Mike Reiss looks like he's ready to kick ass.

signbabybrady said:

Sorry Reiss was great and I'll jump right back on his bandwagon if he leaves ESPN. But IMO anything he says now on this subject is mute to me he should have been at the top of the mountain screaming about the hypocrisy instead he mostly stood to the side of the biggest story since OJ. Solid journalism guy.

Sorry if I feel that was the moment we needed good journalism the most.

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Have you ever worked at a company and you disagreed with their strategy and corporate policy but you kept working there anyway? If so, why did you stay?

robertweathers said:

Have you ever worked at a company and you disagreed with their strategy and corporate policy but you kept working there anyway? If so, why did you stay?

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I will admit I am putting an entire industries deficiencies on one mans shoulders but to compare Journalism to other industries is not the same thing. I think we as a society need a level of integrity from our journalists that we don't necessarily need from our garbage men.

And while I know the whole industry is failing and integrity left sports journalism a long time ago you'll have to forgive me if I still have a level of expectations from them that maybe is to idealistic. Especially a guy like Reiss who seemed to take this aspect of his job more seriously than most prior to his joining ESPN.

Even if my industry is different than journalism I still I don't think I would work for a company very long that I feel is as evil as ESPN.

Oh and I am not just speaking with no background I was Journalism Major in college and one of the reasons I didn't follow through was my disdain for infotainment movement.

signbabybrady said:

Sorry Reiss was great and I'll jump right back on his bandwagon if he leaves ESPN. But IMO anything he says now on this subject is mute to me he should have been at the top of the mountain screaming about the hypocrisy instead he mostly stood to the side of the biggest story since OJ. Solid journalism guy.

Sorry if I feel that was the moment we needed good journalism the most.

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For better or worse, ESPN is the preeminent sports journalism platform. His professional demeanor and solid journalism contrasted favorably to the buffoons who shared that platform and served us well.

signbabybrady said:

I will admit I am putting an entire industries deficiencies on one mans shoulders but to compare Journalism to other industries is not the same thing. I think we as a society need a level of integrity from our journalists that we don't necessarily need from our garbage men.

And while I know the whole industry is failing and integrity left sports journalism a long time ago you'll have to forgive me if I still have a level of expectations from them that maybe is to idealistic. Especially a guy like Reiss who seemed to take this aspect of his job more seriously than most prior to his joining ESPN.

Even if my industry is different than journalism I still I don't think I would work for a company very long that I feel is as evil as ESPN.

Oh and I am not just speaking with no background I was Journalism Major in college and one of the reasons I didn't follow through was my disdain for infotainment movement.

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I hear you @signbabybrady and respect your level of journalism expertise.

For multiple reasons, Reiss is being very careful not to have his professional brand tarnished or manipulated by ESPN. By pure association, that may be happening anyways but based on his reporting he has avoided being sucked into that dark side by his employer. Hes trying to play it down the middle the best he can and let the facts support his assertions. As you know better than I do, his main job is to report on all the goings-on with this team, collect information and report to his readership. He also needs to entertain. Certainly screaming about the hypocrisy would have entertained and been playing to his core readership,but at the same time marginalized him even more than he is now and not even afford him the chance to say that Goodell has screwed himself and screwed up the league (which he has).

If he leaves ESPN, his future employer will know that they are getting a solid journalist (I know you agree with that) not a bumbling idiot like Trollin Volin, a puppet mouthpiece like Mort or a hack contrarian like Shank Shaunessey.

At the end of the day, hes fighting the battle he can fight and ensure his voice can be heard and maining his credibility.

Asking for more is a war he can't win.

Although I have some sympathy with Mike's position, signbabybrady has a point, which has been backed up by my communications with Mike after I e-mailed for him to tell me when I could start enjoying his journalism without having to deal with a devil(BSPN). I will give Mike points for engaging in this conversation, but it implied he saw BSPN quite differently than many of us. There are plenty of options less obnoxious than his present employer that by now would have taken someone with his obvious talents. I understand he may have many reasons not to make such a move, but to say he does not have this as an option does not make sense to me.

For me, I now have to rely on CSNNE and specifically Tom Curran for my patriots news outside of this site. But, I am still waiting to see if I will even watch Pats regular season games on NFLnetwork when that is my only option, so I have perhaps taken the last 9 months a little more personally than I should.

robertweathers said:

I hear you @signbabybrady and respect your level of journalism expertise.

