Felger and Mazz - Creating False Naratives one day at a time

ifmanis5

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F&M in their full glory today trashing the Celtics. Stevens can't coach stars. "Mike, there's a culture problem in that locker room."

Mazz: They don't like each other!

Felger: They never had it. From day one it was never right.
 
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j-man

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they wanted the red sox to lose in Oct the Pats to lose in Jan they are likely to be right about the C'S but If Boston can get the 2 or /3 Seed they couild in the nba finals still i dont trust TOR philly has no bench Milw is all shooters ind has no star power
 

Granite Sox

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Not that any of their takes should be considered seriously, but they are particularly and comprehensively horrendous on anything related to the NBA. No deep knowledge or sources on anything. They're literally just flapping their gums in a pathetic attempt to irritate fans.
 

eddiew112

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Not that any of their takes should be considered seriously, but they are particularly and comprehensively horrendous on anything related to the NBA. No deep knowledge or sources on anything. They're literally just flapping their gums in a pathetic attempt to irritate fans.
Even when I was still listening to the show I always clicked it off when the Celtics came up. Blatant trolling with the Green Teamer nonsense and mocking the fans for daring to enjoy watching an overachieving team. Felger's open hatred of the modern NBA frequently gets close to uncomfortable territory as well
 

Brohamer of the Gods

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I was actually moved to send Mazz an email the other day. He was talking about all of the new Patriots coaches and said something about a palace coup, but he pronounced it cue. I'll tolerate certain levels of sports talk ass-hattery, but that was a bridge too far.
 

steveluck7

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I was actually moved to send Mazz an email the other day. He was talking about all of the new Patriots coaches and said something about a palace coup, but he pronounced it cue. I'll tolerate certain levels of sports talk ass-hattery, but that was a bridge too far.
It’s kind of an inside joke with them. Last year, when the Wickersham article came out,
some dingbat caller was ranting about the “palace cue.” F & M have been using that pronunciation ever since
 

bigq

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Even when I was still listening to the show I always clicked it off when the Celtics came up. Blatant trolling with the Green Teamer nonsense and mocking the fans for daring to enjoy watching an overachieving team. Felger's open hatred of the modern NBA frequently gets close to uncomfortable territory as well
Found myself doing the same today. They can’t get enough of crapping on anything Celtics related. It’s a tired act. Garbage radio.
 

Patriot_Reign

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An interesting side note to yesterday's Bob Kraft story was F&M opening the show by stating they were not allowed to take calls on this story. Of course OMF jumped all over this "thought those guys were tuff!?!?".

Sometimes I feel legit embarrassed that I bother to listen to any of this stuff.
 

NortheasternPJ

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An interesting side note to yesterday's Bob Kraft story was F&M opening the show by stating they were not allowed to take calls on this story. Of course OMF jumped all over this "thought those guys were tuff!?!?".

Sometimes I feel legit embarrassed that I bother to listen to any of this stuff.
I turned on 98.5 at 11 today and I at least appreciate their transparency in it. Management said they can talk about it but don’t want to take calls. They talked about it for 20 min and said they’d provide updates but they’re in a dicey situation. I don’t blame them. They’re constantly critical of the Pats, Celtics and Bruins. This is an odd one.

Also taking calls on this would turn into a sewer.
 

steveluck7

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Yeah, I can’t fault them for not wanting to take calls on it. There weren’t a ton of facts to discuss so calls would have gotten into wild speculation.

For an example, see Portnoy on Fox News last night, forwarding his theory that goodell set Kraft up
 

Ralphwiggum

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They are the flagship radio station of the Pats and have a very close relationship with the Krafts. I can understand why they don’t want to take calls about it. 98.5 really isn’t the forum to get into an in-depth discussion of human trafficking and prostitution, what else is left to discuss?
 

cornwalls@6

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Their reasons are obvious and understandable, but they deserve every ounce of ridicule they get for the ridiculous, we're the only honest cops in the corrupt town full of homers drivel they've been trafficking in for years.
 

