TWO BREAKING STORIES: #1 UNC Spin Doctors and #2 Art Gets The Ax. But first …. Cliff Lee signs a whopper contract for only $24,000,000 a year for five years to pitch once/week for six months. He is being applauded for not being all about the money. Applauding Cliff for this is like a guy wanting some slack for admitting to his wife yes, I had an affair with a Kardashian sister, but not with all three of’em.
If Cliff Lee is worth $24,000,000; what about those skinny kids that out-pitched him for the World Champion San Francisco Giants?
Hit your REFRESH button. We’ve made some design changes here. Who knew there were so many Girl Volleyball fans. Maybe just fans of smart alecky Internet columns ABOUT Girls Volleyball. That last column moved into Top Five AllTime BLSays Good’uns.
BREAKING NEWS #1 re: The Unpleasantness ….. In late-August, UNC contracted with a prominent NYC-based PR firm – Hill & Knowlton with offices in 44 countries – to advise them on image/reputation control and overall crisis management in connection with all that stuff Butch knew nuthin’ about.
Using such firms in such circumstances is not uncommon, of course, for high profile institutions. Hiring the consultants is one thing. Having that word get out is another. Alas, as a public institution there are few/no closets in which to conceal such an arrangement. ABCers are predictably enjoying an early Christmas present with this latest news.
The cost of the consult – $14,092 – was covered by private foundation funds not taxpayer dollars. It included one on-site visit and some phone calls. I’m betting neither BOTBob nor BOTBarbara contributed to the private funding.
Considering some of Dickie’s “He Said WHATS”, can you imagine if he had
He Said WHAT?
NOT had a prominent NYC-based consultant advising him. “We saw it in their eyes” is still my favorite. Wonder if BOTBarbara’s “Is all this hurting recruiting?” was OKed by either Mr Hill or Mr Knowlton?
Robert Quinn’s “I thought he was just giving me those (TWO DIAMOND) watches as a gift because he wanted to be my friend.” was a humdinger. Imagine that without a consultant.
And ….. offices in 44 countries. Beyond a dozen United Nations big’uns, the other 30 or so must be trivia questions. Imagine your daughter bringing home the Hill & Knowlton office manager in Upper Volta.
I’ve known Art for many years. A good man of strong opinions. Expressing controversial opinions about your employer’s major client is a recipe for a toxic cocktail. Details as we get’em. Better get a mop – could get kinda messy.
♦♦♦
“Having to play football outdoors in Minnesota IN THE COLD!” AAARRRGGHH!
Somewhere Bud Grant, Carl Eller, Mick Tinglehoff, Max McGee and Jerry Kramer are laughing their butts off.
“It ain’t really football weather ’til you can see your breath …. but can’t feel your toes.”
I just made that up but Fuzzy Thurston mighta said it if he’d thought of it.
My new sports hero is Hunter “The Holder” Smith …. former holder / punter for the Redskins. Hunter was fired this week after muffing a bad snap on a game-losing PAT miss …. and for generally not punting all that well. Commenting on his dismissal, Hunter said ….
“I don’t want to make this too serious — we are talking about football here — but it is a moral duty on some level to tell the truth and to take responsibility. And I won’t go off too much on my values and things like that, but I believe that I’m a part of a generation, really, the Lawsuit Generation. Everything is somebody else’s fault.
People that are my age — and a little younger, and a little older — want to blame somebody else, and they tend to want to self-protect. And I really reject that as a pattern of behavior, and as a pattern of morality. It’s not how I’m going to live my life. When I make a mistake, I’m going to own up to it. And really, that’s kind of what all this comes down to.”
Needless to say, The NFLPA is not appealing Hunter’s dismissal. But has put a bounty on his head for speaking Truth. I’m voting Hunter Smith into Canton on the first ballot.
