MOVING ON
This will be my last post on the subject of the beating of Bryan Stow.
I wrote what I wrote and it’s obvious by the response that I didn’t do the best job of communicating my thoughts on the subject.
I went on national TV to try to defend myself Wednesday night on Inside Edition and I’ve responded to hundreds of posts here. I’ve also been on the radio here in Pittsburgh and other stations around the U.S. and Canada.
After responding to hundreds of posts making similar points and attacks, I tried to explain my column point by point in one post and that was interpreted by some as proof that the first column was poorly written.
The attacks and responses are here for everyone to read and so are my responses.
I’ve made it a point to read every post since I started this blog 13 months ago and I will try to continue to do that, but the volume on this subject has been so great that I just don’t have to time to read them all.
I wrote what I wrote and I stand by it, but at the same time, I understand why so many people interpreted some of what I wrote as being insensitive to Bryan Stow’s situation.
I made the mistake of assuming that the tragedy of the situation spoke for itself and that I didn’t need to point out how terrible it was for Stow and his family.
When I wrote ” Maybe somebody can ask Stow, if he ever comes out of his coma, why he thought it was a good idea to wear Giants gear to a Dodgers’ home opener when there was a history of out of control drunkenness and arrests at that event going back several years”, I can see by the responses that that came across as flippant and insensitive.
That was not my intent.
“If he ever comes out of a coma” was my attempt to show how serious his injuries were and the rest of the sentence was an attempt to ask why anyone –not just Stow– would think displaying loyalty to his team was worth risking what ended up happening to him.
If I had it to do over again, I would write it differently. I know what I felt in my heart when I wrote it and it was anger over what had happened to this guy over a stupid jersey.
That’s why I spent a good part of the column expressing my feelings about the jersey phenomenon. I don’t get it. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think everybody has the right to wear what they want to a game.
There’s no right or wrong on that issue and it’s obviously a generational thing.
This blog and my book are called “Just Watch The Game.”
The theme running through much of the book, which has gotten me more positive response than anything that I’ve ever done in the media, is “When did watching the game stop being enough?” I know by the sales and the responses that I struck a chord with a lot of people.
A lot of what I write and say comes from that perspective. That doesn’t make me right and anybody who decides to wear a jersey wrong.
It’s an opinion.
A minority opinion.
So, when I saw that a man had been beaten to within an inch of his life because of a jersey, I focused on the jersey issue because it’s part of the recurring theme of my columns, my book and this blog.
People who have never read this blog, my book or my columns, understandably, wonder why I would use the tragedy to make a point about something that is so trivial in comparison.
As I was writing the column, I didn’t have a national audience in mind. I had my usual audience in mind.
Hundreds of thousands of people, who have come upon the piece on the internet, have come looking for the insensitive jerk they’ve heard about who said Bryan Stow deserved what he got.
I, of course, never said that.
I’ve been accused of saying that Bryan Stow was asking for it.
I never said that, either.
Readers who chose to read the column after clicking on a headline that says, “Jerk In Pennsylvania Says Victim Deserved It”, came with a preconceived notion.
Do you know how many angry emails the Washington Observer-Reporter received on Sunday and Monday after the column appeared in Sunday’s paper?
None.
The editorial in Thursday’s edition said there was “no local reaction.”
Here’s how man emails the Observer-Reporter, The Valley News Dispatch and the Indiana Gazette received from the time the column appeared in the papers until it went viral two days later:
ZERO. NOT ONE EMAIL FROM THE REGULAR READERS OF MY COLUMN.
There’s nothing more that I can add in hopes of explaining my position. The readers have responded and the responses will be here for as long as the blog is up.
I won’t be posting any more responses on this subject. Nor will I be reading them. It’s run its course. I’ve had my 15 minutes of fame or infamy depending on your perspective.
I apologize to Bryan Stow and his family if this controversy has reached them and caused them any further pain.
I wish him well and I hope the two animals who attacked him are caught soon and sentenced to life in prison.
If you would like to make a contribution to the Bryan Stow fund, go here.
Related posts:
Date: April 14, 2011
Categories: Sports