PedroKsBambino

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Was anyone under the impression that either of these guys was anything other than a self-interested actor engaged in schtick to get ratings and stay employed? These guys aren't journalists and never were (in any real sense of the term---I realize they both 'wrote for a paper' in the sports section)
 

NortheasternPJ

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Ball-less bastards serving their corporate masters. Total frauds.
They’re openly saying their main business relationship is at risk and disclosed it. How is that being frauds? It’s the opposite. They’ve called it out. Discussed it and said they’re limited because of the relationship and wouldn’t take calls.

Being frauds would be sweeping it under the rug and pretending that wasn’t the case.
 

NortheasternPJ

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Was anyone under the impression that either of these guys was anything other than a self-interested actor engaged in schtick to get ratings and stay employed? These guys aren't journalists and never were (in any real sense of the term---I realize they both 'wrote for a paper' in the sports section)
No and I don’t know who pretends to be. Toucher and Rich are not even close. Zo refuses to even say things he knows and F&M say they’re actively just trying to get ratings. This isn’t a secret. It’s like calling out Fox News for being biased.
 

MuppetAsteriskTalk

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Yeah, I can’t fault them for not wanting to take calls on it. There weren’t a ton of facts to discuss so calls would have gotten into wild speculation.

For an example, see Portnoy on Fox News last night, forwarding his theory that goodell set Kraft up
Wild speculation is their bread and butter.
 

JohnnyTheBone

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Being frauds would be sweeping it under the rug and pretending that wasn’t the case.
I hear you. Personally, I think their show totally sucks and Felger's inexplicable success has poisoned this market. He's spawned an army of contrarian fuckwits that make it impossible to enjoy local sports radio despite the unprecedented sustained winning of the home teams. They cast aspersions every chance they get, so I decided to make a futile attempt at the same.
 

Cesar Crespo

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I hear you. Personally, I think their show totally sucks and Felger's inexplicable success has poisoned this market. He's spawned an army of contrarian fuckwits that make it impossible to enjoy local sports radio despite the unprecedented sustained winning of the home teams. They cast aspersions every chance they get, so I decided to make a futile attempt at the same.
It was like that long before Felger.
 

Ralphwiggum

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I hear you. Personally, I think their show totally sucks and Felger's inexplicable success has poisoned this market. He's spawned an army of contrarian fuckwits that make it impossible to enjoy local sports radio despite the unprecedented sustained winning of the home teams. They cast aspersions every chance they get, so I decided to make a futile attempt at the same.
I got in a long email exchange with Bill Simmons in like 2000 or 2001 when he was just the guy running bostonsportsguy.com about WEEI and how terrible it was and why a 2nd sports radio station could not get any traction in Boston. Blaming the toxic state of Boston sports radio on Felger is absurd. He’s horrible but if anything there was a period of time where he actually was different.
 

Mystic Merlin

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Felger and Mazz are ultimately innocuous hot takers who are looking to keep the train going as long as is possible.

At this point, that gig has to be a relative breeze for both them; they talk for four hours, minus ads, a day about Boston sports in whatever way interests them and/or gets calls and ears for a paycheck neither could collect on any other area of sports journalism.

They can be insufferably annoying, akin to the 12 year old in class who keeps asking the teacher why it is colder this winter if global warming is real, but I don’t detect a malice/resentment from them like, say, Minihane and Callahan trades on. They’re harmless, and seem to know their limits as presenters.

They’re smart to stay in the sandbox. We’re all better off not hearing them talk about the social implications of sex trafficking in the context of the New England Patriots.
 

NortheasternPJ

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I hear you. Personally, I think their show totally sucks and Felger's inexplicable success has poisoned this market. He's spawned an army of contrarian fuckwits that make it impossible to enjoy local sports radio despite the unprecedented sustained winning of the home teams. They cast aspersions every chance they get, so I decided to make a futile attempt at the same.
I’m with you. If I listen to them 30 min a week it’s too much. 2-6 is sports radio hell on both stations.
 

