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  • Locked thread
Vincent Van Goatse
Nov 8, 2006

Enjoy every sandwich.

Smellrose
Frank Clark because holy poo poo. Also he's a perfect example of an rear end in a top hat douche.

Some guys are douches. Other guys are assholes. A douche is not the same thing as an rear end in a top hat. Aaron Hernandez was an rear end in a top hat which is why he was never eligible for Douche of the Year. Then there are the rare assholes who are also douches. Frank Clark is one of those.

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Grittybeard
Mar 29, 2010

Bad, very bad!

Vincent Van Goatse posted:

Some guys are douches. Other guys are assholes. A douche is not the same thing as an rear end in a top hat. Aaron Hernandez was an rear end in a top hat which is why he was never eligible for Douche of the Year. Then there are the rare assholes who are also douches. Frank Clark is one of those.

Yeah, some guys might try to keep their nose clean and maybe even make amends after a particularly terrible incident where they beat the poo poo out of their girl and get off scot free. Not Frank Clark, he's out there doing work.

Air Skwirl
May 13, 2007

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed shitposting.

Grittybeard posted:

Yeah, some guys might try to keep their nose clean and maybe even make amends after a particularly terrible incident where they beat the poo poo out of their girl and get off scot free. Not Frank Clark, he's out there doing work.

Yeah, I'm going Frank Clark.

iospace
Jan 19, 2038


Frank Clark

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

Yeah we can call this one early. Frank Clark defeats the Bengals, 30-4.

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

Jason Whitlock vs. Bob Kraft

Leperflesh posted:

Jason Whitlock
Jason Lee Whitlock (born April 27, 1967) is a sports journalist. He co-hosts the daily sports TV show Speak For Yourself alongside Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports 1. Whitlock is a former sportswriter for ESPN and a former columnist at the Kansas City Star, AOL Sports and Foxsports.com, as well as a radio personality for WHB and KCSP sports stations in the Kansas City area.

Due to lazy nominators and an oversight on my part, I have no quote from a goon about Whitlock and have to go googling myself to find things out. The top results are about something to do with LeBron that just happened and is thus fodder for next year's contest, but there's this article about his special black sports news site:
http://deadspin.com/how-jason-whitlock-is-poisoning-espns-black-grantland-1698683962

quote:

Thus far, The Undefeated has produced vastly more inward-facing copy than outward-facing copy. Whitlock is big on having detailed notes taken on phone calls and meetings; they are often routed to one of his private email accounts in ways that bypass ESPN servers. But the portrait of Whitlock that emerges from these notes is not flattering. He comes across as a catastrophe as a manager—paranoid, demeaning, oblivious, vindictive, unbelievably self-regarding, and, in some cases, truly destructive. In these documents, for instance, is evidence that Whitlock used a friend’s work in a column without proper attribution, hired her, and then fired her after having asked her, among other things, not to speak unless spoken to in meetings. ESPN later allowed that in his dealings with her, he had violated its conduct policy.

In all, the notes tell a more compelling story about black life in America than anything The Undefeated has produced. And they point to one conclusion: Before it’s even launched, this site is already doomed.

The article is quite long and fully documents the level of Whitlock's massive, massive douchebaggery towards everyone else involved in the project. It also mentions this incident:

quote:

Last fall, for instance, when white St. Louis Cardinals fans were filmed shouting “Go back to Africa!” and the like at an anti-police brutality demonstration, Whitlock criticized them by noting that “to ignore the obvious inappropriate/trolling behavior of the black protesters is a form of hipster-approved white supremacy that is equally dangerous.” In a December follow-on, he compared coverage of police violence against blacks to that of missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370, ridiculed black parents who have “the talk” with their teenaged sons about how to interact with police, and mused on the benefits of Jim Crow. (This is the one he placed right alongside Ta-Nehisi Coates’s epic case for reparations on his “great content” list.)

These aren’t outliers; they are expressions of the priors—“his stupid black neocon poo poo,” one ESPN colleague calls it—the site is meant to defend.

And this one:

quote:

On March 10, in the wake of a video leaking of Oklahoma University Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members singing a song that contained the lyrics, “There’ll never be a friend of the family in SAE,” Whitlock penned his first column in over three months.