For multiple reasons, Reiss is being very careful not to have his professional brand tarnished or manipulated by ESPN. By pure association, that may be happening anyways but based on his reporting he has avoided being sucked into that dark side by his employer. Hes trying to play it down the middle the best he can and let the facts support his assertions. As you know better than I do, his main job is to report on all the goings-on with this team, collect information and report to his readership. He also needs to entertain. Certainly screaming about the hypocrisy would have entertained and been playing to his core readership,but at the same time marginalized him even more than he is now and not even afford him the chance to say that Goodell has screwed himself and screwed up the league (which he has).

If he leaves ESPN, his future employer will know that they are getting a solid journalist (I know you agree with that) not a bumbling idiot like Trollin Volin, a puppet mouthpiece like Mort or a hack contrarian like Shank Shaunessey.

At the end of the day, hes fighting the battle he can fight and ensure his voice can be heard and maining his credibility.

Asking for more is a war he can't win.

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Thanks RW very thought out response and is in line with my putting to much on the one mans shoulders. He has done an admirable job of trying to stay his course and not piss his bosses off. Problem is those two tasks are so counter to each other they kind of neutered him.

For those defending him I will ask this and I honestly don't know the answer as I don't read him nearly as much as used to. I know I have read some critical comments in his Sunday notes and some things on his TV spots. But did he right any Sally Jenkins like story being critical of the NFL at all? Again not a note here there but a full story?

signbabybrady said:

Sorry Reiss was great and I'll jump right back on his bandwagon if he leaves ESPN. But IMO anything he says now on this subject is mute to me he should have been at the top of the mountain screaming about the hypocrisy instead he mostly stood to the side of the biggest story since OJ. Solid journalism guy.

Sorry if I feel that was the moment we needed good journalism the most.

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If you actually read him, you'd know that your description of him isn't accurate. He's absolutely destroyed the NFL over the past couple of months.

signbabybrady said:

Thanks RW very thought out response and is in line with my putting to much on the one mans shoulders. He has done an admirable job of trying to stay his course and not piss his bosses off. Problem is those two tasks are so counter to each other they kind of neutered him.

For those defending him I will ask this and I honestly don't know the answer as I don't read him nearly as much as used to. I know I have read some critical comments in his Sunday notes and some things on his TV spots. But did he right any Sally Jenkins like story being critical of the NFL at all? Again not a note here there but a full story?

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I would agree on Reiss' position. He is in a spot.

For the record I have stayed at companies that I hated and played the corp guy because I had a family and I have left companies b/c I thought they were going in the wrong direction and did not align with my career. I also pulled a Bill Simmons and started my own company so I'm all over the place.

I have not seen a Sally Jenkins-esque missive from Reiss. With that said, I don't know Reiss's writing depth. Maybe he is capable and it's our of his scope. Don't know. He does have a book coming out on someone. I forget.

As you know, every writer has a different set of skills. I think Reiss is solid.

I have read one of Sally's books (I think it was the Pat Summit one?) and shes an artist.

rochrist said:

If you actually read him, you'd know that your description of him isn't accurate. He's absolutely destroyed the NFL over the past couple of months.

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Again just looking for one full story he wrote on the subject? Not some comments in his mailbag, Sunday notes, or on air but an actual full article on the subject.

signbabybrady said:

Again just looking for one full story he wrote on the subject? Not some comments in his mailbag, Sunday notes, or on air but an actual full article on the subject.

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Sorry, not going to go looking over hundreds of pieces on there for you. You're certainly free to think I'm a liar and your certainly free to avoid reading one of the best writers doing detailed coverage of actual Patriots football.

No skin off my nose.

PatsWickedPissah said:

Unlike Bob Vichy Kraft

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That is harsh. Bob Quisling Kraft is better.

robertweathers said:

Have you ever worked at a company and you disagreed with their strategy and corporate policy but you kept working there anyway? If so, why did you stay?

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I had no rea$on$. (BTW, if one is not independently wealthy, having a job to pay the mortgage is big.)

Personally I'm waiting for the fallout from the following:

The current and fifth defeat in court.
Possible more appeal cases land in court because of the NFL's latest defeat.
The Concussion movie.
ESPN financial situation if a "Pay per channel" option happens.

Anyways it looks like the crap is hitting the fan in the NFL HQ which may be something positive for Mike Reiss down the road.

Contrast Reiss' situation with that of Kraft. Reiss has his entire family's basic cost of living livelihood at risk while Kraft makes self serving decisions that hurt the team on the field (surrendering draft picks) so that he can gain a marginal increase in already huge financial numbers. Reiss is about family & personal career subsistence while Kraft is about adding a few 10s of millions to his several billions.
I'm what folks here would mislabel a conservative but I'm completely in Reiss' camp.