Les Bowen, the stale stick of gum in an old pack of Topps, used the summer sports doldrums as an excuse to fill his mandated column today with yet another complaint about the access Chip Kelly provides to the media, this less than a week after it took an out-of-town reporter, doing actual reporting, for us to learn that Kelly was married for seven years (!!!). Mr. Bowen:
Somehow the writers and Kelly got into friendly banter about the Philadelphia media and fanbase. To us, the reason the Eagles have an unusually large media corps is pretty obvious – this is a huge market where people care more about their NFL team than anything else in sports, or maybe even in their lives. There isn’t another market this size whose passion compares, except maybe Dallas.
The New York market is split, and baseball is still bigger than football there. Baseball also carries more heft in Chicago and New England, and probably in San Francisco, where pro sports just don’t produce a Northeastern-style fervor. Houston has an expansion team.
Those of us on the Eagles beat would say the Birds are covered the way they are covered because covering the Eagles in Philadelphia is like covering the Vatican in Rome.
The Eagles’ coach, who will open his third training camp when players report to NovaCare on Saturday, flat-out rejects this premise. Chip Kelly believes he has a huge media throng following him not because of the extraordinary depth of fan interest here, but because . . . well, apparently for no real good reason, just because we want to be a pain in his butt.
Jesus Christ, Les– pump your brakes.
Les is on the wrong side of the generational divide here. This isn’t 1986. Passionate Eagles fans don’t hang on every scripted or planned word said by an on-guard coach or exec to ‘splain themselves. He’s right that Philly is one of the biggest football markets, with the most fan interest and arguably largest media presence. But the premise that a larger media contingent is simply supply keeping up with demand is misguided for the following reasons I am about to list in my web-based formatting style geared toward millennial readers with shorter attention spans:
1) Philly has a sprawling suburban landscape and, as a city, typically has far less going on than its rival top five markets, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Ergo football is often the story, partly because of fan interest, and partly because our city trips over itself almost every time it’s involved in something noteworthy… like the Pope’s visit. We’re a fat city in a little suit. We’re like the 13 Going on 30 of cities– we look the part, but go running for the familiar arms of Mark Ruffalo at the first sight of an adult penis. So we rarely get the big stuff, and that leaves the many, many local papers, small radio stations, TV outlets and even websites frothing at the mouth for Eagles content. It’s what sells papers.
2) 90% of said smaller local outlets, and many of the big ones, too, are all producing the exact same content, using the same canned quotes, and regurgitating the same press releases [Example: Yesterday, five minutes after the Flyers announced that they re-signed Sean Couturier, Flyers beat writer Wayne Fish, who works for whatever local paper, tweeted: #Flyers sign Couturier to multi-year contract extension. It was redundant and unnecessary. No one is going to Fish’s Twitter for this news. In 1990, or even 2005, this would’ve looked like a journalist breaking a story. Now he could’ve just retweeted the Flyers’ actual account, or at least quoted their short release (we did this, and though it added little value, I assure you there are people who stumbled upon the site not knowing the news. Few, if any, are stumbling upon Fish’s Twitter account).] So the number of media members matters little, and Chip knows this. Just because there are 50 people there to hear him say he’s [not racist] [hasn’t decided on a starting quarterback] [doesn’t believe in depth charts] doesn’t mean they’re actually adding any value. So Chip doesn’t see the need to placate the media simply because there are more passionate fans in Philly.
3) Les played his the voice of the people card which so many of his colleagues typically play. But doing so is completely out-of-touch with most of his audience, because, again, 90% of the quotes and information the media obtains and regurgitates can be done by the team itself, without a clumsy middleman to misconstrue the message. Where there’s real value added by the media is in actual reporting – Washington Post story on Chip – or with insightful analysis, made meaningful due to their access, such as Sheil Kapadia’s breakdowns, Tim McManus’ news-breaking, etc. Bowen and many of his peers showing up to punch the clock and write the same readily-available story does little to serve the fan base Bowen claims to serve.