It was typical Whitlock. He sidestepped any real criticism of the SAE brothers and instead trained his eye on blacks’ role in provoking white racism. He used a video of an OU linebacker’s profane, pained response to the video as evidence of how a 50-year “unrelenting attack on Dr. King’s dignified, nonviolent strategy to circumvent white supremacy swept up black millennials, too.”
...
Whitlock went on, blaming Ronald Reagan and, of all people, long-dead rapper Eazy-E for having inspired the “Selfie Generation, the most photographed and least reflective generation of young people America has ever produced.”

Six days later, the columnist followed up with a rare solo appearance on his ESPN podcast, Real Talk. He made it very clear from the beginning that this was to be a Very Special Episode, urging young listeners to “demand that your high school or college or even junior high teacher or history professor play this podcast for your class.”
...
In judging the younger generation a disappointment so profound that they have reversed the course of American history, and then beating his breast over having led them astray, Whitlock constructed perhaps the most outrageous, condescending, egomaniacal, and oblivious non-apology of a long career full of them.

From there, Whitlock decried the way millennials have lost their way somewhere along the path King laid out for future generations; equated Malcolm X, whom he’d dismissed a week before as merely an orator, with King; bemoaned the way millennials have strayed from his path, too; said the younger generation was self-involved because his own generation didn’t show them enough love; said young blacks don’t know black history because of the very integration of schools that King fought for; railed, again, against the word “nigga”; introduced his theory that while King fought against policy, this generation is fighting against feelings; said that he loved his mom, but Twitter not so much; shrugged off police brutality, and police body cameras; took on Ta-Nehisi Coates, a writer he at one time would have loved to recruit; divulged that he was a capitalist; and allowed that capitalism is built on unfairness.

All in all, it was batshit—arrogant, diffident, bitter, and resigned in equal measure. He was sulking, yes, but this was also the pained, anguished wail of a jilted lover. Jason Whitlock wants to be crowned a black leader, a black teacher. Even as he lambasts young black people, he yearns for their ear. But he knows he doesn’t have a claim.

“He realizes,” one person at The Undefeated said, “he hasn’t done anything to deserve this site.”

OK.

Magnetic North posted:

Whitlock. One of the douchiest things to do is to refuse to change while being simultaneously offended when you are not showered with adulation. It's possible you aren't selling what they want, friendo. Not everyone can be loved for who they are, and if you aren't one of those people, you can either must pander to be beloved, or you can be yourself but remain unloved.

PostNouveau posted:

Jason Whitlock saw Cosby fall off his perch and went, "Oh boy, now I can be the black guy who makes a bunch of money by making GBS threads on black people." I hope him and Charles Barkley spend eternity in hell arguing about which of them hates hip hop more.


Leperflesh posted:

Bob Kraft
Robert Kenneth Kraft (born June 5, 1941) is an American businessman. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of the Kraft Group, a diversified holding company with assets in paper and packaging, sports and entertainment, real estate development and a private equity portfolio. His sports holdings include the National Football League's New England Patriots, Major League Soccer's New England Revolution, and the stadium in which both teams play, Gillette Stadium.


Bob Kraft loves Donald Trump and wants to kiss him on the mouth.

Vincent Van Goatse posted:

Belichick and Bob Kraft: being generally evil and also Trump.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2017/05/03/robert-kraft-patriots-deflategate-trump/101237572/

quote:

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said “envy and jealousy” played a role in the NFL’s Deflategate sanctions over a violation he described as “nonsense and foolishness" at a business leader summit on Tuesday night.

quote:

“Well, I don’t hold grudges, but I also don’t forget anything,” Kraft said with a smirk. “Envy and jealousy are incurable diseases. I’m going into my 24th season as an owner. I’m passionate about owning a football team in my hometown.

"If I hadn’t won, I would be so angry at our folks and thinking about what we’d have to do (to win a title). So, our competitors, I understand how they brought pressure on the league office to be very strong and (lobbied) not to compromise on an issue that was nonsense and foolishness.”

quote:

Kaft praised his team’s ability to go 3-1 without Brady at the start of the 2016 regular season. He called the Patriots’ historic comeback victory against the Atlanta Falcons at Super Bowl LI a “great lesson for the millennials on how hard work, perseverance and never giving up” can pay off.