Ralphwiggum

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Felger's latest is that it doesn't matter what the Pats do (or don't do) in free agency because the rest of the league is stupid. They (the rest of the league) will either screw it up in free agency, or if not during the game and all the Pats have to do is hang around long enough to take advantage of the other team's screw ups.

It's all he has left at this point to minimize the Pats accomplishments, especially after he was all-in on them "not having it" this year. It isn't that the Pats are good, the rest of the league is just stupid and sucks and will mess it up.
 

dcmissle

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So he has euthanized *the salary cap doesn't matter*. If 31 teams are run by jamokes, the arms race doesn't matter.
 

MuppetAsteriskTalk

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Felger's latest is that it doesn't matter what the Pats do (or don't do) in free agency because the rest of the league is stupid. They (the rest of the league) will either screw it up in free agency, or if not during the game and all the Pats have to do is hang around long enough to take advantage of the other team's screw ups.

It's all he has left at this point to minimize the Pats accomplishments, especially after he was all-in on them "not having it" this year. It isn't that the Pats are good, the rest of the league is just stupid and sucks and will mess it up.
If the rest of the league is stupid and screws everything up and the Pats are not stupid and don't screw everything up, doesn't that by default mean the Pats are good?
 

Salem's Lot

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Well that’s pretty much the Felger playbook. If they lose, they suck. If they win, it’s because everyone else sucks worse.
 

HomeBrew1901

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Well that’s pretty much the Felger playbook. If they lose, they suck. If they win, it’s because everyone else sucks worse.
Huh??? Are you guys even listening to the same show?

He was saying that the Patriots somehow have it figured out and it doesn't matter what they do because the rest of league is going to fuck up trying to chase them.

He pointed out that Belichick built the culture by bringing in ex-Jets at a minimum cost as opposed to Patricia overpaying for Amendola and Flowers.

How is that minimizing the Patriots? Because he wasn't actively fellating Belichick and calling him a genius?
 

Salem's Lot

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Huh??? Are you guys even listening to the same show?

He was saying that the Patriots somehow have it figured out and it doesn't matter what they do because the rest of league is going to fuck up trying to chase them.

He pointed out that Belichick built the culture by bringing in ex-Jets at a minimum cost as opposed to Patricia overpaying for Amendola and Flowers.

How is that minimizing the Patriots? Because he wasn't actively fellating Belichick and calling him a genius?
In the 5-10 minutes that I listened to, he was criticizing them for not bringing Flowers back, but said it really doesn’t matter because every other team screws it up either in the off-season, or once they start playing. Sounded like Felger’s classic “you win because everyone else is sucks” backhanded compliment filled argument.
 

jayhoz

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In the 5-10 minutes that I listened to, he was criticizing them for not bringing Flowers back, but said it really doesn’t matter because every other team screws it up either in the off-season, or once they start playing. Sounded like Felger’s classic “you win because everyone else is sucks” backhanded compliment filled argument.
That's what I heard too. The Patriots are making off-season mistakes left and right, but everyone else sucks worse at this so it doesn't matter. He was also blasting callers for being fine with letting Flowers go because they are blind followers of BB. "Why weren't you calling in last week telling us that Flowers had to go?!?!?!"

To recap:
Patriots....suck
Other Teams.....suck more
Fans.......suck too
 

Ralphwiggum

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Yes, I only listened for a few minutes too but that's what I heard too. Letting Flowers go is a mistake because the cap is crap and they can afford him if they wanted to. But it doesn't really matter because the rest of the league is stupid and they'll screw it up, so all the Pats have to do is sit there and wait for the screw up. There's nothing that I heard that is complimentary to the Pats. They win because the rest of the league is stupid, and they are just not stupid.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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They win because the rest of the league is stupid, and they are just not stupid.
I didn't listen to Felger's monologue, but, I mean, he's kind of right, no? How many teams go crazy and sign as many free agents that they can in March only to see their teams flounder during the season. Miami comes to mind and there are a bunch of other teams that want to "win the offseason" and end up sucking in the regular season. I know that there are a few anomalies, so don't @ me about them, but by-and-large free agency in the NFL isn't great for the teams.

