Just so the story is straight on the Ring Man of the Match issue... First off absolutely no one for from the Fire front office authorized the changing of the final vote from Henry Ring to Andy Williams. It was changed by the producer of the Fire site here at Tribesoft. Basically the producer of the site noticed over the holiday weekend that Henry Ring was voted in as Man of the Match. He honest first thought was that some New England fans were cracking wise and rubbing salt in the wounds after our boys lost the match. Because the Fire front office was on break he made a judgment call and decided to over run the winner of the poll (Henry Ring) and go with the next winning player who was actually in the game which happened to be Andy Williams. In no way was he being malicious, he was just earnestly acting in what he thought was the team's best interest and trying to save face for the team. A team I might add that he religiously supports and puts in numerous hours of his own time into in working on in an attempt at keeping the site the best it could be. I was aware he made this call and actually thought it was a good one and supported it ,in fact I thought it was such a non issue we did not even tell the Fire front office we did it. Once again he was just acting in the best interest of the team, by that I mean what if someone from the press or a new fan stopped by the site and had seen that and maybe relayed the results of the poll to someone else or worse run it as a press blurb...yikes. Anyway, I was personally clueless as to what was brewing on the Fire boards. Yes I often try and drop in and check pulse with all of you but with the birth of my daughter recently my extra browsing time has been some what limited as I hope most of you can understand. Had I know what was going on I may have been able to solve the riddle sooner. Don't believe me ask Coz I ran into him with my wife and daughter at the last Fire match and we had a brief conversation and the topic never come up. Ask Liam who dropped me an email last week about a banner he was putting together for section 8 at the new Solider Field. I honestly did not know it was an issue. FairWeatherFan you sent an email to webmaster@chciago-fire.com and unfortunately right now that email does not forward to me because of the way the league administrates mailboxes, so I did not get message. We are working with the league to rectify this situation. The issue was brought to my attention yesterday when I received an email from Mr. Wilt inquiring (nay demanding) to know what happened. He actually went to bat for those of you that voted Ring and adamantly stated that he felt it should have never been changed. In short he admonished the producer (rightfully so) for changing the poll. The producer who made the call feels real bad about the issue and asked me to post this to clear the air. It is a real shame that he feels this way because this guy basically gives his all to keep the site fresh and up to date for you fans. In fact, it is the same guy who does stuff like freely volunteering his own time to design the Nowak tribute poster and who begged a printer to do get it printed on the cheap for Marcin. Same guy who stays late after every game to video the post game interviews and get a game tape to digitize highlight games after a home match or makes sure to video tape away games to do the same. Any way I do hope that clears the air and I repeat absolutely no one for from the Fire front office authorized the changing of the final vote from Henry Ring to Andy Williams. Sorry for upsetting any of you and that this thing got so far along before I could respond.
Long live Tony Passero! OK, I don't know if this is the mystery man, but it doesn't really matter. People seemed pissed mostly becuase our Fire sucked and took out their frustrations on you guys. I wouldn't worry about it. Your story is more than enough of an excuse/reason and if anyone still has a complaint, that doesn't mean they have a valid complaint. Either way, thanks for the heads up.
Tony, Thanks much for the clarification. I guess all I can say about your guy's justification is that if we, as fans, had allowed a bunch of trolls (in this case Rev's supporters) to take over our poll, then that would have been our fault/problem. I wouldn't have had any problem with external media picking up on Ring as MOTM, if they had chosen to do so. It was, pure and simple, a reaction of the fans to the poor play of the team on a particular day. If it sent the team a message - fine and dandy (although I suspect it was a message that they had already received from other quarters). I can empathize with your guy's attempts to save the team from embarrassment, but they already negated that on the field in Foxboro. Again, many thanks for the (delayed) response and see what can be done about the email; I've tried sending you stuff several times and it either bounced or was never acknowledged so I've quit trying. (Maybe that's the plan? ) bgb
I am weeping openly with laughter. This entire organization is the finest group of individuals. Many thanks to Tony and Peter for clearing up RinGate 2003.
Hey, I know it's late now-- and possibly too late to weigh in on the "Ring Gate" situation, but first I would just like to say a big "thank you" to the person/persons who dedicate extra time to making the Fire website what it is. Chitown/ Tony Passero... whoever you are, thank you. I knew all along that PW was not involved in this "scandal for the ages," and now it becomes very hi-larious to me to hear that he demanded answers on behalf of the upset fans. One more example of why we have the greatest head man in professional sports today. I would like to apologize for my attitude toward this incident. I mistakenly believed that some mid-level manager type had ordered the results changed out of spite for unruly and rightfully upset Fire fans. Now I see that the website persons were only trying to do their best to save face (not knowing the true driving force and ultimate reason for the Henry Ring votes). If anything, I'm glad that we have guys who are quick to try to stick it to NE fans and defend the pride of Fire fans. In this case, things got confused, but I'm glad to know that the motivation was more towards stopping marauding Revs fans rather than sparking a bitter battle between our own fans. To whoever would have received my email: the email to the Fire webmaster was neither threatening nor angry... I was really asking for an explanation of what happened... so thank you for this explanation and thank you for your dedication to the common cause of supporting the Fire. I'm ready to move on from this issue and I hope everyone else will as well.