Kraft also discussed his 25-year friendship with President Donald Trump...

Kraft doesn’t like how Trump is often portrayed in the media, but added that “part of that is self-inflicted.”

“He doesn't mean everything he says,” Kraft said. “I'm privileged to know that. People who don’t know him maybe don’t see the better side. I tell you one thing: He’s very hard-working."

Also, this:
http://deadspin.com/this-is-the-story-about-robert-krafts-casino-holdings-t-1794594130

quote:

It goes without saying (hey there, Las Vegas Raiders!) that the NFL’s gambling policy is a hypocritical mess. But now that I no longer work for Rupert Murdoch, I can plainly state that every word out of Roger Goodell’s mouth about legalized sports betting for the past 20 months has been nothing but lip service.
...
You can see for yourself. Just look up Patriots owner Robert Kraft with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Kraft is making money from casino gambling and sports betting, and the NFL knows all about it.

Why you didn’t learn about this before—at least not from me—is a story of a media mogul and his company’s golden goose, of the bulletproof owner of football’s most dominant franchise, and of the perfect nexus of NFL soft power: television billions, one-percenter alliances, and a press corps too deferential to risk upsetting either.
...
So at least since [August 2015], Goodell and the NFL’s Park Avenue office have been aware one of their owners has been flouting its zero-tolerance ban on casino ownership—a mortal-sin prohibition that dates to the league’s founding in 1920—with a backdoor investment in Caesars Entertainment, one of the world’s largest chains of casinos and sportsbooks.

Kraft’s support for legalized sports betting isn’t exactly a secret. He and Jerry Jones remain investors in the DraftKings daily fantasy site, which is allowed under NFL rules.
...
For the last three years, Kraft has held a spot on the board of directors of Manhattan private-equity behemoth Apollo Global Management. Among Apollo’s investments is one it made in 2008, when it teamed up with another private-equity outfit, TPG Capital, to buy a controlling 60 percent stake in Caesars.
...
Apollo will still share a 16 percent investment in Caesars Entertainment, and will possess what Apollo describes as “significant” investments in the powerhouse British-based bookmaker Ladbrokes (which takes NFL action) and in American Gaming Systems, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of slot machines and other casino games.

Kraft started amassing his current stake of 267,240 Class A shares in Apollo shortly after joining its board in May 2014.
...
Kraft’s investment in Apollo (worth approximately $7 million based on recent trading) is pocket change relative to an estimated $5.1 billion fortune that ranked the 75-year-old Kraft No. 102 on Forbes’ most recent list of the world’s richest people. Kraft doesn’t hide his role with Apollo, either, listing his board spot in his bio in the Patriots’ 2016 media guide. He’s listed on Apollo’s site as well.

Holding that position would appear to be a clear violation of the NFL’s gambling policy. While the policy allows for owners to have minor investments in equity firms like Apollo that invest in casinos, serving as an officer or director of a “publicly traded enterprise” with revenue from “gambling-related operations” is specifically banned. Apollo has been a major stakeholder in Caesars Entertainment since January 2008. That means Kraft began openly violating the league’s gambling policy the moment he joined Apollo’s board three years ago.
...
All of this, one imagines, wouldn’t go over well with Sheldon Adelson, Tony Romo, James Harrison, Tim Rooney, Chris Christie or anyone else who felt Goodell’s public wrath for their connections to legal sports gambling.
...
Warnings about gambling are posted in every NFL locker room, and all league personnel are regularly cautioned to avoid casinos. The announcement in mid-April that dozens of players will be fined for participating in an arm-wrestling tournament at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas without permission followed a lengthy legal fight with Romo (which the NFL won) over his bid to sponsor a 2015 fantasy football convention a casino-adjacent convention center. Members of the league’s officiating crews are advised against vacationing in Vegas.

The league’s zero-tolerance rule on casinos and gambling is even more strict for owners. In the most notable example, the NFL forced Tim Rooney—son of the Steelers’ beloved founder and NFL icon Art J. Rooney—to sell his entire stake in the team in 2008 because Yonkers Raceway, which he owned, received a gaming license.

