Rev News, 9/10 (R):

honestly some of the players on this team could have used the pressure of having to fight for their spot on the starting 11. Honestly during yesterdays game, some of them looked like the had the same attitude as the front office......the Hands off approach!

 

There is that vague reference again. That ONE-all-the-eggs-in-one-basket player??

Nicol is disappointed.

Is that because they are trying to find someone too "big" for MLS and are thus constantly barking up the wrong tree?

Is that because they keep lowballing a certain player?

This also tell me that the Dusan rumors were a complete reaction move and not some well-calculated scouting plan.

Is Nicol starting to prepare everyone that the team is going to struggle the rest of the way?

Very, very interesting.

 

Characteristically bland disinterested effort by FDA.
Some stock questions for the interested reporter:

- Who was it that the Revs were looking/waiting for? Canavaro?
- Do you think you might have a shot at them next year?
- Who else did you look at?
- Who in the organization is in charge of player scouting - outside of the US college system?
- Do you think your team's lack of depth might be leading to overall team fatigue (as shown in the last two DC goals)?
- What will be the effect of having to open roster spots if there is an Expansion Draft (i.e., having a shorter bench than most teams, will you be forced to expose someone closer to the team's "core unit")?
- What becomes of money not used under the MLS cap?
- Who would be your choice for MLS Newcomer of the Year? (okay, this one's a needler).
Etc., etc., etc...

 

FDA has probably asked most of those questions (and many more). If the coach gives a non-answer for things he doesn't want to go into, what should the reporter do? Report some useless dribble? Knowing the Revs and Nicol, do you really think he's going to reveal much in response to those questions?

Its not really fair to suggest that the reporter is not doing his job, if the team is tight-lipped about this stuff (as they should be, IMO).

Uniformed, baseless speculation. Nicol has explained the situation plenty of times. Some people just continually reject that out-of-hand and look for more insidious explanation.

 

I have to disagree.

Last year when the NE Patriots - winner of three Super Bowls in the previous six years - let Deon Branch slip away, many local reporters openly questioned the move. There is not a more respected, imposing, tight-lipped organization in the NFL than the Patriots. But many reporters (rightly) felt it within their responsibility to discuss the 800 lb gorilla in the room - even when the head coach just scowled and said "What gorilla, I don't see a gorilla...".

Simply not talking about an obvious issue is not good journalism.

 

I agree with your disagreement. I know there has been plenty of article questioning some of the Bruins decisions and moves - tough questions asked - whether you get the answer you want is debatable, but at least the organization knows they dont get a free pass and that people are paying attention.

I think this is what someone posted elsewhere - these guys are the soccer guys with a cushy scene, so they don't want to rock the boat too much.

 

The difference being that most people reading the sports pages care about the Patriots. If Deion Branch isn't there and the Pats are playing themselves out of a first-round bye, that's going to piss off hundreds of thousands of fans. If the Revs sit on Dempsey's transfer money, decline to fill roster spots and leave themselves susceptible as the playoffs approach, how many people really care?

As I've said before here, it's naive to expect the mainstream media to increase scrutiny of this team. After all, how many discouraging words were spoken about Tom O'Brien in the Globe/Herald/TV news world? The BC message boards were surely seething at the guy after the Eagles wasted another chance to go to the ACC title game, yet most media outlets didn't ask a lot of probing questions about why the program can't take the next step. BC football pulls nearly three times as many fans as the Revs; if the former isn't getting taken to task in the press, the latter surely isn't going to be.

When I covered the Revs, I a) called for Clavijo's dismissal, b) took the front office to task for selling the home game to Alajuelense and c) ripped the team for half-assing it in the Open Cup (by pulling Joseph and Twellman at halftime of a tie game). I didn't get one piece of reader feedback -- positive or negative -- from my audience, at a newspaper with a daily circulation of about 50,000. That should tell you something about the market for Revs news. There's a dedicated core of fervent supporters, but it's not nearly large enough to devote coverage directly to their interests. That's what this site's for, that's what Soccer New England's for. And in a similar vein, that's what the BC message boards, BU hockey blogs, Cannons fan sites, etc., are for.

BTW, I'm not saying that reporters shouldn't ask harder questions. And I'd like to think that, in the blog era, there'd be a young, soccer-savvy reporter or two out there at a small paper who can establish himself as a bit of a muckraker and be able to do some longer, more analytical pieces online, if not in print.

 

Fan apathy really isn't (I think) a justification for writing watered-down, disinterested columns. Really, what's the point?