You haven’t heard of John Dudley. Why? Because you a) have never lived in Erie, PA, b) are a fan of intelligence or c) Jay Mariotti is all the blowhard you need. Dudley writes- in the loosest “there are words on paper that he put there” sense of the word- for the Erie Times-News as a sports columnist. He also likes to fancy himself as a credible voice on national stories. I mean, if you wanted a take on Tiger Woods, why would you read Dan Jenkins when you could read THE John Dudley (seriously though- Jenkins piece is fantastic and he is a remarkably entertaining, if infrequent, Twitterer). Generally speaking, he (and his cohort, Matt Martin) drove me nuts through my formative years- because before the internet, I had to read the Erie paper and the occasional SI in the doctor’s office to get my sports news. I had always wanted to tear a piece of his apart for humor’s sake (fisking, as the kids say), but then he wrote this.
And totally made it necessary.
We know Bob Sanders had plenty of free time this past season, because he played in only two of the Indianapolis Colts’ 19 games.
I see we left the typewriter at home and went with the hatchet. Fantastic. (also, I’ll skip some parts here and there, otherwise you’d need a sandwich to read all of this)
It’s obvious he didn’t spend it hanging out with a media relations consultant.
Because media relations is the most important thing ever. Screw your actual fans, you need to cater to the whims of a bunch of idiots that will just mock you on paper (which is TOTALLY DIFFERENT THAN MOCKERY ON THE INTERNET) if you don’t suck up to them. J-Duds didn’t get a fruit basket in the mail around Christmas time, Mr. Sanders. It’s time to pay.
Just after wrapping up a news conference Friday to announce his gift of computer labs at two Erie schools, Sanders lashed out at the Erie Times-News for asking about the value of the donation.
Uh, because it was a gift, and who the hell cares if it was $17 or $17,000? The guy is giving back to his community- are you going to make him keep it if you deem it insufficient?
On what was officially declared Bob Sanders Day in the Erie School District, Sanders carved out a few minutes to accuse the Times-News of fixating on his contract with the Colts, of dwelling on the injuries that have interrupted what at times looks like a Hall of Fame career, and of ignoring his generosity toward students and young athletes in Erie.
Which is exactly what you’ve done in the first three sentences.
“Why do you need to know how much it cost?” he angrily asked. “Why is that anyone’s business? All you care about is my money.”
This is a perfectly good question. I’m sure we’ll get a thought-out, intelligent response.
If there were a bully of the week award in the world of philanthropy, Sanders won it in a landslide. Friday’s outburst took place at McKinley Elementary School’s library, with the school’s principal and some teachers and district employees nearby.
We’re just trying really hard at this point to make him seem evil. If you’re keeping score at home, Sanders questioned why they cared how much it cost to donate computers to an elementary school. And the words “angrily”, “outburst”, “accuse” and “bully” have been attached. For that.
Also, I like the “if there was a Bully of the Week award in the world of philanthropy” clause. Nothing says bad journalism like the winner of the Contrived Fictitious Award of the Week Award in the field of shoddy writing, if such a thing existed.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a new act for Sanders.
This one time, he totally pushed an elderly woman down a flight of stairs, and then threw blenders at her while taking the Lord’s name in vain. HE’S OUT OF CONTROL CALL TONY DUNGY
This past summer he refused to do interviews before or during his youth football camp at Edinboro. That came on the heels of the first Bob Sanders Weekend in Erie, when he headed off all football-related questions and took exception when asked about a possible wedding date with his then-fiancee, now wife, who accompanied him on his gift-giving tour.
Again, he’s a jerk for ignoring idiotic questions from the media when he’s in town to run a football camp. Did you consider asking him about the camp? Or was that not a good enough story…when were they married? THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW
When I requested an interview with Sanders through the Colts during training camp this past August, the team replied that he wanted a list of questions submitted in advance and warned me that he would not discuss injuries.
Uh, yeah- the dude’s been injured. What would you want him to say? “Uh, my body apparently doesn’t like staying in one piece, but I’ve been drinking Krazy Glue to rectify that.” Try asking him about anything to do with Erie, since no one is going to read your paper for national stories. Wait, I’m not the one with the journalism degree, sorry, you go on ahead with the hatchet.
I passed. Sanders had appeared in only six games in 2008, so it’s not like the football part of the conversation would have lasted long.
ZING! There’s no way you can talk football unless you played all of last year! There’s no way I’m bitter that the guy won’t talk to me!
The Times-News planned a story on Sanders earlier this month when the Colts reached the Super Bowl, but he did not respond to interview requests.
I cannot imagine why.
It’s not just the newspaper’s readers he’s snubbed.
Classic, and archaic, argument. He isn’t snubbing the readers. He’s not giving a middle finger to Eloise Stanford, age 67, of North East. He is snubbing you. Let’s not act like you’re an elected representative because you write for a paper that- local legend has it- was used by Princeton to show journalism majors what a paper shouldn’t be. Maybe Bob gave an interview to the Indianapolis paper, or Stampede Blue. Just not the paper for his hometown, which has spent half an article destroying him.