The author, formerly a New York Post reporter, goes on to explain how this story was quashed within minutes back in 2015, most likely because Kraft or Goodell called up their buddy Rupert Murdoch and had it silenced. That act is outside our statute of limitations for this douechebag contest, but Kraft's ownership and apparently rules-violating presence on the Apollo's board remains.

Zurreco posted:

Bob Kraft is a poo poo heel owner who enables Belichick and Brady, believes in the Patriot Way, and even weaponized his wife's death to bolster the brand. He also promoted the idea that Deflategate was a conspiracy against Brady and, when he saw the writing on the wall, tried to throw himself onto the sword to spare Brady to make himself look like an innocent owner.

gently caress him.

Grittybeard
Mar 29, 2010

Bad, very bad!
I don't think anyone is going to take my vote away from Whitlock here but I'll wait to see some arguments.

This is coming from one of a total of two goons who kinda like him a few years ago since his podcast was funny.

Cavauro
Jan 9, 2008

bob kraft. to be transparent i will explain why i'm voting this way. i am not racist (+1 point) and no one even knows what the other guy has done between May 19, 2016 through May 18, 2017 (+2 points) and that guy appears to be so large that he likely has a lot of difficulty in everyday life any how (no points left to gain, however if another reason was perhaps not strong enough for a full point then this certainly is)

sean10mm
Jun 29, 2005

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World
Whitlock

I think this sums it up nicely:

http://www.theroot.com/jason-whitlock-please-stfu-about-lebron-racism-every-1795762128

"Jason Whitlock, Please STFU About LeBron, Racism, Everyone, Everything Forever"

quote:

He’s an apologist mouthpiece for the racist side of whiteness, and has built his entire career on it, earning a space in the writing pantheon as the biggest black voice willing to publicly and continually bash black people under the guise of “helping” black people.

Kraft is an interchangeable NFL owner type who lucked into Belichck and Brady and is frankly just boring otherwise.

sean10mm
Jun 29, 2005

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World

Cavauro posted:

bob kraft. to be transparent i will explain why i'm voting this way. i am not racist (+1 point) and no one even knows what the other guy has done between May 19, 2016 through May 18, 2017 (+2 points) and that guy appears to be so large that he likely has a lot of difficulty in everyday life any how (no points left to gain, however if another reason was perhaps not strong enough for a full point then this certainly is)

Sadly you get -1,000 for being the Cavauro gimmick, and -3 for not using capitalization.

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

Cavauro posted:

bob kraft. to be transparent i will explain why i'm voting this way. i am not racist (+1 point) and no one even knows what the other guy has done between May 19, 2016 through May 18, 2017 (+2 points) and that guy appears to be so large that he likely has a lot of difficulty in everyday life any how (no points left to gain, however if another reason was perhaps not strong enough for a full point then this certainly is)

to be transparent as well I will explain that you got three points for this vote and you should feel good inside as a result

e. If I was grading on English, this whole subforum would be in so much trouble.

seiferguy
Jun 9, 2005

FLAWED
INTUITION



Toilet Rascal
Jason Whitlock, who's arguably the worst of the Kaepernick haters.

Edit: I know it's not in the football context, but his rant against LeBron when he had his house vandalized with the n-word was real bad.

Cavauro
Jan 9, 2008

sean10mm posted:

Sadly you get -1,000 for being the Cavauro gimmick, and -3 for not using capitalization.

I'm Glad You're having a fun time posting here as well

iospace
Jan 19, 2038


Jason Whitlock, by virtue of Sean10mm's logic, especially in regards to Kraft.

Ninurta
Sep 19, 2007
What the HELL? That's my cutting board.

Jason Whitlock.

CyberPingu
Sep 15, 2013


If you're not striving to improve, you'll end up going backwards.

iospace posted:

Jason Whitlock, by virtue of Sean10mm's logic, especially in regards to Kraft.

Air Skwirl
May 13, 2007

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed shitposting.
I hate to not vote for the Trump supporting Patriots owner, but Jesus Christ Jason Whitlock is loving vile. His stuff about Kaepernick is why I'm voting for him this year, but the poo poo he wrote about Serena Williams is god damned insane.

