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Joe Fitzgerald: Flaming hypocrite who can't even remember what he wrote
By adamg on Sat, 02/11/2017 - 3:46pm
The Herald's other cranky columnist, Joe Fitzgerald, is in full dudgeon today because six (so far) Patriots players have said they won't go to the White House for the traditional Super Bowl celebration.
How dare they? Football is a team sport and the Foxborough Six are betraying their team and their fans, Joltin' Joe rants:
Do they have a right to thumb their noses at our new commander-in-chief? Of course they do.
But sometimes we have a responsibility not to do the things we have a right to do, just because graciousness still matters, or ought to, especially to a team that enjoys such goodwill among its rabid fans. ...
Acting in unison is how a football team wins a Super Bowl.
Indivdualism is verboten; even an all-world quarterback understands the importance of conformity.
This is something else. This ought to be a time of plain old togetherness.
It was wrong when Tim Thomas did it a few years ago, and it's wrong now, he continues:
[W]hen Bruins goalie Tim Thomas skipped a White House meeting with Barack Obama after the B’s won the Stanley Cup five years ago, there was nothing noble about it. He simply didn’t like Obama, which was understandable, but no excuse for rudeness.
Um, wait just a second there. Forgetful Herald columnist says what?
Because I have a copy of the column Fitzy wrote on Jan. 25, 2012 about Thomas skipping out on the White House. And he sure made Thomas sound like a noble individualist then:
Some will say Thomas was not only a poor teammate for skipping the ceremony, but maybe even a poor citizen, too.
Please. That’s ideological poppycock. If he had snubbed George W. Bush, he’d be lionized in this town.
Where is it written that, unlike his body, an athlete’s intellect and implied endorsement belong to ownership? They don’t.
Bill Russell put it best: “All a performer owes is a good performance.”
More than any athlete in this town’s grand history, Russell used his athletic prominence to advance his political beliefs, placing himself on the firing lines of the civil rights movement, the personification of having the courage of one’s convictions.
Other local jocks, whose brains were as well-conditioned as their bodies, have been equally vocal, exercising their citizenship: Curt Schilling, Bill Walton, Fred Smerlas.
Somehow that seems different than Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca showcasing Doc Rivers, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo at an opulent Obama fundraiser in the Museum of Fine Arts.
Maybe they wanted to go. Fine.
But Tim Thomas didn’t want to go, and that used to be fine in America, too.
If it still is, then he owes apologies to no one.
So what's changed between 2012 and 2017, Joe?
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Comments
Re: "whose brains were as well-conditioned as their bodies"
I never found Schilling's body "well-conditioned". I won't comment about the "brains" part.
Joe who?
No one reads this guy anymore, not even Joe Fitzgerald himself, apparently.
What's the
Herald?
In Many Ways, It's The Opposite Of Universal Hub
Short Memory
Thanks for the classic high school "compare and contrast" essay here.
Fascism relies on people having such a short memory that they can be convinced that what was not, was, and what was, was not.
I appreciate you fishing out this stuff and bringing it to the fore.
Half of the people who support Trump's Muslim ban believe
it is justified by the fictitious Bowling Green Massacre, according to a recent PPP poll.
So, to add to short memories, I'd add a jaw-dropping inability to discern real news from the complete defiance of empirical reality that Trump and his spokespeople are flogging on a daily basis. You have to gullible enough to buy into their Alternate Reality for Thumb-Sucking Dumbasses.
Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite
Matt Drudge...AlexJones.
To be fair to the hypocrites
Their vision problems occur across the political spectrum. I would imagine that a sizeable subset of those cheering on the to be missing Patriots were aghast that Thomas skipped the meeting with 44.
Joe Fitzgerald is a guy who gripes about a lot. You are griping about a guy who gripes a lot.
