Cleveland Browns save cash, cut Paul Kruger
August 29, 2016Indians licking wounds after 2-5 road trip: Ball Played
August 29, 2016Happy Monday, WFNY faithful. Leave it to the Cleveland Browns to usurp my attempt to have this column be the first post you read on these very pages on this very Monday. It would appear that the Browns will be attempting to run the first ever zero-linebacker defense, what with the trade of Barkevious Mingoβa solid return, might I addβand now the outright release of Kruger.
One has to wonder how the big man truly feels (Yes, I read his “thank you” that includes how it was “absolutely the wrong decision”) in the wake of getting cut this far into the process. Don’t forget, these guys prefer to have a shot at playing for other teams, joining them early in the free agent process. You can’t fault the Browns for preferring to have as much information as possible before making a roster moveβand it could be added that their cutting him now as opposed to the 53-man moves was doing him a bit of a favorβbut if Donte Whitner was upset about his timing, you have to imagine that Paul isn’t too thrilled.
Sportsball: Eleven Turns Ten
I know we’ve been trading in a lot of meta, behind-the-scenes type discussions lately, but airing thoughts like we did on our podcast last week (or with Craig’s follow-up on the matter) is healthy while adding a level of transparency. The conversation was entirely unscripted, much like the launch of this very site. But whenever I’m asked about blogging or internet writing and what it takes to produce an outlet that can stand the test of timeβwhich, when it comes to the internet is one hell of a testβI always refer back to the guys at Eleven Warriors, the fantastic Ohio State-centric site that, in a day where others are struggling for traffic, they continue to grow.
It wasn’t until they produced this oral history that I realized that are celebrating their 10 years of existence. WFNY will be turning nine this February, placing us in a similar class when it comes to launch and tenure, but that’s about where the comparisons end. The guys and gals who have published work on the pages of Eleven Warriors have taken it from a site that made roughly $400 in it’s first two years to one that does that in less than a day. Independent from Day 1, there has been no reliance on a corporate fire hose. Instead, just hard work, sacrifice, and the willingness to understand what works and what doesn’t and do more of the former.
Like most others, they got their feet wet by aggregating the work of others, providing their unique angles in a repackaged piece of work. It wouldn’t be long before they were attending every practice, press conference, media day events, and breaking news, completely changing the game of what an independent site could do with just a handful of writersβthey had six at the time in 2009.
We are 99.7% sure Urban Meyer has agreed to a deal to become the next coach of Ohio State. Solid sources. Plural.
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) November 18, 2011
That’s a substantial new item that helps put any website on the map. But it’s the stuff 11W has done since then that has made them what they are. My favorite snippet comes from Ramzy, who said “Eleven Warriors was the informed response to a media that was trying its hardest to create more interest and programming.”
SB Nation offered to buy them way back when, a move that would have been super hard to pass up for the vast majority of those who do this grind daily. Now, their Twitter account has 140,000 followers. Their readers help fund their first full-time hire. They go to away games, have their own beat reporters and photographers, publish podcasts, and produce amazing posters before each Ohio State football game. They’re now the No. 1 college site in the world. And before anyone says “Yeah, but Ohio State fans are a different breed,” make sure you pour one out for the countless Buckeye-related sites that have tried, and failed, to do the same. That’s akin to asking a photographer what kind of camera he usesβyou’re completely overlooking the hustle. Like Craig discussed in both the podcast and his piece, it’s about finding ones place and damn did those guys do just that.
Congrats to Eleven Warriors. They’ve managed to make all the right moves, even in the face of some headwinds (many legal ones, by the way) over the years. Looking to jump in the blogging game now? Be Eleven Warriors. Just realize it’s going to take some time and a truck load of effort.
Technobabble: Is Twitter in Trouble?
There’s an excellent story in WIRED which was published earlier this week that lays out the social media tendencies (and “rules”) for a handful of random teenagers. If you’re a parent, you could learn a bit about what your teenager is doing as he or she is glued to their phone, but there was one overriding theme to the entire (well-written) story: Teenagers use Facebook to stay connected to family, but their engagement with friends is entirely done through Instagram and Snapchat with selfies and likes reining supremeβand none of them are Twitter.
Teens, though, are remarkably elusive. You could follow one on Twitter (although the majority avoid the platform) or chat with them during gameplay on Xbox Live, but for the most part itβs very weird for everyone. Besides, ask any teen how to use social mediaβwhat those rules areβand they wonβt be able to tell you a thing. But ask them targeted questions and theyβll break down a palimpsest of etiquette in rote, exhaustive detail: the moon emoji (indicates awkwardness), screengrabbing Snapchat messages (donβt do it), and Instagram selfie saturation points (no back-to-backs). To them the rules are a birthright. To most of us adults, theyβre as mysterious as the flight patterns of bees.
