Columnist berates Maple Leaf fans; another CFL record for TSN
November 22, 2009 · 30 Comments
It seems stupidly arrogant and self-defeating for a sports writer to ridicule his readers, to tell them in so many words that they’re a bunch of dopes. Why would you want to knock the people you hope will read your column?
But there he was, David Shoalts of The Globe and Mail, sneering at the Toronto Maple Leaf fans and heaping scorn on them from a high place.
Shoalts explained in his Saturday column that “your agent” – that’s him – had been cooped up at home for two days and, therefore, was able to put his ear to the pulse of “Leafs Nation” by listening to the radio. And guess what he learned?
“If most fans had their way, Brian Burke would be busy this weekend firing Ron Wilson, trading Nazem Kadri, Tyler Bozak, Luke Schenn and just about any other prospect the Toronto Maple Leafs have, and presto, they would no longer be the worst team in the NHL,” he wrote.
Yes, if you listen long enough, you will hear from the crazies. But the concensus in Toronto has been keep the young prospects. The fans wonder what’s wrong with Luke Schenn, the second year defenseman who’s struggling. But most of them say dump the non-producing veterans, and, if possible, make a trade. There has been some talk about firing Wilson, but that’s hardly surprising considering he’s the guy coaching the worst team in the league.
Shoalts continued his lecture.
“The populace that bragged during the summer of 2008 that it was willing to wait while the Leafs underwent a massive rebuilding operation that promised to be a minimum of two years is, 14 months later, somehow under the impression that today’s 3-11-6 team is the equivalent of seeing the 1977 Montreal Canadiens going off the rails.”
The populace, as he calls it, didn’t “brag” about being willing for wait for a rebuilding process. They just wanted it to begin, to have something to look ahead to with some hope — and for the guy in charge, the general manager Burke, to rebuild in a sensible way, which, of course, he hasn’t.
Suggesting the fans believed at the start of the season the Leafs were comparable to the 1977 Canadiens, a great team, is just an exaggeration that Shoalts felt he needed to use to support his dumb argument. The fans weren’t expecting a Stanley Cup. They took their cue from Burke and people in the media, like Shoalts, and thought the team had a chance of making the playoffs.
Wagging his finger, Shoalts delivered this stern advice: “In the meantime, fans should remember this is a rebuilding team. Unlike previous years, there are some prospects on the farm, though. Consider that the best centres in the organization (Bozak and Kadri) are not even with the Leafs and practise some patience.”
Listening, fans? The authority has spoken.
The problem is the authority in this case misrepresented what most of you have been saying. And then he put you down.
- The Toronto Sun’s Steve Simmons said on TSN The Reporters on Sunday that Burke would have fired Wilson by now if the two weren’t buddies and working together on the U.S. Olympic hockey team. Perhaps, but I don’t know how much of the Leaf fiasco you blame on Wilson. The three defenseman that Burke signed in the off-season — Francois Beauchemin, Mike Komisarek and Garnet Exelby – consistently make defensive mistakes. The forwards, with the exception of Phil Kessel, are mediocre. Goaltending is inconsistent. That said, a traditional way of measuring the performance of a coach is to assess the team’s penalty killing and play in its own end. Leafs do poorly at both.
- Hockey Night in Canada should drop its on-going discussion about the NHL Players’ Association. Nobody cares. It’s inside baseball, it’s incomprehensible and it’s boring.
TSN continues to set CFL audience records
The network’s telecast of the Calgary Stampeder-Saskatchewan Roughrider West final on Sunday drew 2 million viewers. That ranks as the largest audience ever for a CFL playoff game. RDS drew a French language audience of 207,000, making the national total 2.2 million.
TSN’s East final, B.C. Lions-Montreal Alouettes, was watched by 1.35 million viewers. An additional 547,000 tuned into RDS for a total of 1.9 million.
The huge audiences are a result, in large part, of a new measuring system, Portable People Meters, which have pushed up viewership for live sports programming across the board.
TSN president Phil King said he doesn’t rule out a Grey Cup audience record, TSN and RDS viewership combined, for the Roughrider-Alouette Cup game on Sunday.
Hockey
Hockey Night in Canada drew its third largest audience of the season, 2.101 million, for the 7 p.m. ET telecast.
Worth noting is the Toronto Maple Leafs, for the first time this season, were not the featured national game.
