DIFFERENT IS OK, EXTREME SUCKS BIG TIME !

BY KEVIN HARRIMAN

Boston Sports Desk Publisher

I have been preaching, pontificating, call it what you want, for more than two years now about how journalism is changing for ever, right in front of us.

The viewing public, in my opinion, no longer wants to read long, flowery game stories or features. The idea of having to read more than five or six paragraphs to get to the heart of the story is offensive. A well-written, articulately crafted story that takes a reader through an event or situation is boring.

Tweet it ! Blog it ! Hell, Boston Sports Desk (BSD) was started because we believed that there was an opportunity to provide information to an audience through social media using our background as former sports reporters. Give the audience what they want. Seems like a great idea. And hey, if along the way, you attract a following that hits your website 60 or 70,000 times a day……you can make yourself a decent living.

I’m all for it !

Even BSD will soon be switching from a blog site to a website. It’s just how things progress. We’ve been very lucky that our followers have continued to support us, our style (a little of this and a little of that) and our sports and music content. I’m all for change and creativity.

With that said, let me tell you, we will NEVER…allow an article or photo to be published for the sake of drawing publicity and traffic to BSD at the expense of others.

A little more than a week ago, the blogging world was turned upside down by David Portnoy, President of Bar Stool Sports, a local blog site that prides itself on being edgy, controversial and sexy. All are great things to bring to your viewers who have grown accustomed to nude pics, rate that ass and a different slant on stories both locally and national. The word ” SPORTS ” in the company name is a little odd given the lack of actual sports on the site, but hey….lots of great looking women…..I guess looking at very pretty young women could be considered a sport.

But that was not enough for Portnoy.  He needed to push the envelope over the cliff and into a fiery crash !

As I’m sure most Boston sports fans are aware, Bar Stool Sports published a photo of Tom Brady’s 2-year old son, fully naked on a beach. Add to that some gasoline in the form of an inappropriate photo caption describing the child and you’ve got yourself a shit storm.

I hadn’t given the situation a second thought since last week. But all of that came to end early this week when reading the” Inside Track ” in the Boston Herald, I find a quote from Portnoy saying that he did it for the publicity.

Publicity ! Publicity and the almighty dollar perhaps ? Probably, but I don’t want to put words in Portnoy’s mouth. Those words may get infected from fecal matter residing in that particular orifice.

He sure got his publicity. WEEI (850) spent hours on the subject over the course of four days. Portnoy had been a regular guest on the Dennis and Callahan Show. But that came to a crashing halt on Friday morning when station Vice President of Programming for WEEI, Jason Wolfe, tweeted: “No we will not have Portnoy on again. What he did was completely irresponsible. It’s not about whether he was allowed to do it or not. It’s about common decency. And he showed none.”

Portnoy was anything but apologetic following Wolfe’s tweet posting: “As I’ve already said a million times I’m honestly shocked this got blown so far out of proportion. To me anybody with a normally functioning brain should have looked at this blog, hopefully laughed, and moved on.”

“I feel like it’s disingenuous of me to take them down because of what a bunch of loony bins are saying,” he said on his website.

I think Portnoy is extremely disingenuous in his remarks !

BSD had an opportunity to speak with Attorney General Martha Coakley this past week at an event in Brockton. Coakley was the invited guest of honor, rolling out a new initiative and speaking on the growing foreclosure crisis and its effects on neighborhoods.

But the first question out of the mouths of reporters at the end of the press conference centered on the Portnoy shit storm. Not on how local neighborhoods need to tackle serious issues, but rather a stupid, insensitive, offensive and over the top action by Bar Stool Sports. The public in general was out-raged and rightly so.

Coakley went on to tell the media how her office had contacted Portnoy by sending the State Police to his house. She went on to say how the matter was resolved when the State Police asked El-Prez to remove the picture.

I guess those “loony bin” State Police changed his mind. The pictures of the 2-year old were removed fromt the website.

Sure, social media is changing journalism and information sharing. We can all agree with that. But getting publicity at the expense of others just sucks !

Shame on Bar Stool Sports for going over the cliff with this one. Smarten up guys !

You’ve got a good thing going with traffic that other sites would kill for. You have a solid following and you don’t need to take the site into the toilet.

It’s pretty bad when Howard Stern chastises you publicly for posting the picture

Just saying……..

COAKLEY GETS NUDE PHOTO REMOVED FROM WEBSITE

Atty General Martha Coackley talks about Bar Stool Sports issues

Attorney General Martha Coakley announced just minutes ago that her office has met with Bar Stool Sports President David Portnoy concerning a nude photo of Tom Brady’s 2-year old son and its caption that was posted on his site last week.