Shangri-Law School
Feb 19, 2013

Jason Whitlock

Zurreco
Dec 27, 2004

Cutty approves.
Whitlock

He a gently caress

WampaLord
Jan 14, 2010

I claimed earlier that in a contest between player and owner, I would always vote for the owner for douchebag out of class solidarity. This is true.

However, Jason Whitlock is a "journalist" and not a player, so gently caress him for being a douchebag of the highest order.

Magnetic North
Dec 15, 2008

Beware the Forest's Mushrooms
Leperflesh already quoted my thesis statement here, but let's take another angle on this.

You may or may not remember 5 years ago when a video of Robert Kraft was leaked where he was doing something a little silly with a woman 40 years his junior:

Wikipedia posted:

In June 2012, Kraft began dating actress Ricki Noel Lander. In July 2012, Kraft assisted Lander in creating an audition video for a role in The Internship, a then-upcoming Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson film. In the video, Kraft reads Wilson's lines for a bikini-clad Landers, dances briefly, curses, and throws a punch at another actor. After an anonymously supplied copy of the video was hosted on the Barstool Sports website, it went viral and became a subject of commentary on late-night television."

Now, February-December relationship aside, his public response was pretty chill.

Wikipedia posted:

Kraft issued a statement saying "I tried to help Ricki prepare an audition tape ... I never intended that it would be made public and I regret that it has. I think we can all agree that Owen Wilson has nothing to worry about. I am going to stick to my day job.

He owned up to it, and had a little fun at his own expense. Remember, this guy is a loving billionare. He could have done all manner of terrible poo poo to the institution that leaked this footage. Whether he didn't exact revenge because he thinks it'd be bad for the brand or because he found a way to cope with the embarrassment, no one can say. But you can't say anything about this is douchey.

Why am I talking about this, since it was not from this year? It's a parable. I want you to imagine what Jason Whitlock would have done if something like that had been released about him. He would have complained that it should never had been made public, and that it was unfair for people to mock him for just helping out a dear friend in need, and also it's your fault that you don't like his acting skills and how he's actually great and understands what the kids like and why can't he get people to rally behind him in his defense. We would still be hearing about the aftermath today.

Skwirl posted:

I hate to not vote for the Trump supporting Patriots owner

In Foundation and Empire, Magnifico describes why he was kept around by the Mule; he says he amused the Mule with his weakness and wretchedness, or something like that. If it came out that Kraft had a similar reason for keeping attachments to Trump, I would not be surprised.

Ches Neckbeard
Dec 3, 2005

You're all garbage, back up the truck BACK IT UP!
Have to vote for every racists black friend Jason Whitlock.

Cavauro
Jan 9, 2008

i've decided to change my vote to Whitlock from all the peer pressure in the private messaging service On here. Further, the p220 really makes me want to "shoot a number of bullets". We're almost to the big show boys. The real baddies.

Air Skwirl
May 13, 2007

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed shitposting.

Magnetic North posted:



In Foundation and Empire, Magnifico describes why he was kept around by the Mule; he says he amused the Mule with his weakness and wretchedness, or something like that. If it came out that Kraft had a similar reason for keeping attachments to Trump, I would not be surprised.

That doesn't make it better, in some ways it makes it worse.

Nystral
Feb 6, 2002

Every man likes a pretty girl with him at a skeleton dance.
I've spent some time thinking hard about my undying hatred of the Patriots and it has 100% to do with their fans. Robert Kraft, he who may have moved on too soon following the passing of his dear wife, who remains publicly friends with Donald J Trump, who wisely gave up a ring to Putin while in Russia. This man is not a douche, this man is just a man.

Jason Whitlock by default.

I expect this to be 1 point

pillsburysoldier
Feb 11, 2008

Yo, peep that shit

pillsburysoldier posted:

It's gonna be Whitlock and Clay Travis in the finals


Mmhmm Whitlock

Nit Wit Dog Shit
Sep 28, 2000

Toilet Rascal
Jason Whitlock is a piece of human wreckage.

pillsburysoldier
Feb 11, 2008

Yo, peep that shit

For the future: Clay Travis got his family kicked off a plane because his kids and wife have lice or something

He published an entire article about it playing up the victim stuff he likes to impugn others with lmao https://www.outkickthecoverage.com/delta-pulled-family-off-planes-saturday/

Grittybeard
Mar 29, 2010

Bad, very bad!