Its a little different to be
Its a little different to be a hypocrite private citizen (not that its noble) who complains on comment forums and a "journalist" (well, whatever people at the Herald are called) who does so and lies about what they said before. That's a hypocrite and a liar. That only enables you to be president apparently, not write for a paper.
The 2011 Bruins visit
The 2011 Bruins visit occurred during the 2011-12 season, not the summer of 2011. It's a minor difference, but a notable one since all of Thomas's teammates had to subsequently answer questions about his decision not to attend, his political views, and whether it has caused any disruptions in the lockerroom.
I love what Tim Thomas did
I love what Tim Thomas did for the Bruins, I saw him play several times for UVM, and he was rather pleasant on the two occasions that I met him. That said, I wish he had been at the White House with his teammates. The Patriots stuff doesn't bother me that much because I wouldn't recognize most of their players to begin with and a Super Bowl doesn't mean nearly as much as to me as a Cup.
What this all boils down to, is this...
Some 'Hollywood A-Listers' and 'professional' athletes, obviously dislike their duly elected President, for various reasons, regardless of who the person is. This is America. As always shown on UHub, people are free to disagree.
If those A-Listers and athletes had any shred of common decency among them, they should at least show respect for the office, regardless of who the President is.
To each his own
If we had twitter, Facebook, and whatnot a few decades earlier we would have probably heard about athletes refusing to meet with President Clinton due to his questionable morals or President Reagan due to his bad policies.
Like I say, I'd love to get a special tour of the White House and a meeting with POTUS, but I see the other side.
We'll show respect for the office
the moment the so-called "president" does.
not "so called"
he IS your president.
Indeed, "not so called" is useful in many circumstances
Like judges appointed by a president and confirmed by the senate. They're not "so called," they ARE judges.
I say
We call him the interim President. Yes, he is there, like a splinter that somehow got into your thumb. Now it hurts like hell and is developing pus but the body will shed it in time. Or die of an infection.
A careful reader...
...will note that the originator of this subthread put "professional" in quotes when referring to the Patriots. If quotes are appropriate and unworthy of comment there, "so called" is appropriate here.
There are no shortages of hypocrites
among those who identify as 'conservative' and those who identify as 'progressive'. the lesson here is you should be suspicious of any 'news' or opinion that comes from a biased, partisan source.
Everyone is partisan and
Everyone is partisan and biased. Name a news source that is not.
Joe fitzgerald
Finally SANCTIMONIOUS Joe is hoist on his own petard. Hope some of the more intelligent people at theHerald will be able to explain to him what that means
It's a free country
Everyone ought to be free to accept, or not, an invitation to meet the president.
When players visit the White House, I view them as representatives of the entire organization, on and off the field. Of their fans. Of the city and region that supports the team. It's recognition of them, their work and the people who helped get them there. Their presence does not taint my appreciation of their accomplishments. They earned their welcome on the White House red carpet.
But I know not everyone feels that way, and I would not want anyone to compromise deeply held beliefs to satisfy someone else's need for spectacle, affirmation, or ratings.
And I have worked for organizations that expected me to "contribute" even when I did not want to. But I felt I had to, to keep my job, to be seen as a player, part of the team.
Kudos to the Pats who stand up for their beliefs, and remind us that in the workplace, most of us cannot.
Thanks for looking
I read that Fitzgerald column too, and the first thing I thought was, what did he say about Thomas? I'm not surprised.
If I had a dollar for every time Joe writes "Please." in a column, I could buy what's left of the Herald.
What has changed?
The President's skin color, that's what has changed.
And ...
The President's grasp of the Constitution and its original-intent limitations on the powers of the presidency.
The President's advisors and their intentions regarding those original intentions to prevent monarchs, dictators, oligarchs, etc.
Orange is the new
Black?
my up thumbs
take them. take them all.
Got a feeling that if the
Got a feeling that if the players in question were recovering alcoholics, Catholic priests or firemen then he'd be good with it.
What a fool Fitzgerald is.
Bravo, Adam. Too bad we're post-accountability.