“We met with Mr. Portnoy and asked that he take down the photos,” said Coakley in Brockton this afternoon. “We believe that the matter is closed at this point.”  Portnoy has complied and has removed the photo from the Bar Stool Sports site.

According to Coakley, at issue was whether or not the intent of the photo had any sexual overtones and she believed that they did not.

When asked about if she thought it was a good idea to post the photo and its caption in the first place,  Coakley did not comment but gave a look to reporters that was anything but happy.

This is not the first time that Portnoy has targeted the Brady family. Earlier this year, his website posted pictures of Brady’s wife changing clothing in the middle of a photo shoot. The pictures were of Gisele Bunchen in various stages of undress.

 

 

BLAINE GABBERT PRESS CONFERENCE

 

Q: What were your thoughts out there tonight?  

BG: There were definitely things we need to improve on but all in all, when I was out there I thought we accomplished some things, but we just need to capitalize on opportunities, especially when we are in the red zone. We have to come out with touchdowns instead of field goals.  

Q: How do you think you did personally?  

BG: There’s both positives and negatives. We’ll watch the film and get a better knowledge of the whole situation. I thought I made some plays, but took a few too many sacks. We just need to throw the ball away sometimes.  

Q: There are a lot of quarterbacks, even seasoned quarterbacks that are somewhat intimidated by the ‘Patriots legend.’ What were your feelings coming in?  

BG: I was just excited to have the opportunity to play football. I wasn’t really intimidated by the stadium or the legend. I just looked at it as a chance to go out there and take a few snaps in a live situation. We are looking at this as more as a practice. We’ve been in training camp 11 days and we haven’t had any rookie mini-camps or OTAs, so a lot of guys are still getting their feet wet, including myself. It was just a good opportunity to get some plays in and get some throws with the live rush and have some fun.  

Q: What did you learn about yourself, your development?  

BG: There’s definitely room for improvement. I’ve been here 11 days, so we’re kind of in a crash course in learning the offense. But while I was out there, we didn’t have any mental errors. We got all of our plays in on time. We didn’t have to use any unnecessary timeouts. We had no delay of games. Like I said we have to capitalize on our opportunities. We were in the red zone numerous times. I took a sack on one. We just need to come away with touchdowns. You aren’t going to win a game with field goals.  

Q: What are the things you feel you can do better on?  

BG: We’ve got to convert third downs. I know I missed a throw on third and short. That just comes with experience, getting with your receivers more than 11 days. We’ll be fine. We made some plays out there. Our receivers did a great job. Our O-Line did a great job. We’ve just got to build on this when we play next week.  

Q: Coach said he played a lot of the backfield. When you get defeated with that score, what do you think about that?  

BG: It’s preseason, but personally I don’t like getting beat by that many points. But like I said, we were subbing in a lot of guys. A lot of guys were getting reps, so you’ve just got to take it with a grain of salt. We’ve had some positive things out of this game, but I guess when we watch film there’s definitely things we need to correct.  

Q: Do you feel like you had poise?  

BG: I thought so. I didn’t really get rattled. I’ve been playing football since a young age. I just go out there and do what you do. You can’t really get intimidated by the situation, by it being your first NFL game, first NFL start. It is what it is. At the end of the day you’ve just got to go out there, play football and trust your instincts and make throws.  

Q: Have you always been like this since high school, not getting rattled in situations?  

BG: That’s how you’ve got to be. A quarterback especially has to be calm, cool, collected to lead the offense. There’s going to be ups and downs in any game, in any season. You’ve just got to learn from them. You can’t worry about the last play, even if it is an interception or a turn over. You have to move on. One play does not determine a game. That’s my mindset.  

Q: But a lot of young guys have trouble with that, you don’t seem to.  

BG: A lot of young quarterbacks, quarterbacks in general have the same mindset as me. In the position we play, we can’t worry about things that happen last drive, last series. It’s just one of those things you need to learn from and move on.  

Q: You were out pretty early for warm-ups before the game. Were you anxious? Any anticipation or excitement?  

BG: I was just going through my regular warm-up routine. I went out there and threw the ball, ran a little bit, got my legs warm. Then I got dressed and played football. Who wouldn’t be excited to play in their first NFL game? I was extremely excited. Butterflies are natural. If you’re not nervous before something, it’s not worth doing it. That’s my mindset about things. Everybody is nervous before a football game, especially an NFL game because it means so much to us. All those butterflies go away right after that first hit, that first snap.  

Q: Is part of you just a little disappointed that you didn’t get to see Tom Brady play?  