We spoke a bit last week of Twitter’s new quality filter and their evolution into a news site as opposed to social media so perhaps this makes sense, but could it also signal a gigantic headwind for the company? A younger brother of a friend of mine and I were chatting at a wedding a few weeks back, and were discussing news. Verbatim, he told me that the only time he sees news if he swipes too far on his iPhone, going past the home screen where Apple provides top headlines. With teenagers focusing more on media forms that are about them more than news outlets, Snapchat placing news items atop their stories screen makes sense, but this certainly won’t help the future.
I ran a quick demo poll of my followers on Sunday afternoon, and the results1 came back with 91 percent of my followers being male (because sports), but 99 percent of my followers being older than 18. I’m not about to sit here and pretend that I’m the beacon for all things local sports, but 1 percent is an insanely low numberβthere are five times as many folks older than 46 years of age. The target demographic of 18-34 is very well represented, but a good chunk of folks currently in this slot won’t be in a few years. Advertisers are flocking to both Instagram and Snapchat due to the growth of their younger demographic and Twitter, while still one of the best places to trade in memes and watercooler-like discussion, is slowly becoming what Facebook did a few years back. I don’t know what the answer is, but it’s obvious that old people ruin everything.
Culture for the kids: Iman Shumpert Won the Weekend
Odds are, you were not watching the MTV Video Music Awards last night, but if you were like me, you witnessed Twitter blow up in real time as NBA Champion Iman Shumpert was featured in Kanye West’s new video “Fade.” West took to the stage and rambled a bit in the way that Kanye does, but then unveiled his newest video which is Teyana Taylorβwife of Shumpertβdancing up a new-age Flashdance to The Life of Pablo track.
In the last few moments of the video, Taylor took to the shower with Shumpert, and finished off with a scene with the two of them completely naked with their daughter, June, in the middle of a room full of sheep. Yes, that sentence was insane to write, but see for yourself as Twitter immediately crowned Shumpert the night’s biggest winner:
I'll just leave this here #Fade pic.twitter.com/X49i47opxp
— CJ Fogler 6'7" IQ 269 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) August 29, 2016
That was the greatest dunk of Iman Shumpert's life #VMAs pic.twitter.com/NNWmUfai2b
— The Ringer (@ringer) August 29, 2016
https://twitter.com/cthagod/status/770078095118364672
Iman Shumpert, came back from down 3-1 in the Finals. Then shot this music video. Every Cav is living this summer.
— Justin Tinsley (@JustinTinsley) August 29, 2016
Imagine how proudly Iman Shumpert is smiling right now.
— myles brown (@mdotbrown) August 29, 2016
Shumpert got 2 chips in less than 6 months …… #VMAs2016
— Mr. Just The Facts (@Sneakersensei) August 29, 2016
Iman Shumpert is the real MVP.
— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) August 29, 2016
Iman Shumpert, NBA Champion (via @cjzero) pic.twitter.com/Uu9ML3Fq4F
— Scott @ WFNY (@WFNYScott) August 29, 2016
You are all very welcome. #teyanataylor shouts to Ye
— Iman. (@imanshumpert) August 29, 2016
If you wish to see the whole video, head to TIDALβthough I wouldn’t recommend any of you watch it in front of your boss, and especially not the head of your HR department. Shump though.