It was a split telecast, with Washington Capitals-Leafs seen in Ontario and Atlantic Canada, and the rest of the country receiving the Detroit Red Wings-Montreal Canadiens game — except Ottawa, which saw the Buffalo Sabres-Senators game.
It makes sense to give match-ups not involving the Leafs more exposure, given the Toronto team is last in the NHL standing.
Sherali Najak, Hockey Night’s executive producer, says the strong viewership is attributable in large part to the Leafs and Canadiens games both going to a shootout.
Game 2 of the doubleheader, Chicago Blackhawks-Edmonton Oilers, was watched by 725,000. The pre-game show continues to draw very well, 657,000 viewers.
NHL on TSN: Canadiens-Capitals, Friday, 658,000. SportsCentre after the game, 388,000.
Regionally on Rogers Sportsnet: Friday, Vancouver Canucks-Colorado Avalanche, 391,000; Saturday, Calgary Flames-Los Angeles Kings, 145,000.
Football
CIS on TSN: Saturday, Mitchell Bowl, Saturday, 264,000; Uteck Bowl, 242,000.
NFL on TSN: Sunday, Chicago Bears-Philadelphia Eagles, 502,000; pre-game, 510,000.
NFL on CTV: 1 p.m. Sunday, regional, 533,000.
NFL on CITV-TV, 287,000.
NFL on Rogers Sportsnet, 190,000.
NFL – 190,000
Soccer
Sportsnet: EPL, Saturday, Arsenault-Sunderland, 144,000
Figure skating
The CBC’s Skate Canada coverage drew 477,000 for the men’s free program Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. The women’s free at 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon was watched by 286,000. The dance free in prime time on Sunday pulled in 955,000.
Basketball
Orlando Magic-Toronto Raptors, Sunday, 12:30 p.m., CBC, 287,000.
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I 100% agree about the NHLPA talk. I have no idea why it is covered to this extent in Canadian sports media. I absolutely could not care less.
William, thank you. Us Leaf fans have been wondering for quite a while now – years, for some – why the journalists who cover the Leafs like to put us down, making references to us drinking “kool-aid” and getting out crayons to plan parade routs. It’s about time someone else noticed that this was rediculous.
Could not agree anymore William
It seems unfair to criticize Shoalts here. There’s no creativity or evidence of actualeffort, but he’s not guilty of anything that most of his colleagues haven’t been doing for years. Damien Cox used to write these sort of columns all the time. Howard Berger doesn’t seem capable of writing anything else.
If anything, Shoalts is just falling into line with a weak sort of “me too” effort. He probably had this one in the bag for months and just changed a few names and dates.
At some point, you have to wonder if it’s time to point the finger at the editors who keep running this stuff. Imagine a political columnist writing an entire article about what the voters were thinking without ever quoting or even referencing a single source. No editor would run that. Yet in Toronto, it’s apparently just fine for sportswriters to go on and on about what fans are thinking without ever actually, you know, talking to one.
Thank you for pointing out about the NHLPA talk. Every week, I have to hear them waste all but a minute on this when it’s all speculation and there’s probably better insider info that they could share. It’s reaching Brett Favre level attention that we in the States experience.
Agreed.
And DGB certainly brings up a great point.
Hey Bill, I agree with you on most things, but I think you’d have been better served to go after the two REALLY idiotic columns of the weekend: namely those by Gary Loewen and Joe Warmington, both of the Sun. Loewen suggests things were better under Ballard, and laments the fact the Leafs usually made the playoffs under Ballard (neglecting, of course, to mention the fact that there were 21 teams back then, 16 of which made the postseason!) Warmington’s column was just ridiculous. And any reading of a Damien Cox column or listening to Howard Berger pontificate on radio is enough to make you question their knowledge of what they cover on a daily basis. On July 3rd, while in London covering Wimbledon, Cox spoke about Burke’s plan, and that whatever we think about it, “at least he had a plan”. Yet almost from the get-go, Cox has been leading the “panic charge” this season. You don’t judge a plan based on even a quarter of a season. Komisarek’s a good player. Beauchemin’s a good player. Exelby was touted as “one of the best open ice hitters in the NHL”. If these guys are still slumping in March, OK…time to be concerned. While not a Leaf fan, I was one of those who said they’ve done the right thing by building outwards. I still believe that. When this defence finally “gets it” and starts performing, this team will start winning with some consistency.
