On the contrary, the AFC East has had some many good years. In 2001, the Pats, Jets and Dolphins all made the playoffs. In 2002, there was a 3 way tie for first place and Buffalo was 8-8, with the Pats missing the playoffs to the Browns over a tiebreaker when they had a much tougher schedule than the Browns. In 2008, both the Pats and the Dolphins went 11-5 and the Jets went 9-7, with the Pats again losing the playoff spot over tiebreakers (although they had a much easier schedule that year outside the division). In 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2010 both the Jets and the Pats made the playoffs. I think you'd find if you analyzed every division for the last 10 years that the AFC East has held its own. Not that Felger or Mazz would ever do that since it doesn't fit their anti-Patriots arguments.
That would not be unreasonable. It's not because the Pats have a such a HF advantage -- the aura of invincibility during the playoffs at home has been smashed, and Fox is not a terribly difficult place to play for visitors.I 100% guarantee you that if right now, or if in a few weeks we find Pittsburgh or Baltimore above the Pats in the seeding they will be criticizing the fact that the Pats have to now go on the road. Mazz especially will bash the Pats' chances to death based on that. Felger will be a bit more objective, and has given them credit against Pittsburgh in the past, but won't this time.
Objective historical analysis carries no weight with those two dimwits. I just don't look at either of them as being particularly bright, let alone objective. Mazz is just hatefully stupid. Felger is marginally more intelligent (somewhat like comparing the cognitive skills of a rake handle to a watermelon), but Felger, without doubt, puts forth opinions he absolutely has to know are off-base just to get attention and ratings. He's the ultimate media whore.I 100% guarantee you that if right now, or if in a few weeks we find Pittsburgh or Baltimore above the Pats in the seeding they will be criticizing the fact that the Pats have to now go on the road. Mazz especially will bash the Pats' chances to death based on that. Felger will be a bit more objective, and has given them credit against Pittsburgh in the past, but won't this time.
On the contrary, the AFC East has had some many good years. In 2001, the Pats, Jets and Dolphins all made the playoffs. In 2002, there was a 3 way tie for first place and Buffalo was 8-8, with the Pats missing the playoffs to the Browns over a tiebreaker when they had a much tougher schedule than the Browns. In 2008, both the Pats and the Dolphins went 11-5 and the Jets went 9-7, with the Pats again losing the playoff spot over tiebreakers (although they had a much easier schedule that year outside the division). In 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2010 both the Jets and the Pats made the playoffs. I think you'd find if you analyzed every division for the last 10 years that the AFC East has held its own. Not that Felger or Mazz would ever do that since it doesn't fit their anti-Patriots arguments.
Mazz was always the "weak link" of the show, but as time's gone on he's become infinitely more unbearable.
He reminds me of Dr. Taub, from House. So we both think he looks like he should be celebrating Hanukkah.
Last I saw of Maury, he was on L&O, of all shows; plus he's on a Disney Channel show. So is "Jackie Childs" from Seinfeld!
Like Kramerica Industries (love that name) posted above, Felger is actually on w/ Beetle Tuesday - Friday. Felger said he's "taking a four day weekend....NOT a holiday break like the rest of the industry!"
Bertrand brings more out of Felger than Mazz or anyone else who has guest-hosted with Felger. The discussion they just had was fantastice - on how the offensecentric NFL we have today is here to stay, and could start to tilt even more that way, unless we get a San Fran-Baltimore Super Bowl.
As an extra added bonus he actually seems to watch sports unlike the normal cohost.
No disrespect toward the Bruins or hockey, but if you really believe that "this disrespect epitomizes why WEEI's ratings have tanked", you're kidding yourself. It is much more complicated than that. It involves demographics, WEEI's complacency and a host of other reasons. If the Bruins lose 7 games in a row and the Celtics win 7 in a row (neither of which is likely to happen), no one will be beating the drum for hockey talk on either station. In New England, it's all about who's hot, regardless of the sport - nothing more, nothing less.