Grittybeard posted:

I don't think anyone is going to take my vote away from Whitlock here but I'll wait to see some arguments.

Yeah, this didn't happen.

Jason Whitlock.

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

pillsburysoldier posted:

For the future: Clay Travis got his family kicked off a plane because his kids and wife have lice or something

He published an entire article about it playing up the victim stuff he likes to impugn others with lmao https://www.outkickthecoverage.com/delta-pulled-family-off-planes-saturday/

We still need a new douchebag tracker thread for 2017-18...

anyway with an (eventually) unanimous decision, Jason Whitlock crushes Bob Kraft, 36-0.

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

Tom Brady vs. the Chargers Front Office

Leperflesh posted:

Tom Brady
Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American football quarterback for the New England Patriots of the National Football League.



Shangri-Law School posted:

Tom Brady for publicly calling his own wife and family breadwinner a liar through a hired goon. Tom Brady for helping to inflict Trump upon us. Tom Brady for being an unrepentant cheater. Tom Brady for bringing joy to the wretched people of Boston.

Tom Brady recently blew another opportunity to clarify that his wife isn't lying, unsurprisingly, because it is still the case in 2017 that admitting football scrambles your brains has serious career repercussions, and nobody is more focused on their career than Tom Brady.

As previously documented, Brady and Trump have been in love forever. More recently, maybe Brady and Trump have gotten a secret divorce, neither willing to repudiate the other publicly because of, again, career repercussions. Of course, Brady's (and the Patriots') prior cheating is outside of this year's consideration, but we may still charge him with letting another year of unrepentence go by. And, as for the wretched people of Boston, we have previously discussed their penchant for pretending to be underdogs while their team dominates its sport for a decade. Tom Brady is surely at least colluding and abetting that situation.

But to me, all of these items merely circle the central problem of Tom Brady, which is that he is a perfect metaphor for America. Consider:
  • America: global superpower with the strongest military. Brady: NFL superpower, with the strongest team.
  • America: cheats a lot, sometimes gets caught, is always defiantly unrepentant about it. Brady: same.
  • America: cloaks itself in a mantle of patriotism. Brady: literally a New England Patriot.
  • America: rich. Brady: rich.
  • America: much more republican than you want to admit. Brady: same.
  • America: probably concussed or something, but just gonna pretend we have a headache and ignore the likelihood of brain damage. Brady: yep.
  • America: has dominated for a long time but is probably in the very last years of its supremacy. Brady: is turning 40 this year and can't possibly keep up this level of performance for long.
  • America: No matter who you are or where you live, completely unavoidable. Tom Brady: same.
All this poo poo adds up to being a massive douchebag, and that really sums it up: Brady is intolerable because he is us, and we are intolerable.

Shangri-Law School posted:

Not only is Tom Brady everything I previously said about him, he is also a union member that sides with management, a form of life even lower than scabs.

Leperflesh posted:

Oh yeah that reminds me how he "helpfully" moved a big chunk of his compensation off-book, to be maximally friendly to management. E.g. he gets paid by his gym being on campus at the Patriots' playfield, for example. And other poo poo like this. Nothing 100% provable, but the Pats have like $7-$10M per year extra to play with due to the incredibly favorable deals Brady keeps signing.

Leperflesh posted:

Chargers Front Office
The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles Area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The Chargers front-office includes owners Alex and Dean Spanos, VC Michael Spanos, EVP CFO and COO Jeanne Bonk, various other Spanoses, executives including LaDainian Tomlinson, GM Tom Telesco, personnel directors, scouts, security, trainers and doctors, equipment managers, controllers and accountants, a marketing department, public relations, sales people, etc. etc. etc.

aperion posted:

That said, I'm going to also nominate the Chargers Front Office for causing the holdout of Joey Bosa, the very first rookie holdout since the 2011 CBA was agreed upon, showing that the Chargers are somehow able to gently caress up negotiations on something that's 98% structured already by said CBA. Link to some comments by John Spanos on the holdout.

