Where's Bruce?

“The idea that you have to be protected from any kind of uncomfortable emotion is what I absolutely do not subscribe to.” ― John Cleese

“Those who are determined to be ‘offended’ will discover a provocation somewhere. We cannot possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics, and it is degrading to make the attempt.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“...These politically correct language initiatives are misguided and harmful. They create highly entitled professional “victims” who expect to be free from any offense, and they engender a stifling atmosphere where all individuals walk on eggshells lest they might commit a linguistic capital crime.”
― Gad Saad

 

This thread seems redundant. Why does it exist?

 

Why are we up to the following:

"Revolution Stadium Groundbreaking "12-24 months" Part XVII"

???

Threads that are not nurtured with real, concrete information, grow like weeds apparently.

 

I would hesitate to put this in that category without anything to indicate how serious this incident(s) was.

While I share that basic sentiment that people need to be able to deal with stuff that may be difficult to hear/handle, there is no doubt that there has been way too much tolerance and acceptance of things like bullying, hazing, intimidation, abuse, etc.

I often find myself thinking, I put up with that kind of crap, so why shouldn't these folks be able to do the same - and then I check myself. Cruelty and abuse is not motivation - it is resorting to fear and humiliation, which are toxic, whether they succeed in the short-term or not.

Let's not minimize this when we don't know what it even is.

 

Thank you. I wanted to reply and couldn’t put together the right words but this is exactly my sentiment. We don’t know if it’s an over reaction because we don’t know what happened.

 

I agree with this but find myself compelled to be a little contrarian at the same time. I can recall growing up to many people saying, “innocent until proven guilty.” I don’t want to “minimize” but the current atmosphere is that one is guilty until proven innocent. Have we even gotten an indication that Bruce is guilty of something? Or has the law firm been engaged to gather a preponderance of evidence of innocence (à la Berhalter)?

The silence here is both deafening and peculiar. In most other instances with this type of allegation (???) prior victims come out of the woodwork to pile on. But that doesn’t seem to be happening. Is that because there are none or because the lid is that tight? The Krafts have always had a tight grip on the local press but no one outside this area is willing to dig? I miss Grant Wahl.

If this was any other ownership, I’d assume they believe they can clear or at least save Bruce and put him back in charge. If they didn’t, they’d have cut ties and hired someone else after this much time. But it’s the Krafts so they could just be saving a dime.

 

Petrovic is leaving so why not just fire Bruce and make it official. The management can just torch the whole season. Miami is playing Wednesday. I might as well watch Messi put on another show. At least their ownership seems to care about their fan base.

 

My tinfoil hat conspiracy theory:

The "inappropriate comment" was settled weeks ago. But Bruce is planning to retire as head coach (not GM) at the end of the year, so he is using this leave of absence to get his successor some on-the-job training.

 

It does seem like the national soccer press is taking a very hands-off view of this. Maybe some tsk-tsk'ing about lack of candor and how long it's taking, but no strong criticism of the organization for it's lack of transparency (probably better described as obscurity).

FDA has expressed much of the same, but it seems like he tends to tread lightly for fear of alienating his sources in the organization. The more established columnists in the Boston media rarely focus on the Revs, but they do have the power to bring some real pressure on the Krafts, though they haven't shown any interest in doing so. Not with the Pats season getting ready to kick off.

 

I'll give you another take on this. Keep in mind the Krafts still hold a lot of clout in MLS and they're well aware of Bruce's impact. One reason for the delay could be the negotiation of a settlement offer for the party to go away and never again talk about it. Were I them and Bruce didn't do something over the top (like assault someone) that's what I'd be pushing for.

 

The year is 2035. Robot Messi continues to terrorize MLS, winning an unprecedented eleventh consecutive quadruple.

Big Soccer has just created the "where is Bruce part XI thread"

We still don't know what was investigated or what the outcome is

 

Wonder how long this would drag out if it was Belichick..hmmm

 

Who knows how long it would drag out, but we'd have known what the issue was the day after the suspension was announced, for sure.

 

This is exactly what is driving me nuts about the situation. Anyone thinking rationally should be able to agree that there are things someone could say or do that would fall into the realm of "insensitive and inappropriate" and be bad enough to warrant termination. There are other things that could trigger an understandable suspension but leave room for reinstatement, and then there are other things that are ridiculous and frivolous.

We have NO IDEA where on the spectrum this accusation falls because no one is saying anything and no one is apparently doing enough digging into it to find out. And while all of this is going on, we have no closure, no resolution and the team and its fans are left to twist in the wind. Enough is enough. They've had a month. Either Free Bruce or Fire Bruce and tell us enough so we have some kind of understanding of what the holy hell has been going on here. WRAP. IT. UP!

 

Hope its not Richie? Im not impressed so far

 

He doesn't interview well at all. Pretty inane interactions interspersed with many "you know"s.
Also, his judgement in making timely subs against Montreal was reactionary. He waited until they scored to put Nacho in.

 

I have no problem with the way the Arena situation is being handled. I don't think the public has a right to know what is happening. I look at it from the perspective of the aggrieved party. That person or persons do not deserved to have this story debated in the public forum. If information is leaked, like deflate-gate, the media and the public run wild. The person(s) on the other side of this story should not be put through that.

 

I'm not looking for names, just a timeline of when this will be resolved. What if this drags into the playoffs? Or into next season? It's been over 4 weeks. How long does it take to investigate a comment?

The players are the ones impacted. Are they 100% listening to Williams, thinking there is a chance Bruce comes back tomorrow?

 

Yes, the 'aggrieved party' should have the right to privacy - I don't think anyone suggests otherwise, but what are Arena's rights and what are our rights as supporters and interested parties?

For Arena, his impressive reputation has been left to be peppered with open speculation for an unbound time period. If there's some reason why this whole 'investigation' needs more than 29 days and counting (by my count), it wouldn't hurt anyone to explain why: i.e., difficulty reaching witnesses, ....

As for us, the team, the organization, the players want and ask for our support. In return, we're just expected to be patient and satisfied with no explanation, no expectation, ... nothing.

I'm suspecting - again, with no information, so all we can do is speculate - that this is the suspension and when it's done it'll be time-served or it'll be game over for Arena, one way or another.

One thing is pretty clear, it's just another fan-relations disaster for the team in that they feel it's perfectly okay to say nothing, hiding behind confidentiality concerns which can clearly be respected while at least addressing the issue.

 

Yeah, no one is going to leak anything until there's a resolution.

This appears to be an HR issue that may or may not have legs as a possible legal issue.

My guess is that the lawyers have told everyone to keep their mouths shut. I wouldn't be shocked if we never find out what prompted the investigation.