You can argue that Chip is arrogant, sure, but complaining that he doesn’t do a lot of press conferences is just lame.
30 Responses
Hi, I’m Les Bowen, and I’m an old piece of shit. Your Eagles coverage has no value. Please retire.
Can you please submit your resignation from WIP?
Thanks,
Signed Jolly
“…but go running for the familiar arms of Mark Ruffalo at the first sight of an adult penis.”
What is this suppose to mean? I fail to understand.
Can you please stop asking stupid fucking questions every time there is a post on here? Its obvious from the context that its a reference to the movie 13 Going on 30. Now, I have no doubt that you haven’t seen that movie (nor have I) but read the whole sentence and try using context clues. Remember those? Learned about those second grade.
Also, if you don’t know something, there is this new thing called “Google.” Its a magic website that lets you type things into it and then it finds information about the thing you typed for you to read. Its a miracle!
You’re right. I never saw the movie because I’m not 15 years old. Maybe that’s why there is no context, because I don’t understand what the hell the phrase was kid. Also, getting upset with another anonymous commenter on the internet is akin to winning the Special Olympics. Congratulations.
Feel better?
Begs the question…
Anything on the Special Olympics?
Yea, you’re right Bob. Getting upset with a blogger on a website you voluntarily go to every day because you can’t grasp basic reading comprehension skills is SO MUCH more intelligent and refined.
Someone show Bob an adult penis, and then he’ll understand.
Sounds fabulous! When should I be ready?
Pot calling the kettle black much?
What do you have against the Special Olympics?
“I fail to understand” – Bob’s Life Story
Bingo
It’s a disgrace we didn’t know chip was married. im so annoyed
You don’t represent the Eagles’ fan base. go away
Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Kyle the ass-kicking Les Bowen is going to give you will be legendary.
GO DODGERS!!!
you suck. go back to spending the day calling every radio station in town.
Who the hell did his market research? he is so out of touch.
13 going on 30 is a good movie man.
This is a rant so lame Josh Innes would be impressed.
the car commercial where the grandkid asks his grandfather about his younger days as a world class downhill skier…..when it shows him at a press conference and he says ” The Media…….is useless”.
Compared to Chip Kelly, Andy Reid was an auctioneer.
Chip realizes in this day and age, information is a weapon.
Hey Mikey Miss – would you like ot take a shout at my contest? Wanna co-host with me?
Didn’t think so.
Columns like this is why the NFL is becoming annoying. It isn’t a 365 day league unlike what most reporters tell you. It’s just a sport. Anyone who actually cares that chip Kelly was married clearly has nothing else going on with their life. Does it affect his coaching? No. Why didn’t it come up? Noone asked and why should it be anyone’s business? Does chip go around asking other people what there relationship history is?
The NFL has turned the media especially NFL media into the most pompous assholes you will ever come across. Schefter tweeted a man’s medical records. Did anyone need that? All these media guys are just clinging onto the NFL teet bc it is the cool thing to do. They think that because is the most watched sport, then that makes them the most important people in the planet. Some appear to think they’re more important than the players and coaches themselves.
Espn is doing a 2 hour special on the Cowboys training camp. Who finds that interesting? It’s a bunch of guys standing around doing nothing. It’s gotten out of control and at this point I’m looking forward to the demise because it will happen one day and I think the decline has started.
End rant.
Agreed. I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter.
I agree.
Anyone see my latest selfie on Twitter? Anyone?
I do.
And aside from being able to get content online for free, isn’t this also one of the REAL reasons that newspapers are dying that NO ONE in that industry seems to get? Give us real reporting that take some in-depth researching and investigation or give us real analysis that presents a unique perspective…that’s the basis of the success of blogs, spin-off websites, etc.
Kyle you fucking little new yorker wannabe. Get the fuck out. That first point you posted is trash.
I never really understood all the ripping you get on here, but now I do.
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