WICU-TV sports director Mike Ruzzi says a few years ago Sanders requested a DVD of his local appearances for a television show he was doing in Indianapolis. Sanders needed the DVD to be compiled and shipped out right away.
“We spent a great deal of time putting it together and the DVD made it on time,” Ruzzi wrote in an e-mail. “Not a big deal on our part, we do that all the time. But when I called before the last camp asking if Bob was going to be available for an interview, I was told he was not doing interviews. That was a real letdown, since we made the effort to get the DVD out on time.”
So doing a DVD, which you do all the time, didn’t get you an interview at a camp when people only ask him about stuff that isn’t the camp? Color me shocked. Also, things like this article probably don’t help the cause.
And now this latest arrogant gem from a local sports hero who doesn’t have to be this bitter, this paranoid, or this short-sighted.
Despite the fact that you justified every single one of those words with this article. I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but seriously, this is ridiculous.
Yeah, I know this will sound like sour grapes from scorned media types. But I don’t need Bob Sanders to like me. I don’t even need him to know my name. I just need him to answer my questions — or not — without throwing a tantrum.
Which is, in fact, sour grapes from scorned media types. Just because you point it out doesn’t make it any less true.
Sanders could have politely declined to say how much it cost him to put computers and printers in technology labs at Wilson Middle School and McKinley Elementary. Instead he had his flak fetch a folder and look it up, and, with a glare, he confirmed the figure was about $20,000.
Then he turned angry, demanding to know why we needed that information.
Which is a completely justified reaction. He gave two schools a total 20,000 dollars worth of computers, but rather than focus on “that will help so many kids!” you focus on “that’s 2,000,000 pennies!!” Also, we’ve used variants of the word “anger” at least 10 times so far.
Gee, Bob, I don’t know. Maybe because we are in the information business?
Gee, John, I don’t know. Maybe you’re missing the point?
[...]
Don’t like the question, Bob? Show some class, anyhow.
Or tear a good person apart in a public forum. Your call.
Sanders made it clear Friday that he reads the Times-News regularly and he believes the newspaper never has treated him fairly. It was a ridiculous statement, but he wasn’t in the mood to have a civil discussion, so I gave up trying to mount a defense.
Again, you’ve spent how many words now proving him right?
There’s a good chance he will read this and not talk to me again — not beyond a phone call today, perhaps, to tell me how I’ve wronged him again.
I’ll get over it, I suppose.
THANK GOD. I can sleep at night.
But there’s someone else who might end up reading this, too — my 12-year-old son. He became a big Colts fan after watching Sanders go through workouts at the team’s training camp a few years ago when the paper had me drive to Terre Haute, Ind., to cover his rise to stardom.
Like a lot of kids, my son instantly was swept up in Sanders’ energy, his focus, and his passion for the game.
It’s going to be tough to resist the urge to go into his closet this morning and take out that No. 21 Colts jersey and slap it on eBay, knowing that someone, somewhere, probably needs to line a birdcage.
Or maybe you should take a lesson from your son’s maturity and remember that you’re freaking lucky that he grants you the time of day when he’s in town. He owes the city of Erie nothing. The fact that he gives anything is a miracle- because this isn’t the first time an Erie boy made it big in the NFL and he got run out of town. Fred Biletnikoff- yes, the one that the award is named after- was born and raised in Erie. He now refers to the city as “The Mistake on the Lake” and doesn’t really show his face around town. Mark Stepnoski apparently doesn’t hate the city, but he smokes enough pot that I don’t think he could hate much.
The question is why, exactly, this was written. The answer is two-fold. One, J-Duds loves to make inflammatory columns, then run a mailbag of angry letters with one liners afterward. Something like this:
“John, you’re a complete idiot. How you manage to sleep at night is a mystery to me. -Doug, Millcreek
Well that’s easy- warm milk has worked since I was a child.”
So he doesn’t respond to the criticism, he just plays off of it for really bad jokes. The other reason is a little more gossipy, and a little more conspiracy therorist on my part. Rumor around the Erie-parts is that Sanders and his high school coach had a falling out. This coach happens to be at one of the two high schools that the Erie paper covers, regardless of record. So, it seems more than a little coincidental that we start tearing the guy apart now.
I’ll always have a special place in my heart for my hometown- I’ve worked on State St. (briefly) and at the mall (less briefly), played in Veterans Memorial Stadium (there’s one in Erie, seriously) and eaten more Greek sauce than I (or any toilet, for that matter) care to remember. 90% of my family still lives there, and I try to visit whenever I can. But Erie deserves a better paper than this, and it’s a shame that it’s a prime example of what’s wrong with so many in the newspaper world. And in this case, it’s indicative of what’s wrong with Erie- some terrible people get heard the most/put in charge and ruin what should be a fantastic city. So, Bob, don’t cut the city out of your life because of this toolbox. Those kids at the football camp appreciate everything you do, even if the media doesn’t. At the end of the day, that’s what actually matters.
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