Your point has some merit regarding air time but Kramerica is dead on - EEI absolutely disrespected hockey. They made fun of the Bruins, Bruin fans, and the game. Holley would do his "Hockey Minute" when he would say cliches ("They need to put the biscuit in the basket") then they would sound the horn and giggle like schoolgirls. Ordway laughed and spoke condescendingly to anybody who even brought up the Bruins and that mentality was par for the course for the station. Outside of Dale Arnold, I doubt one host could name five players who didn't wear a Bruins sweater...but that wasn't the key issue. This issue was the long lasting, derisive and belittling tone they used when dealing with Bruin fans. It's one thing to have limited coverage, it is another to totally mock the entire sport and its fans. Karma.
Agreed about WEEI's disrespect of hockey, and I'm not a hockey fan. My larger point was that the disrespect of hockey did not epitomize the reason for WEEI's drop in ratings. It was due to that disrespect, along many other factors, more than a few of which had nothing to do with their coverage and/or attention (or lack of same) to any particular sport.
I agree with you about your larger point that there were many factors to EEI's downfall. I apologize for not reading your post more closely - it is more complicated than mocking the Bruins. But I also understand Kramerica's post. The treatment of hockey was a great example of sheer arrogance by the station and its hosts. I believe that was what he was getting at. The "We're number one, we don't carry the Bruins, and we don't think they're important in Boston - so eff you" mentality. I can hear Wolfe thinking, "We say what matters and what Boston wants. And if that means Mustard and Johnson, so be it! Look at our ratings!"
That WEEI mocked the NHL is indisputable. And having had e-mail correspondence with Jason Wolfe once 98.5 launched their programming, I can tell you that his response to my comments was as dismissive as anyone could imagine. So, in that sense, it is pleasing to see WEEI get what they have richly deserved for a long time. When 98.5 was launched, I eagerly looked forward to 1) sports talk without right-wing commentary, and 2) sports talk which was unbiased. 98.5 disappointed me in regard to the latter. As a Celtics fan, I feel as disrespected by Felger as hockey fans feel disrespected by WEEI. As a Red Sox and Patriots fan, I feel infuriated by Tony M. who, in my opinon, is the laziest, most entitled free-loader in the Boston sports media group. And when you consider guys like Cafardo, Borges and Gresh, that's significant. Anyway, thanks for responding in a reasoned manner to my post and Happy New Year.
That's sort of a false equivalence, no? There are others on the station who are more than happy to talk basketball. The same cannot be said of WEEI before they started having their asses handed to them in a nice neat little package.
This is spot-on though, and I think that you could said this just as effectively with "As someone who is capable of tying his own shoelaces..." given Massarotti's inability to give a single fuck. Not one fuck is given.
All sports talk is biased in one way, shape or form though. WEEI as an entire station ignored and mocked hockey, even Dale stayed silent and rarely talked about them once he was fired from NESN. You are whining about individuals that don't like a particular sport, as Blacken points out, Felger hates basketball and the NBA but at least he is upfront about it and there are other hosts that will talk about it.
You'd think that the Pats were the team that has failed to even be in the Super Bowl for 40+ years.
Those calls were pretty funny.
I've always assumed that the FCC doesn't throw a hissy fit over "inappropriate" content streamed online. Not sure how accurate that is though.
The FCC can only police what is broadcast over the airwaves, since that's what they issue the licenses for. Online content is beyond their reach.Those calls were pretty funny.
WEEI seems to censor things when I listen online...could the WEEI stream be different that TSH?
I don't think so. I've heard plenty of stuff get through on the online stream that they clearly dumped out of on-air. It's usually denoted by the hosts pausing for a few seconds to allow the delay-mechanism to catch back up.
All internet streams are delayed relative to the over-the-air broadcast. Mostly it's the processing involved in getting it online, but also I think they do it to give the local over-the-air listeners an advantage for contests and the like. Typically when they say "call in now" to win something, by the time you hear the cue online, the winning caller is already in. Pretty sure listeners outside their broadcast area are ineligible anyway, but delaying keeps the number of instances of ineligible folks trying down further.
Since we are talking about EEI, if they are censoring the online content then they are probably doing it to minimize the verbal faux pax of the on air talent. An ounce of prevention is worth a metric ton of PR damage control.