#ActualSportswriting
“Welcome to the Big Time” by Don Van Natta Jr. (ESPN OTL): “As quickly as it boomed, the industry bottomed. One year after their headiest moments, FanDuel and DraftKings are still not profitable. Both privately held companies’ valuations have been sliced — by more than half, according to some estimates. The companies have hemorrhaged tens of millions of dollars in legal and lobbying expenses. (DraftKings’ attorneys fees once ran as high as $1 million per week.) And the fog bank of the industry’s uncertain future has made it nearly impossible for either company to raise new money.”2
“Josh Norman: I’m the best cornerback on earth” by Kevin Van Valkenburg (ESPN The Magazine): “It’s May in Paris, and Josh Norman and I are standing in the Louvre Museum. We are politely swimming through a sea of tourists, hoping to see some of the world’s greatest art. We are sleep-deprived from our trans-Atlantic flight. Neither one of us can speak a lick of French. For Norman, it’s his first time out of the United States. Culturally, we’re flying blind. It’s the perfect time to contemplate just how gauche it would be to take selfies with the Mona Lisa.”3
“49ersβ Colin Kaepernick sat during national anthem and sparked national debate; whatβs your contribution?” by Marcus Thompson (Bay Area News): “What are you doing for anybody? The truth is most people arenβt doing anything, and certainly not enough. Yet many have all the answers for what others should be doing and how they should do it. We can evaluate whether Kaepernickβs stance was effective, whether he has the boots-on-the-ground work to support his vocal stance. We can discuss the context surrounding his choice, including his wealth. But itβs fruitless if the debaters arenβt on the field, any field.”4
“Even Roger Federer Gets Old” by Brian Phillips (New York Times): “It seems poignant, to me at least, that an essay depicting Federer as transcending the body and a commercial depicting Federer as transcending time should pass across the tennis worldβs news feed at a moment when the real Federer is home with an injury. And not just an injury β an old-person injury, a dad injury. Federerβs dark post-bathtime of the soul feels different from the typical sports layoff, I think, because it brings to the surface a tension thatβs been seeping into his persona for a few years now: How do you square the image of the transcendent, unchanging champion with the fact of a player who is growing old?”5
And finally, some video: John Oliver on Superhero Movies
Have a great Monday, you guys. Just know, at best, you’re coming in second place behind Shump. Fade.
- 417 responses [↩]
- Daily Fantasy is still around, but the commercials are much fewer and further between. More than 50 interviews went into this excellent investigative piece of work. DVN continues to kill it for ESPN. [↩]
- When your takeout style profile spawns countless blog entries based on quotes or anecdotes, you’ve won. Great work by KVV here. That he was called out by PFT for “questionable timing” of the publication makes it that much better. [↩]
- A well-written column on one of the more polarizing topics in recent days. [↩]
- Your gentle reminder to read everything Brian Phillips writes and that, along with the Thompson story,Β columns too can be #ActualSportswriting. [↩]
34 Comments
On Twitter, I really see the platform diverging into two subsets of use in coming years whether or not it diverges into two separate Apps or one with two different use-cases.
Note: my opinions w/o inside knowledge into if they will happen.
Use-case1: “the blue check” — those with the blue check can post in read-only mode where no one can respond to them unless they also have a “blue check” Pure news filter feeds w/ the added benefit of the newsies people being able to have public communication between them but w/o the harrassment that currently follows. Also, an elitist class of Twitter, which people strive to create. Note: the opening of the blue check to commoners recently I believe is part of the establishment here.
Use-case2: “commoner class” — similar to how it works now. basically, instant messaging on an open platform for the masses. better filtering features continually added though so that more of what you want to see in your TL appears and less of what you don’t, which will ultimately push many of the attention-seekers to a different platform.
I would amend your statement about teens and social media. I don’t think it is about “them” as a demographic, I am of the strong about it is about “me” and putting “my stuff” and “my self” out there. Whether or not that content is consumed is irrelevant to them. They don’t fish for likes, retweets or reposts. They want to be scream into the uncaring void of the internet and pretend their voice matters. Snapchat particularly is the holy grail of safe spaces.
On Kaep, while I don’t like people sitting for the National Anthem due to it being seen by many as a dig at those who have defended the flag, I understand his desire to do something. He feels strongly on the issue and is seeing it fall back on the wayside as national discussion has been rather muted on it since the ESPY’s.
Kaep didn’t duck questions – he doesn’t see it as a dig. He sees it as utilizing his freedom that they defended in a way that will capture people’s attention to the issue and start discussions. It certainly has whether or not it was the best way to do so.
Sure. Dude absolutely has the right to do this as a statement if he wants, though I personally think the statement is foolish, feckless, ineffective, and not a little hypocritical. The great and horrible thing is, everyone else also has the right to have and voice their opinion about him and what he’s doing. Many of those opinions are also foolish, feckless, ineffective, and hypocritical, but they exist as of right. I’m just not sure we (collectively, nationally) really get anywhere as a result.
Traditionally, the red stripes on the flag stand for the blood of those that have sacrificed for the country. That sacrifice doesn’t actually have anything to do with the flag itself, but the flag metaphysically embodies it (or was intended to do so). When I think about what that sacrifice really was, in terms of the individual millions that have given it, I realize that the scope of that meaning is hugely broad (in the millions). For some, that sacrifice even includes the flag itself. For some, it includes what Kaepernick is doing; so I can’t even say that what he is doing is an affront to that blood sacrifice. For some, it surely is; for some, it surely isn’t; for some, it’s actually the sacrifice itself.
That may only make sense in my mind. Sorry. Philosophical rant over.
“They don’t fish for likes, retweets or reposts.”
