04/20/24
January 03, 2011
Kansas City Chiefs are a good team with a terrible coach.: Jason Whitlock says so without malice or pleasure. He's just letting you know the coach is an "attention whore". And Whitlock hates those.
I've followed Whitlock for the past year on twitter, & his criticisms of Haley/Pioli seem to shift as needed. They were incompetent & arrogant until about week 8-10 or so, then he got really quiet for a while, mostly taking jabs at Haley's risky play calling every once in a while. Now with the Weis situation, he has resurfaced and is insinuating that Haley is needy for attention. The guy doesn't like the new regime, & I am pretty sure has never acknowledged (on twitter, where he has said some pretty foul stuff about Haley) what a culture change that has occurred in KC.
I suspect that Pioli's unwillingness to talk about some of his decisions is at the root of Whitlock's hate. He can say he doesn't hate them, but when you hashtag a recent tweet with "#haleyisaf**kup" there is more than just objectivity going on here. Yeah, he says not to judge his tweets, only his columns, but to ignore that hashtag seems ludicrous in light of his "no malice or pleasure" column. Frankly, these two stances can't be reconciled, and I think he's being disingenuous. He can try to separate the mediums, but in reality no one can. The fan in me is pissed b/c he manipulates different mediums to try to have it both ways.
Here's an idea Whitlock: for all your brashness, why don't you just state what you really think once and for all & not hide behind sleight of hand use of differing social mediums.
posted by brainofdtrain at 02:12 AM on January 04, 2011
I don't buy Whitlock liking Haley. You don't describe somebody you genuinely like as "insecure, mean-spirited, emotional and irrational."
Whitlock seems to be falling into the Jay Mariotti approach where any attention is good attention.
The ego strut on display in Whitlock's intro is pretty amazing: "Jason Whitlock writes about the sports world from every angle, including those other writers can't imagine or muster courage to address. His columns are humorous, thought-provoking, agenda free, honest and unpredictable."
As if that wasn't awful enough, his Twitter account has this: "I speak truth to power. Black people think I'm a sellout. White people think I'm a racist. I think I'm too honest. My perspective is for people unafraid to think and willing to challenge their own biases. P.s. It also doesn't hurt if you like to laugh."
posted by rcade at 09:07 AM on January 04, 2011
Whitlock is absolutely terrible. First, this was a completely unnecessary personal talk on both Pioli and Haley. Pontificating on Haley's insecurities is just out of bounds. Plus, it is stupid. Everything good about the Chiefs (lack of turnovers and Cassel) can be attributed to someone other than the head coach, but all the bad belongs to him. I've never heard anyone say that head coaches have an easy job because they have both and offensive and defensive coordinator. I bet that is news to most of them. Whitlock is a complete idiot. I hope the people giving him access see this for what it is.
posted by bperk at 09:08 AM on January 04, 2011
Anyone who actually claims, with no apparent sense of irony, that they "speak truth to power" -- about a spectator sport -- might as well just get the "Horse's Ass" forehead tattoo and be done with it.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:01 AM on January 04, 2011
Anyone who actually claims, with no apparent sense of irony, that they "speak truth to power" -- about a spectator sport -- might as well just get the "Horse's Ass" forehead tattoo and be done with it.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
posted by tahoemoj at 01:19 PM on January 04, 2011
Jason Whitlock is doing only what he perceives he needs to do to stay employed. Bloggers, Twitterers (is that a word?), and writers are paid when people read their stuff. Particularly in the electronic media, when you write outrageous things, true or otherwise, people click on the site to see just how bad you really are. Whether they read the whole thing, believe any of it, or click away in disgust, your click meter has just gone up another notch, and you are further justified with your editor. Let him rant, ignore him, and soon enough he will go away.
posted by Howard_T at 03:40 PM on January 04, 2011
Twitterers (is that a word?)
I believe the correct word is "Twits".
...at least, I've always thought it should be.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 04:06 PM on January 04, 2011
Attention Whore? Talk about the pot calling the kettle -- er -- African American.