Someone isn’t happy about the Colts bringing back Ed Johnson.
It’s not me.
It’s probably not you.
That leaves us with only one logical suspect.
Today he declares the Dungy Era over in Indianapolis. He says:
Think about it: What’s different about the Colts today than last year when Johnson was told to take a hike?
Jim
Irsay is still the owner. Bill Polian is still the team president. And
Johnson is still Johnson, a vastly talented young guy who has had
issues in college at Penn State and here.
The difference is Dungy.
Actually, there might be another difference…in Ed Johnson. He has no idea what Johnson has been doing for the previous 8 months. Did he call and try to get a quote? I don’t know. In print it appears that he made a foolish assumption.
In typical Kravitz fashion, he contradicts himself and tries to have it both ways.
Now, I’m not going to body-slam the Colts for this move because
while marijuana possession is illegal, it does not, in my mind, rise to
the level of far more egregious offenses, notably crimes of violence or
drunk driving. At the time of Johnson’s release, I supported the Colts’
decision and hailed Dungy for doing the right thing. It is through
gritted teeth that I am now contradicting myself.
That said, I do
not want to hear — ever, EVER — how the Colts are thoroughly
committed to fielding a team of Boy Scouts, how they have these exalted
standards of conduct that cannot be breached under any circumstances.
The truth is, the Colts are just like any other NFL team; they will
make allowances for talent, cut corners when necessary.
To begin with, I’m not sure how this qualifies as cutting corners. They lost a starter and drastically hurt their season last year at a time they really needed DT’s. Since then, they’ve brought in a slew of new ones, including two draft picks. If anything, the signing of Ed Johnson is NOT necessary now, whereas it was months ago. Bob doesn’t agree, saying:
Can we just cut through the bull and call it what it is? The Colts are
desperate for defensive tackles, Johnson is available and inexpensive,
and the Colts are bending their standards to fit their football needs.
Wow. I can’t see how that could be any further from the truth. I suppose the Colts had such a horrible two-day minicamp last weekend that they freaked out and immediately decided to undermine their long held stances on player conduct by signing a guy who hasn’t played 8 months. They suddenly needed Ed Johnson so badly, they just had to sign him.
This is another weak effort by Kravitz. I can’t believe that he actually believes anything he says here, because it defies credulity. The fact is this: there was a 90 minute span of big news last night, and the Star was late on all of it. In fact, I believe that’s why Kravitz has to write this. If he comes out and says exactly what all three major blogs (and ESPN) all said about the Ed Johnson signing, everyone would realize how irrelevant it is to read him in the morning, when abundant, accurate commentary was posted the night before. His only option was to choose a ridiculous course that subtlety rips the Colts for being desperate to sign a DT, just weeks after drafting two, and implies that being a moral person doesn’t allow one to give others a second chance when it is in the offenders’ best interests to do so.
So in all this, where was the Star last night? All three major blogs posted (SB, Oehser, 18to88) the Ed Johnson story before the Star. Oehser and SB beat us to it, but we had the press release up first. The point being, the Star had nothing. When they finally did post something, it was exactly what anyone could already have found on 18to88.com. That is, it was just the Colts press release.
Then Peter King announces that he has a tip that Marvin’s done. The Star still has nothing.
Then Howard Mudd tells Mortensen he might quit. SB and Oehser have it. It was in our comments section and I’m commenting about it now (thanks for the tips), but the Star still has NOTHING. It remains to be seen if it will really happen, as it sounds like there is confusion over the pension plan that might still work itself out. Still, many of us wonder if the Colts line problems last year weren’t at least partially related to the time Mudd missed undergoing surgery. The Colts #1 question mark going into the season is the O-line, and suddenly the man most responsible is possibly leaving, and the Star doesn’t even mention it on its main Colts page.
A couple of weeks ago, we asked Kravitz why fans should read the Star. He basically said, “What choice do you have?“.
The answer to that question is becoming clear. If the Star can’t break or even register two of the three major Colts stories in a day, what purpose does it serve? The third story wasn’t on anyone’s radar until the Colts released it to the media themselves. Where was the Star? Its main asset becomes its ability to comment on stories with ‘their star power’ in Bob Kravitz. But when Kravitz takes hackneyed stances like he did today, it makes me wonder how long the old girl can hang around.
I love the Indianapolis Star, but yesterday Oehser, SB, and 18to88 kicked its ass all over town. That wasn’t our intent, but it happened. Two national guys broke tips, and Colts fans could come to their favorite blogs and read about it with commentary. I understand that the Star has rules that protect the ‘purity’ of what it prints, but those rules have made it increasingly slow and irrelevant. The old school strategy of ‘ignoring’ a story that someone else breaks is killing papers. The Star can’t even manage a “Peter King reports…” or “Chris Mortensen reports…” type of write up because it violates some pre-established system they have.
It’s true, both reports may be turn out to be false, but guess what? We’ll still probably beat both of them to the punch on that too.
It’s a dark day for local print.
Links:
Nice words about Mudd
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