This is part of a growing lovely trend of teams deciding to gently caress over high draft picks by insisting on spreading out the signing bonus and/or including unfavorable offset language in their rookie contracts. Drafted rookies have no real choice over who drafts them and that means they have almost no negotiating power: and while rookie salaries for draft picks are set by the league, apparently teams are able to dick around with signing bonuses and offsets etc. with impunity. Holding out - and thereby missing practice and potentially playtime during the most critical season of an NFL football player's life - is their only option and protection against team management's manipulation of their contracts.

The chargers had no legitimate reason for playing hardball with Joey Bosa. Bosa was selected third overall in the 2016 draft; you do not select someone third overall that you think you might cut halfway through the first season. Had they passed on Bosa, the next team to grab him would likely have had no problem paying out his entire due signing bonus and not creating offset language to potentially cut his rookie salary if he got cut from the team midway through the first season. It's total bullshit to try and get a player to sign a contract that is worse than what they'd get had they fallen another spot in the draft.

But almost as bad as the actual bullshit negotiations being required in the first place is the way John Spanos publicly denigrated Bosa, as per the linked article:

quote:

I’m highly, highly disappointed in the path we’ve had to take,” Spanos told Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “It’s so overly clear we had no choice. It would have been more difficult if I felt they were being reasonable. But when you’re dealing with someone who isn’t reasonable, it makes it easy.”
...
“What you do is you compromise,” he stated. “We moved and we moved and we moved. They weren’t moving.”
...
“I’m blown away. At all costs I wanted to avoid going down this road. They made it overly clear we had no other option,” continued Spanos, who referred to Bosa’s holdout as “absolutely asinine.”

That poo poo is completely unprofessional. It's a contract negotiation, the player has the right to insist on getting what every other first round pick is presumed to get - at least one of a full signing bonus or a contract with no offsets - and you are the assholes for trying to take both away from him for no reason.

In the end, Bosa's holdout lasted four weeks. He received a $17M signing bonus and the full contract was guaranteed, although it still included offset language if Bosa declined his fifth year option.
https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2016/8/29/12397158/joey-bosas-holdout-is-over-chargers

quote:

Citing club precedent, the Chargers refused to take out the offset language. But the fact is, every No. 3 overall pick since 2012 has either had no offset language or no signing bonus deferral. Negotiations got so contentious between the two sides, that Bosa's mother wrote on Facebook she wished her son had "pulled an Eli Manning" -- a reference to the Giants quarterback demanding a trade from the Chargers on draft night in 2004.

Zurreco posted:

To pile on, the Chargers knowingly employed and publicly supported a medical practitioner known for overmedicating patients and once abandoning his on call to get drunk and maybe gently caress a stripper. It took a lot of lawsuits to gertt him removed.

iospace
Jan 19, 2038


Tom Brady with the right reserved to change my vote if convinced.

aperion
May 15, 2007

i want to believe
Grimey Drawer
Allow me to make my attempt, then, as to why, you should vote for the Chargers Front Office over Thomas Brady.

First, yes, the Bosa holdout was mostly on them. Some bit of explanation as to how the FO got to that point: John Spanos is the man who's in charge of contract negotiations by and large. Tom Telesco (the GM) mostly does talent finding and getting players in the door. Telesco is good at what he does. John Spanos....not so much.

See, Spanos was an up-and-coming executive when noted dipshit AJ Smith was GM and handled contract negotiations. Spanos learned primarily from Smith in that regard. Keep in mind that under Smith, a shocking amount of talent walked out of the Chargers and to other teams. Most notably -- Vincent Jackson, LaDanian Tommlinson, Drew Brees among many others. Smith was a hard-nosed 'my way or gently caress you' negotiator who was also notoriously impatient in negotiations if he didn't get his way. He was fired along with Norv Turner for a drat good reason -- they were the primary culprits as to why the Chargers were run straight into the ground. So John Spanos took over contracts while Tom Telesco handled most everything else.

