What a week. What a blue blessed bleep of a week.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
1) First, I serve up a very poor, off-the-cuff, on-the-fly on-air insult of BigSoccer.com blogger/troll Bill Archer, effectively letting him off the hook for two-years-plus of hateful invective aimed at Toronto FC and its fans.
2) In the rising wake of Columbus-gate, Seattle striker Freddie Ljungberg (down on the field injured at the time) and celebrity Sounders co-owner Drew Carey get doused with airborne beer at BMO Field.
3) The Toronto Star runs, then partially retracts, a story that wrongly says Toronto FC fans were involved in a racial incident last season. This by the same reporter who wrote a few weeks back – with no apparent basis in fact – that Major League Soccer had trashed its system of financial checks and balances to sign David Beckham.
4) Fan-thrown baseballs rain out of the SkyDome’s upper deck, forcing and interruption the Toronto Blue Jays’ home opener, and the papers compare the missile lobbers to Toronto FC fans.
5) Angered, indignant TFC fan Tim Drodge drafts an open letter to the club’s press liaison, demanding the team do a better job of educating the local press corps on what is, and isn’t, dangerous trouble.
Dealing with them in chronological order:
1) I have about as much chance of beating Bill Archer with an insult as I do of dazzling Tiger Woods with a driver. Far too late I realize that the rest of MLS does not understand the depth of the TFC-Columbus discontent. The number of people who actually care, even in the two cities, is very small. It’s been make clear I managed to blow it even with the Toronto insiders. All I can do is apologize for dropping the ball. I promise I’ll be better prepared – and wiser – the next time a similar opportunity bubbles up.
2) We’ve got problems, folks. As long as the people who see these things happen keep quiet, worse things – and further enflamed media response – will likely follow.
3) The Star retraction is, in fact, a big deal (even if the TFC-racism allegation can still be read into the revised story). The media tend to keep calm and quiet when someone makes a mistake, because it could be any of us next. (And didn’t I just find that out?) Two mistakes, this close together, the second forcing a retraction: that’s a different animal. You likely won’t see or hear any particular changes or actions, but things like this do alter perceptions inside the press box.
4) Don’t waste your heart and good intentions getting outraged over the baseball thing. TFC fans are flavour of the week in the press right now, and comparisons like this are going to pop up. The media aren’t alone in this. Fans grab hold of hot-button topics too, and make unfair comparisons all the time. Okay, those are on message boards or over post-game beers, while the media do it in banner headlines, above-the-fold photos and lead paragraphs. It passes. It will be Britney Spears’ turn again soon enough.
5) I don’t know if Tim’s letter makes a difference here, but I do know it will be read and considered by the team. Honest and creative frustration-venting is a good thing. (Although I do wish I’d been a bit less honest and more creative in dealing with Bill Archer.)
The best thing fans can do is also the singular, shining thing that created this whole lovely TFC soccer adventure in the first place. Put all your hearts and souls into cheering, singing, stomping, marching and supporting the team.
And don’t stop doing it happily, just because the Good Ship Come-On-You-Reds took some heavy hits this week – from within and without.
Toronto’s got a home-and-home with last place FC Dallas, for the “Who the FC is the Real FC?” cup.
Let’s everyone shake off the shadows, get through to Saturday, and do what we all do best – fans and media alike.
Onward!