With all of this data, teams still make these huge splashes by signing a Suh or the year's hot free agent and by mid-season they aren't really in the conversation when it comes to Super Bowl contenders. Yet they still do it. Every year there are one or two teams who push all their chips in and crap out by November. That's stupid.

The Patriots, on the other hand, rarely go after the big free agent (Adalius Thomas is an exception) and every year, they're in the conversation for best team in the league. That's not stupid.

Is letting Flowers go a mistake? I don't know. Maybe he's the player that breaks the mold, because usually when the Pats let someone go, they don't do great. But I don't know. Using past examples, that part of Felger's argument is probably wrong. But I'm not sure why you guys are getting all upset about Felger saying that some NFL front offices are dumb. We say it all the time. Mostly because it's true.

I dislike the false outrage that F&M drum up on a daily basis, but I think that they're right about this.
 

tims4wins

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I agree with JMOH. Other teams' stupidity definitely plays a part in "why are the Patriots so good". And one of the things stupidity partially stems from is the short leash on other coaches and front offices. Look at say Detroit. Quinn and Matty P are under pressure to start to win. So they make a huge splash in FA to appease fans and ownership. Spoiler alert: they're probably going to suck again. And then they will be fired. And then in two years they will be cutting Coleman and Flowers. And then the new front office will be stuck with dead cap hits. And the cycle will then repeat. Over and over.
 

joe dokes

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Felger's latest is that it doesn't matter what the Pats do (or don't do) in free agency because the rest of the league is stupid. They (the rest of the league) will either screw it up in free agency, or if not during the game and all the Pats have to do is hang around long enough to take advantage of the other team's screw ups.

It's all he has left at this point to minimize the Pats accomplishments, especially after he was all-in on them "not having it" this year. It isn't that the Pats are good, the rest of the league is just stupid and sucks and will mess it up.
Felger should be an expert at analyzing success in the face of incompetent competition.
 

shaggydog2000

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I didn't listen to Felger's monologue, but, I mean, he's kind of right, no? How many teams go crazy and sign as many free agents that they can in March only to see their teams flounder during the season. Miami comes to mind and there are a bunch of other teams that want to "win the offseason" and end up sucking in the regular season. I know that there are a few anomalies, so don't @ me about them, but by-and-large free agency in the NFL isn't great for the teams.

With all of this data, teams still make these huge splashes by signing a Suh or the year's hot free agent and by mid-season they aren't really in the conversation when it comes to Super Bowl contenders. Yet they still do it. Every year there are one or two teams who push all their chips in and crap out by November. That's stupid.

The Patriots, on the other hand, rarely go after the big free agent (Adalius Thomas is an exception) and every year, they're in the conversation for best team in the league. That's not stupid.

Is letting Flowers go a mistake? I don't know. Maybe he's the player that breaks the mold, because usually when the Pats let someone go, they don't do great. But I don't know. Using past examples, that part of Felger's argument is probably wrong. But I'm not sure why you guys are getting all upset about Felger saying that some NFL front offices are dumb. We say it all the time. Mostly because it's true.

I dislike the false outrage that F&M drum up on a daily basis, but I think that they're right about this.
It's usually because teams have to compromise elsewhere to sign big free agents. Either they have no big money talent, or (best case scenario) they have young cheap talent. But young players are inconsistent (as are all players not named Tom Brady), so the majority of time signing big free agents does little for a team. But it's salary cap related, which Felger hates to admit is a thing.