Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Another reason I won't pay for the Packer Insider

For those of you who do not know, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a section of their online paper called the Packer Insider. In order to see these articles about the Packers, you have to pay either a monthly or annual fee. To me, this is a total crock and blatant ripoff of Packer fans. It's not like these articles are written by nationally acclaimed writers that have info in them you cannot get anywhere else. These are the same guys that write about the other WI sports teams. One of these writers is Tom Silverstein. He laments in yesterday's article that the Packers latest win gets them further from Reggie Bush in the draft. He then states the following:

Mark the date: Dec. 11, 2005.

It could become as infamous in Green Bay Packers history as Dec. 18, 1988.
That fateful day 17 years ago was when the Packers beat the Phoenix Cardinals, 26-17, thus relinquishing the first pick in the National Football League draft to the Dallas Cowboys on the final day of the season.

All it cost the Packers was future Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman, who went first to the Cowboys, leaving the Packers to make their ill-fated choice of offensive lineman Tony Mandarich with the No. 2 pick.


So according to Tom, the Packers screwed the pooch in winning a game and then getting stuck with having to trade for Favre instead of getting Aikman. Are you kidding me? What a hack. Yes, the Packers got one of the top busts of all time in Mandarich, but is he saying that it was a mistake to get Favre instead of Aikman? If so, then he needs to go write for the losers in Dallas and get the hell out of WI.

But it's not only Tom, oh no, it's also Cliff "I have no brain" Christl in this gloom-and-doom-woe-is-me mood. Cliff's column is entitled "Packers won't be Super next year without Bush". Give me a frickin' break. So they are writing off next season already because we likely will not get a player who may or may not come out (ok, he probably will, but still).

Umm, we still have the November offensive player of the month in Gado right? Sure, criticize him for being an undrafted FA, but so was Priest Holmes and somehow I don't think anyone was saying how the Chiefs needed to upgrade at RB. Is Gado as good as Holmes, don't know, but he's got a heck of a good start.

You cannot sit and lament about who you could have had in the draft, it will drive you nuts. Every draft there are players that are hyped that everyone drools over. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't. If Bush decides to hold out of camp and be a problem child with his contract, then comes in right before the season and hurts his knee (a la Kellen Winslow Jr.), then these guys will all be saying how the Packers were smart in not wasting a pick on Bush. By not getting Bush, the Packers can shore up areas that need more help than RB, like LB and DL (pass rushers would be extremely helpful) and make the team better. You remember that concept that the Patriots have used to win 3 of the last 4 SBs, don't you?

Would you pay for garbage like this? I wouldn't either.

3 comments:

John Burzynski said...

Ya, they were giving away a free 'peek' at the insider a few months ago...like you, I won't pay for content unless it is out of the ordinary and worth my buck...and their's wasn't worth anything.

Curt said...

The Star Tribune tried to do this a couple of years ago with the Vikings. Almost all of the Vikings related content, even if it was a columnist printed in the paper, was pay for access. It totally flopped, and everything is free again. So, give it time and perhaps this will happen again.

By the way, the Pack would be nuts not to draft Reggie Bush if he is available (which he probably won't be). What a talent he looks to be!

Curt in Grand Forks

Cheesehead Craig said...

I'd be thrilled if the Packers got Bush, but I don't think it will happen. My contention is that some writers feel that w/o Bush, the Packers have no shot at winning, which is absurd.