William…
It’s in poor taste to constantly rip your former co-workers. It makes you look really sour because you were packaged out and they still work there.
Funny, I don’t remember you naming people while you worked there. I agree that it seems unethical, but the torch point has been made multiple times now, when one mention would have sufficed. If you don’t like Brunt, Shoalts, Mason, and even sworn enemy, Z, as you like to call him, call them up and settle things. This seems childish.
William:
When I read that column I thought exactly the same thing. But as others have pointed out this is a common thread among Toronto’s sports media. Us bloggers have been posting about this for years.
But it’s nice to see someone from the media ranks making the same point – perhaps some people will finally notice.
Look, I’m not one to poke fun at physical appearances when it’s not warranted, but in this case it is. Have any of you seen what Shoalts looks like? He looks like the dumb pear-shaped cousin of the Hamburglar.
Actually, Shoalts looks like a middle aged version of Charlie Brown.
I agree, it’s generalizations made by Shoalts and others is unfair. It’s a terrible band wagon that has brought on some questionable coverage (see Howard Berger) but one former naysayer, Damien Cox, has taken a new light this year and for once his articles are refreshing to read!
That said got this link from http://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/ , a free source that has provided me with better coverage than the 3-4 main papers.
Enuff NHLPA talk…more hockey and trade talk….
William,
Did you leave the Globe in a huff? Because all you really seem to be doing on this blog is attacking your former colleagues there: Shoalts (who, admittedly, is an idiot) and Brunt.
Someone still seems a little bitter towards a former employee. I find some of your insight very sound, but posts seem like simply barbs toward a former employee by a curmudgeon. Shoalts (my least favourite columnist in this city) is not the sharpest tack in the pile, but he is right to call out “Leaf Nation” for being fickle and illogical in it’s response to just about everything.
he is right to call out “Leaf Nation” for being fickle and illogical in it’s response to just about everything.
Yeah, there are some that are that way but that wasn’t what Shoalts was arguing. He was trying to portray the entire fanbase as having that reaction when it’s just not true. Then again, it’s par for the course for media in this town wo why would I expect someone that probably only reads the papers to apply some critical thought to that argument.
Bill is correct that no fans have been angling to trade the youth (Kadri or Schenn). For Shoalts to suggest such is disingenuous.
I’m glad we finally have a media columnist unafraid to speak truth to the Ivory Towers of MSM. Brunt was wrong to run with the torch and there are a lot of lazy sports journalists in this city who fall back on tired cliches instead of doing real analytic work, and they all deserve to be called out. Thank goodness for the blogosphere. It thrives while MSM dies.
Exactly Houston! I don’t care about the NHLPA, execpt the direction headed into the next CBA, but that can wait. The only ones who care to hear and talk about it, are the media.
I will praise CBC for giving the rest of Canada the Montreal/Detroit game, it’s about time those of us outside of Leaf Nation get another team to watch in the 5pm MT game. I can only hope the trend will continue to some degree. I know alot of us in Calgary would rather watch Montreal or Ottawa.
DGB nails it, as usual. the talent on the newspaper end of things is as thin as the Leafs forwards.
as for the criticism that Houston is taking shots at his former colleagues: none of the criticisms advanced on this blog have been without merit. if the point of the blog is to call out bullshit in the media then accuracy should be the only benchmark, not the employer of the target. frankly its refreshing to see someone “in the know” voice these complaints.
now if only someone would write a piece about Bob McCown’s ineptitude in conducting any interviews with Beeston …
mike k is right, the globe writers houston calls out are worthy of the criticism, but it just seems that he’s spending more time on the globe than any other media outlet in toronto, or canada, for that matter. but that’s my perception.
Great CFL numbers… 5 million for the Cup game?
I can see at least 5.5- 6million on TSN and another 1+ million on RDS, could be close to a record audience
for the Grey Cup!!!! How about that Toronto ( bow to anything NFL) media!!!!!!
What these TV ratings prove is that the Raptors and the NBA are the dregs of professional sports in Canada. The only way basketball would top Canadian TV ratings is if you start from the bottom down.
Another outlet to spread your jingoistic stupidity, I see. Did you get your mommy’s permission to come on here, Graceless?
Huh? Who are you?
Must be a basketball fan I guess?
You have my sympathies.
Anyways. How can you argue with the facts?