Under the new regime, things have gotten a lot more stable. Talent isn't allowed to walk out the door so easily, but unfortunately that's also translated to bad talent. The likes of Donald Butler, Donald Brown, Orlando Franklin, Trevor Robinson, Shareece Wright have all been starters on this team. Below replacement-level guys were on the team for much longer than they ever had any right being. They're way too attached to their broken toys and mostly unwilling to let people go if they suck.

That's for broken toys. Let's talk their older but awesome toys, specifically one in particular -- Eric Weddle. He was a top-3 Safety for almost every season he was with the Chargers. But when it came time to talk about his third contract, they gave him the cold shoulder and poo poo on him every chance they got during his last season, to the point that on the last day he was at Qualcomm, he peeled out and got the gently caress out of town ASAP. This is why once in a while you might see 'Weddle was right'.

Last year's holdout with Bosa falls into neither of these categories, but at the same time follows a similar pattern. This front office seemingly doesn't believe in superstar talent, and thinks it can "fix" bad talent. Add into this their unwillingness to adapt to a new situation and you can see how they set themselves on fire over his holdout. He was a top-3 pick, something they hadn't had for over a decade, and the first for John Spanos and Tom Telesco. Telesco knew he wanted Bosa. Spanos didn't recognize that a top-3 draft pick basically maxes out the limits of the rookie contract. However, they relied on an argument of 'this is how we always do things no matter who it's for' to get themselves in trouble. The money issue was handled quickly, meaning Bosa got the maximum. It was over offset language vs. 100% guaranteed money. Bosa wanted both. Spanos was only willing to give him one or the other. Bosa's agent called bullshit. Holdout commences.

You can make the argument that Bosa could've accepted one or the other to end it and move on with life. That's fair. You could say the same thing about Spanos. Yes, both parties share the blame for that, but overall, Bosa was looking out for himself while Spanos did the Chargers a massive disservice by ~sticking to his guns~ over something that wouldn't matter in a few years. Furthermore, he put into play the scenario that Joey Bosa might hold a grudge over this and refuse to sign anything after his rookie contract is up, therefore wanting to play for Literally Any Other Team. And I won't blame him one bit for that.

This year, the front office did let go of some guys that were on their way out already -- Brandon Flowers and King Dunlap, and even got rid of Orlando Franklin, eating a serious amount of dead money in the process. However, they put themselves in the unenviable position of having to carry over some other huge underperformers like Joe Barksdale, while getting another potentially colossal mistake in Russel Okung with no way to get away from them anytime soon. This front office is inept in many places, hostile in contract negotiations with anyone not named Philip Rivers, and overall have wasted the best years of many players on their watch. Don't be surprised if that continues. Vote Chargers Front Office, and make no difference in this matter.

Besides, Tom Brady will be around much longer. He'll get his shot at the BRFDotY award someday. Hail Satan.

PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer
Chargers front office so I can vote for more Spani, if indirectly.

Cavauro
Jan 9, 2008

I select the Chargers Front Office, then change my vote to the other one, then change it back to the original bolded choice. what is it that makes this option different from voting for the spanos family? well, it includes spanos but is so much more. Tom telesco is a little fucker who probably did plenty of bad things. Randy Mueller is some kind of weird guy. pick em

Nit Wit Dog Shit
Sep 28, 2000

Toilet Rascal
Chargers front office

sean10mm
Jun 29, 2005

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD-2R World
I will make an effort post later but in case I forget Chargers front office.

Grittybeard
Mar 29, 2010

Bad, very bad!
I'll vote for Tom Brady here, his snake oil business alone is enough for him to be a douche worthy of a vote (let alone everything else Brady) and the Spanos family is a separate nomination that covers most of the problems I have with the Chargers.

iospace
Jan 19, 2038


Grittybeard posted:

I'll vote for Tom Brady here, his snake oil business alone is enough for him to be a douche worthy of a vote (let alone everything else Brady) and the Spanos family is a separate nomination that covers most of the problems I have with the Chargers.

This is my main logic in regards to Brady over Chargers FO. I'll wait until Sean10mm's post before finalizing.

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Zurreco
Dec 27, 2004

Cutty approves.
Chargers FO for the typo-laden reasons I gave before plus all of the poo poo that I posted in the Chargers thread over the last year.

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