Thursday, September 15, 2011
It just goes to show that what I have always said is true. It is not what you say, or even how you say it; it is just whether they like you or not.
Chad Ochocinco is a wide receiver for the New England Patriots. He is in his first season on the team, but achieved some notoriety previously for having success with the Cincinnati Bengals. Ochocinco, who was born Chad Johnson but legally changed his name to match his jersey number 85, also appeared on Dancing With the Stars. To put it mildly, Ochocinco is a self-promoter. This does not make him unusual in the NFL. I mean the guy doesn’t call himself “Prime Time” like Deion Sanders, or sign autographs on footballs he just carried across the goal line like Terrell Owens. However, self promotion is frowned upon by the Patriots who might be the most uptight franchise in sports. (Uptight does not mean law-abiding since the team illegally videotaped opposing teams’ signals and were sanctioned by the league.) That makes the fit between the old receiver and his new team somewhat imperfect.
On Monday night the Patriots rolled up over 500 yards passing, in what was apparently and impressive display of offense. (I confess I did not watch the game, I was watching baseball. However, I did watch the Bronco game. And yes, Wayne Nelson, I thoroughly enjoyed watching them get beat.) Despite the heroic display by the Pats, Ochocinco was a non-factor, contributing only 14 of those yards. He then sent a tweet the next morning which has incited controversy. But it is not what you think. He didn’t complain about not getting the ball. He criticized no one. He merely said he was impressed with seeing that kind of offense up close. Difficult for me to see what exactly is the problem here.
However, former Patriot linebacker Tedi Bruschi unloaded a barrage against Ochocinco, basically saying players on a team should not be in awe of what the team does, and that number 85 should concentrate more on contributing to the offense than being impressed by it. Sports talk radio, always more interested in off-the-field controversy than on-field performance, has seized upon this conflict and elevated it to the top story in football. In fact, I am pretty sure the media paying more attention to this than they did when the Patriots were caught cheating.
Because there is nothing facially controversial about being impressed by the quality of your teammates and their performance in a game, I can only assume Bruschi’s reaction has nothing to do with the tweet itself, but more about Ochocinco. There is probably some negative reaction perhaps to a Patriot tweeting at all, but since he has been doing that all along, I doubt Bruschi was reacting much to that. I am pretty sure this all springs from just a dislike of the guy. So it really doesn’t matter what Ochocino said, Bruschi wanted to rip him.
I am very familiar with this problem because I suffered from the same impediment. During my time in Intake I made a lot of enemies. I realize I am not the smoothest of talkers and my level of tact is only one step above Simon Cowell. I am blunt. I was rarely deliberately rude (I won’t say never because there were times I felt rudeness was justified), but I certainly did not attempt to hide my displeasure with what I felt was substandard work. Many police officers reacted negatively to this. Often they would complain to their superiors who would complain to my supervisors. Frankly, I never quite understood the problem. Police officers are trained to deal with physical assaults, weapons threats, mentally ill suspects, etc. If they have no problem fighting someone on the street, why did they get upset that the DA was mean to them? They put up with much more severe abuse.
But upset they were. And I heard about it regularly. My supervisors were always great about dealing with this. Initially they determined whether I was wrong in what I had said; whether my criticism of the case filing was warranted. Usually it was. Then I would be counseled on my delivery. I always said I would try harder not to piss people off. I always did try harder and I always pissed people off anyway.
But it got to the point where no matter what I said or how I said it, there were many cops who did not like me. With them I had the Ochocinco problem. They didn’t like me and they were going to complain. So I understand, Chad. You said something you thought was complimentary and flattering to your teammates, and all you got was grief. I noticed you have not tweeted since. I am sure you think silence is the answer. But somewhere there is someone who is going to complain that you are saying nothing. Believe me, if they don’t like you, you can’t win.
Chad Ochocinco is a wide receiver for the New England Patriots. He is in his first season on the team, but achieved some notoriety previously for having success with the Cincinnati Bengals. Ochocinco, who was born Chad Johnson but legally changed his name to match his jersey number 85, also appeared on Dancing With the Stars. To put it mildly, Ochocinco is a self-promoter. This does not make him unusual in the NFL. I mean the guy doesn’t call himself “Prime Time” like Deion Sanders, or sign autographs on footballs he just carried across the goal line like Terrell Owens. However, self promotion is frowned upon by the Patriots who might be the most uptight franchise in sports. (Uptight does not mean law-abiding since the team illegally videotaped opposing teams’ signals and were sanctioned by the league.) That makes the fit between the old receiver and his new team somewhat imperfect.
On Monday night the Patriots rolled up over 500 yards passing, in what was apparently and impressive display of offense. (I confess I did not watch the game, I was watching baseball. However, I did watch the Bronco game. And yes, Wayne Nelson, I thoroughly enjoyed watching them get beat.) Despite the heroic display by the Pats, Ochocinco was a non-factor, contributing only 14 of those yards. He then sent a tweet the next morning which has incited controversy. But it is not what you think. He didn’t complain about not getting the ball. He criticized no one. He merely said he was impressed with seeing that kind of offense up close. Difficult for me to see what exactly is the problem here.
However, former Patriot linebacker Tedi Bruschi unloaded a barrage against Ochocinco, basically saying players on a team should not be in awe of what the team does, and that number 85 should concentrate more on contributing to the offense than being impressed by it. Sports talk radio, always more interested in off-the-field controversy than on-field performance, has seized upon this conflict and elevated it to the top story in football. In fact, I am pretty sure the media paying more attention to this than they did when the Patriots were caught cheating.
Because there is nothing facially controversial about being impressed by the quality of your teammates and their performance in a game, I can only assume Bruschi’s reaction has nothing to do with the tweet itself, but more about Ochocinco. There is probably some negative reaction perhaps to a Patriot tweeting at all, but since he has been doing that all along, I doubt Bruschi was reacting much to that. I am pretty sure this all springs from just a dislike of the guy. So it really doesn’t matter what Ochocino said, Bruschi wanted to rip him.
I am very familiar with this problem because I suffered from the same impediment. During my time in Intake I made a lot of enemies. I realize I am not the smoothest of talkers and my level of tact is only one step above Simon Cowell. I am blunt. I was rarely deliberately rude (I won’t say never because there were times I felt rudeness was justified), but I certainly did not attempt to hide my displeasure with what I felt was substandard work. Many police officers reacted negatively to this. Often they would complain to their superiors who would complain to my supervisors. Frankly, I never quite understood the problem. Police officers are trained to deal with physical assaults, weapons threats, mentally ill suspects, etc. If they have no problem fighting someone on the street, why did they get upset that the DA was mean to them? They put up with much more severe abuse.
But upset they were. And I heard about it regularly. My supervisors were always great about dealing with this. Initially they determined whether I was wrong in what I had said; whether my criticism of the case filing was warranted. Usually it was. Then I would be counseled on my delivery. I always said I would try harder not to piss people off. I always did try harder and I always pissed people off anyway.
But it got to the point where no matter what I said or how I said it, there were many cops who did not like me. With them I had the Ochocinco problem. They didn’t like me and they were going to complain. So I understand, Chad. You said something you thought was complimentary and flattering to your teammates, and all you got was grief. I noticed you have not tweeted since. I am sure you think silence is the answer. But somewhere there is someone who is going to complain that you are saying nothing. Believe me, if they don’t like you, you can’t win.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]