersey #s into some galactic case as though it were as big of an issue as Vick/dogfighting.

 

Florio's work on the jersey issue comes off as really incorrectly informed trivia and simply pales next to revealing real facts about real issues in the Vick case. He is a hack because he has covered both and should know the difference and reflect that in his wrtiting.

 

His work on this TO issue comes off more like his earlier ill-informed Bradshaw work than like his good apparently Vick work.

 

The fortunate thing is that the jersey stuff is so trivial compared to printing incorrectly someone is dead that Florio and likely other hyperventilating articles about TO will be ignored to a greater extent.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

First of all Dazed,

 

Thanks for your thoughtful and well-researched reply.

 

As I said in the thread that was taken exception to about Florio being well-respected, I was referring to his whole body of work.

 

In fairness to me I also stated:"But he is a bit of a sh*t disturber."

 

I subsequently mentioned that he is self-deprecating and he often refers to himself as "stoopid" even though he is a fairly young founding partner in a law firm .

 

As you must know by now if you didn't know before, the main feature of the site is the "Daily Rumor Mill." Obviously the Terrell Owens piece falls into this domain. It is understood (except to the ignorant) that much of the material that appears on the site is rumors and speculation, unless he states otherwise.

 

He makes no claims to being a journalist but the depth and breadth of his serious work speaks for itself in the affirmative IMO. He is right a large percentage of the time.

 

He is virtually the only person who pays attention to the inner working of the NFLPA. He writes regularly about the rampant nod and wink nature of tampering in the period prior to free agency (the 49ers were arbitrarily wacked a 5th round pick and a swap of 3rd round picks for tampering with Lance Briggs...when everyone tampers). Ditto for the OTA's which are supposed to be non-contact but aren't. He was the first person I can remember to advocate for a rookie wage scale. I could go on.

 

So this is the context in which he operates. As I said in different words, he's evolving (as hopefully we all are). I've seen a lot of growth in his work. I will not dismiss him or anyone else eternally for past indiscretions, particularly not honest ones.

 

We all should be judged "on balance."

 

Florio brings tons to the table...a unique style of journalism, industriousness (slaving over the site, the law firm, raising kids, tons of public appearances, writing for Sporting News), wit, intelligence...and not least, a willingness to view the world differently than the indistinguishable mass of generic "journalists."

 

I like many of the big name journalists like John Clayton, Peter King, Adam Schefter, etc. They are insiders and have cozy relationships with the teams and leagues that they cover. They don't rock the boat and they are rewarded with scoops.

 

Florio is an outsider, a rebel, and an antagonist. But he is legit. He is rising and deservedly so. I hope you keep an open mind and thanks for your thoughts on this. It's greatly appreciated.

[The Dean]

On this Florio issue, let me just say this:

 

Florio is a rumor monger and a s#it stirrer. But, lately, he has become better about labeling his rumors, as far as I can tell. I think, in the past, it was hard to differentiate what stories were totally unsubstantiated rumor, and what had some merit. (There is a difference between a solid rumor, and something a random poster claims on some fan forum.)

 

On the first night of FA, I used Florio's site (PFT, and Sporting News when PFT was down) as one of three sites I monitored. For many of the moves, Florio was first to report, and was way out front on a few. OTOH, he also reported moves that were fictitious. Later he went and back amended those posts, to properly label them.

 

So, if you have the mental acuity, and intestinal fortitude, to read something regarding the Bills and suspend your belief until you get some better confirmation, then PFT can be a fun read. OTOH, if you are likely to believe any story that is printed, then maybe you should stick to NFL.com, or the Bills' official site.

[Andrew Mills]

Who is James Hardy?

 

seriously?

[4BillsintheBurgh]

Why would he want Reed's number three, or four, years from now?

I guess re-signing him is a possibility, but I'm hoping to retire the no-yac attack sooner rather than later. Around week 6-8 of the 2009 season (when Hardy is activated) would be good.

[The Dean]

I guess re-signing him is a possibility, but I'm hoping to retire the no-yac attack sooner rather than later. Around week 6-8 of the 2009 season (when Hardy is activated) would be good.

 

 

I initially thought you meant they would cut him, before this season.

 

I believe they will re-sign him, to a reasonable contract, as he brings too much to the table, and delivers more than what you can measure on a stat sheet. But, there are are other teams, smart teams, in this league that might offer him more to go elsewhere. Still, if I were a betting man (I'm not), I would put my money on Reed remaining a Bill.

[Lori]

On this Florio issue, let me just say this:

 

Florio is a rumor monger and a s#it stirrer. But, lately, he has become better about labeling his rumors, as far as I can tell. I think, in the past, it was hard to differentiate what stories were totally unsubstantiated rumor, and what had some merit. (There is a difference between a solid rumor, and something a random poster claims on some fan forum.)

 

On the first night of FA, I used Florio's site (PFT, and Sporting News when PFT was down) as one of three sites I monitored. For many of the moves, Florio was first to report, and was way out front on a few. OTOH, he also reported moves that were fictitious. Later he went and back amended those posts, to properly label them.

 

So, if you have the mental acuity, and intestinal fortitude, to read something regarding the Bills and suspend your belief until you get some better confirmation, then PFT can be a fun read. OTOH, if you are likely to believe any story that is printed, then maybe you should stick to NFL.com, or the Bills' official site.

He was also the first one to have Lynch's guilty plea, because the lawyer e-mailed him with it. Everyone else had to scramble to catch up; I'm pretty sure at least one major media outlet found out about the story on a fan message board ...

[Fingon]

I guess re-signing him is a possibility, but I'm hoping to retire the no-yac attack sooner rather than later. Around week 6-8 of the 2009 season (when Hardy is activated) would be good.

Hardy will be ready to go at the beginning of the season. In fact, he will participate in training camp.

[Billsinfla]

seriously?

Guess you didn't get the joke...........