BG: I mean Tom is a great quarterback, but I was worried more about how I was playing.  

Q: What do you think about observing Ryan [Mallett] being in the same situation?  

BG: Ryan did a great job, him being in the same situation as myself. He did a really good job executing the offense.  

Q: Are you eager to move on from here?  

BG: Yeah. I’ll watch film. I got the first one under my belt. I’ll get better from here, and then we play next week at

PATRIOTS NOTES

The following are game notes from the New England Patriots Preseason game vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars at Gillette Stadium on Thursday, August 11, 2011.

• The Patriots opened the preseason with a 47-12 victory. The 47 points against the Jaguars are the most points they have ever scored in a preseason contest. The previous best was a 45-7 win vs. Washington on Sept. 4, 1977.

• The last time the Patriots scored 40 or more points in a preseason game was a 41-0 win on August 26, 2006 vs. Washington.

• QB Brian Hoyer started the game and played the entire first half before being relieved by third-round pick QB Ryan Mallett to start the second half. Hoyer completed 15-of-21 passes for 171 yards with one touchdown for a quarterback rating of 111.4. Hoyer completed an 11-yard touchdown pass to WR Taylor Price and a 43-yard completion to WR Mathew Slater in the second quarter. Hoyer has never started a regular-season game but made his second career preseason start tonight. He started the preseason finale as a rookie on August 3, 2009 vs. the New York Giants. He completed 18-of-24 passes for 242 yards and a touchdown against the Giants.

• Six of the nine Patriots 2011 draft picks made their NFL debut tonight, including two that were in the starting lineup. First-round pick T Nate Solder started at left tackle and fifth-round pick TE Lee Smith both started on offense. Last season, four draft picks were in the starting lineup in the first preseason game. First-round pick CB Devin McCourty and second-round pick LB Brandon Spikes started against the Saints on defense, while second-round pick TE Rob Gronkowski and fourth-round pick TE Aaron Hernandez started on offense.

• 2010 third-round pick RB Stevan Ridley had three touchdowns on the night with two rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown. He scored on 1-yard touchdown runs in the first and third quarter and then added a 16-yard touchdown reception from QB Ryan Mallett in the third quarter. Ridley finished the game with a 16 rushes for 64 yards and also caught seven passes for 47 yards.

• Ridley’s multiple touchdown game marks the second consecutive season that the team had a rookie record multiple touchdowns in a preseason game. TE Rob Gronkowski had two touchdown receptions in a preseason game vs. St. Louis (8/26/10) last season.

• Ridley’s three touchdowns are the most for a rookie in a single preseason game since 2006 when RB Patrick Cobbs had four touchdowns (3 rushing and 1 receiving).

• PK Steven Gostkowski made a successful return to the field after being limited to just eight games last season due to a thigh injury. He kicked five extra points and two field goals with a 46 and 43-yard field goal in the second quarter.  Rookie K Chris Koepplin handled kickoffs.

• 2010 third-round pick WR Taylor Price scored on an 11-yard touchdown pass from QB Brian Hoyer in the second quarter. Price turned a short completion from QB Ryan Mallett into a 50-yard perception early in the third quarter. He finished the game with a team-high 105 receiving yards on five receptions.

• Third-Round pick QB Ryan Mallett entered the game in the second half. His first NFL completion was a 3-yard pass to rookie RB Stevan Ridley. Mallett led the Patriots on a 13-play, 82-yard drive that was culminated with a 1-yard touchdown run by Ridley on his first series. The highlight of that drive was a short completion to WR Taylor Price that turned into a 50-yard reception. Mallett finished the game 12-of-19 for 164 yards and one touchdown, a 16-yard scoring pass to RB Stevan Ridley.

• LB Dane Fletcher had two tackles behind the scrimmage in the first half. He tackled Jacksonville RB Rashad Jennings for a six-yard loss in the first quarter and then tackled RB Montell Owens for no gain on a run in the second quarter.

• WR Mathew Slater, who has played mostly on special teams during his three seasons in New England and has no regular-season receptions, caught a 43-yard reception from QB Brian Hoyer in the second quarter to help set up a field goal.

• First-year WR Buddy Farnham played both wide receiver and safety and intercepted a QB Todd Bouman in the fourth quarter. On offense, he caught three passes for 34 yards. Last season in the preseason-finale vs. the New York Giants (9/2/10), he played both ways and broke up a Giants pass in the end zone in the third quarter.

• RB Richard Medlin, a rookie free agent from Fayetteville, scored two touchdowns with two 2-yard touchdown runs in the fourth quarter.