Kevin Cooney article on Spads

[smeags]

Writer hits homer with remarks
by Kevin Cooney

With all due respect to Buzz Bissinger's rant on blogs during a recent HBO special, the true danger to sports writing doesn't come from Deadspin, Bill Simmons or any guy sitting in his basement blogging.

The real threat to journalism in the new millennium is Dave Spadaro.

For years, Spadaro has been the Eagles' minister of information — a.k.a. the "Insider" for the team's Web site. Basically, it goes like this: The Eagles' brass thinks it, and Spadaro writes it as fact.

Team doesn't think it needs a wide receiver. Spadaro really doesn't think it needs a wide receiver. Team loves its draft. Spadaro really loves its draft.

For the most part, the rest of the Philadelphia media accepted this as a guy just trying to collect a paycheck and doing his job. Sure, there were some giggles, but Spadaro seemed like a nice guy to those who met him and everybody went along their merry way.

That was until "Spuds" decided to become the lecturer on all things journalism on the first day of minicamp.

He wondered why there were not more positive questions asked of Donovan McNabb, Andy Reid or Brian Dawkins during their press conferences. (Apparently, we are all supposed to be positive about an 8-8, last-place team.) He thought the media was just trying to dig up dirt when questions were asked about McNabb's desire for more "weapons" on offense. (In a later column, he blasted Comcast SportsNet Chicago's Pat Boyle for asking the "same boring questions" of McNabb. Please.)

But the worst part was when he tried to imply that the Eagles' three-headed monster at cornerback — complete with Lito Sheppard's contract situation — was totally made up.

"A picture is being painted out there that isn't true," Spadaro wrote. "Stories that quote "sources' and "league talk' are bogus, irresponsible and unprofessional. Journalism is a shell of what it once was, with zero accountability and, at times, a lack of credibility."

Wait a minute. A guy on the Eagles' payroll — who later in the column said that linebacker Joe Mays "looks great in a uniform" and who declared a "man-crush on Takeo Spikes" during training camp last summer — is going to lecture the media on credibility?

Credibility is not shoving the company line down people's throats constantly, even when you know it's complete horse hockey.


Credibility is not bashing everyone who dares challenge the drivel of a franchise that is going on 48 years without a world championship.

Credibility comes from people who don't wear the team's merchandise while they are reporting.

If we want to examine credibility, take a look at this paragraph from Spadaro's column the day after the Eagles beat the Falcons in the 2004 NFC Championship game.

"At one point in the conversation, I admit — and I try to think about my words before I speak them — that when the Eagles beat New England, the thrill for me will be greater than the feeling I had for my wedding and the birth of my children."

This line really needs no additional comment.

What Spadaro, Reid and the Eagles hierarchy don't seem to understand is that the media is not supposed to be cheerleaders for the team. Our job is to ask questions of the franchise that the fans want answered. Those fans have made this franchise very profitable. They have been rewarded with disappointment and failure on a yearly basis for most of their lifetimes.

Don't give me that just because you write for a team's Web site requires you to be a complete and visible homer for the franchise, either. While understanding there is a fine line, there's also a proper balance to be struck as well. Ken Mandel's work on Phillies.com hardly goes over the top like Spadaro's. Mandel asks responsible questions and does not feel the need to sugarcoat if things are going poorly.

When things go poorly, Spadaro turns around the mirror and tries to blame people who had nothing to do with it. If this town were really as negative as Spadaro portrays it to be, the head coach would have been run out of it for what happened in his personal life last year.

There are a lot of ticked-off sports reporters in this city who feel the same way I do. This was a low blow that threw down the gauntlet between the franchise and some circles of the city's press corps.

What Spadaro and the Eagles don't seem to understand is that this is a fight they can't win. Kind of like all of the Super Bowls contested over the past 42 years.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/243-05162008-1534954.html

[smeags]

nevermind/delete. found the link to this in the off-season thread. 

[hunt]

ass

[Rome]

BURN HIM!

[Zanshin]

Anyone here like to grill?

[phattymatty]

only salmon.

[SunMo]

just heard an advertisement for angelo's show tomorrow and both of these guys will be on to talk about what Cooney wrote


OMG!  what will happen!?

[ice grillin you]

hopefully cooney eats spadaro

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Does Spadaro ever actually show up at WIP?  I'm assuming this "showdown" will happen over the phone.

[rjs246]

My god I waste a lot of time on this site.

[ice grillin you]

yes spadaro does show up in person on occasion...he also was involved in wip's great debate where he completely embarrassed himself

[smeags]

ass

i love irony. 

[Rome]

"Embarrassed himself" is a relative term.  For instance, I'd be embarrassed to actually know what a WIP great debate is much less having actually listened to it on the radio.  And then there's the near "commit suicide" factor of having participated in it with buffoons like Al Morganti & Angelo Cataldi. 

It's one thing to occasionally listen to those farging clueless Romes but to participate in their idiocy personally?  Oh, dear God no.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

My god I waste a lot of time on this site.

But you only have like 7000 posts.  Isn't that supposed to indicate that you're only a casual reader?

[rjs246]

Stop stalking me weirdo.