I disagree here. If you check out that piece, a frequent move in their space is to post something and then if it doesn’t get the reaction they were looking for, it gets deleted. The one kid in particular sets a time window where if his Instagram upload doesn’t have 40 “likes”, it gets the axe.
You may not be too far off. My “mentions” have the ability to separate those mentions from verified users and those from everyone else. I didn’t know if this was a product of me being verified of if everyone has this, but if it’s the former, it is definitely creating classes. It’s also why the “commoner class” (to borrow your term) is being pushed down timelines with the new filters.
As it pertains to teens, I can see this being a huge turn-off as they’re obviously in the second class. Snapchat and IG allows them to create their own sort of ecosystem. Twitter holds a lot of the leverage.
It captured attention, but if he feels strongly about this, and this is all he is going to do about it, he is lame.
I do not have this option (as I don’t have the blue check mark) nor did I know this existed before you just mentioned it. Thanks – makes it seem an even stronger possibility now.
I don’t think Twitter is targeting teens as much as being a place to gather information nor do I think they need to. If they do what they do well, then they can continue strongly and branch off a different App to try to capture that market. Or, branch off that entire “commoner class” as its own 2nd App where those private ecosystems can thrive.
Re-watching Seinfeld in the late hours (newborn). The skits he does at the beginning/end of episodes are so dated, yet still hold up with minor tweaks.
One such skit was about how people desperately held onto non-friendships in order to have the red light blinking with a message when they got home. Not that either side wanted to talk to each other, but it was just comforting to know that there were random people out there who “liked” them enough to leave a message.
Social media has blown up this concept 1000x (well, more).
He’s doing plenty of interviews about it. Not sure what the endgame is though as he has noted he will continue until some abstract “progress” is made.
Hahaha. It does make some sense in there
My experience is limited to family. None of my nieces or nephews use instagram. It is all Snapchat. Instagram added stories to try to capture this market but it seems floppish like Google Circlea.
It’s scary in there for anyone but me.
Best thing about Kaepernick’s statement is the timing.
Le Batard is on vacation this week, so I’m not subjected to his insufferable social justice warrioring.
Kaep has been doing it all preseason. Media only noticed this last game.
He is being successful (in bringing attention upon himself…mostly negative and mostly oddly timed in light of shitty team and shitty performance…and he doesn’t really articulate an end game)…but he is technically doing “something!”
Shumpert is really good at being cool and at being relevant in the entertainment world. I wish he was better at basketball
Yeah, he’s got a 3-step process
Step 1: Get attention on himself to discuss the issue
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit, errr fix the issue
I’ve got some VERY liberally minded friends who are niners fans..and the consensus is that the negatives far outweigh any attention he may be shining onto legitimate social issues. What a cluster F. Hey…at least we are not SF, right?!
Just wait for the outcry when he gets cut. π
Chip Kelly!
Being good at basketball is finite. Being cool lives on forever.
I’m not sure much in recent memory has made me realize how old I am than Shumpert getting praise for being in that video scene that you describe above.
I want you to deliver that line in my eulogy
I was doing some related research on social networks and decided to grab the instagram numbers:
41% of Instagram users are ages 16-24 (Shocking to me)
1.1% is the average engagement rate for an Instagram post (matches more with my understanding of users throwing crap out without caring who likes it)
But this is the number that knocked me on my butt:
80% of instagram users are outside the USA. I mean from talking to teens/twenty-something family members I was under the impression instagram wasn’t cool but I had no idea it was that uncool.
http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/important-instagram-stats/
With the following sentence: “Unfortunately, CB Everett was neither.”
Well that’s true. Ok at least toss a shovel full of lye on me if it’s not too much to ask.
Oh, we’ll do all three!
The “Michael Sam” approach at desperately clinging to a roster spot?
And now he says that he’ll continue to sit through the anthem until the country changes. The whole country. This guy has it figured out, and clearly understands his importance on the national scene! Racists everywhere are ON NOTICE. KAEPERNICK IS NOT STANDING UP UNTIL YOU CHANGE.
Just wait until all the racists decide to counter protest and sit down too. And then next thing you know, there’s an epic stand off and no one is standing. And then the racists and Kaepernick will never solve our country’s problems!
Fortunately, Sam himself didn’t play the Gay Card when he got cut. We’ll see if Colin is as wise…
Yeah, the cynic in me (which is, like, 100% of me) thinks he played the card in advance to (a) insure that he got drafted, and (b) to insure that he wouldn’t get cut. It turned out to be a 50% solution. I think he quickly realized that the “can’t play football” card presented by the Rams trumped the card he already played.
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