the 4th star

I don’t know where this came from, whether it was the head coach’s decision or a directive from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers brass to essentially slow the flow of insults coming from Mike Kelly, but the idea to no longer take phone calls on the call-in radio show is yet another barrier between the football club and the football fan in this province.

Kelly, courtesy of “Lawless:” (hahaha)

“I’m not going to do it. It’s counterproductive. I just don’t feel like that that is a positive aspect for anybody involved. It’s a vocal minority that calls in, and when we lose or don’t play particularly well, there’s just too many personal attacks, whether they’re at me or at a player or whatever it might be,” stated Kelly.

If you’ve come across this blog, you’ll know Kelly and his weekly opportunity to insult ticket buyers is a favourite subject of mine. I just can’t get enough of listening to an organization continuously separate itself from fans by trotting this guy out there each week. Never have I listened to so much radio in my life!

More from Kelly today, including a line that will tell you all you need to know about your Blue Bomber coverage the rest of the way through here. Please take note of the comment in red as you find something else to listen to Monday nights…

“And when we win, obviously compliments are appreciated, but then it goes overboard that way, too. If you want to come to the Upperdeck Sports Bar, which is a great venue, and you can ask questions there face to face rather than having phone muscles, or you can go ahead and e-mail them in and we’ll take the questions that we want there. I just didn’t see where it was serving anyone’s purpose on either side to have the call-ins and get into some of the things that we got into.”

Quote: We’ll take the questions that we want there. Unquote.

Instead of taking real-time queries — both of a positive and negative nature — Kelly has decided that he wants to only answer the positive ones. For an example of this watered-down, we control the message format, recall the show a week ago. Last Monday, with Kelly out of town as the team enjoyed the start of its bye-week, host Bob Irving took emails from listeners and passed the questions down to Kelly. It was a polite and vanilla chit-chat — helped along by the Bombers dismantling of the BC Lions a few days earlier.

Win or lose, that’s what the idea is now. Even when the team gets it handed to them, or when the offence continues to struggle in the air, the discussion will be a polite re-hashing of what the team is trying to do. What are the chances a negative email makes it on the show? Essentially, the station has not only let the Bombers dictate the message that comes out of Canad Inns Stadium but they have allowed the team to pick and choose the highlights of the past week. Tough questions need not apply. Everything is alright. Maybe we’ll talk about hard work. Maybe we’ll head down memory lane and talk about what Andy Reid likes to eat when he hits Pat’s or Gino’s after an Eagles loss. Maybe we’ll talk about Cal Murphy. Or maybe discuss how we’re going to bring back Bomber football — whatever that is.

That will be insightful, no doubt. Kelly should work for Environment Canada, because getting rid of the cloudy and rainy days would play huge in this town. It’s always sunny in Philadelphia, right Mike?

So where is CJOB in the discussion? Perhaps comments from the sports director will come Monday, but it will be a sugar-coated response. I’m sure the advertisers during the 7pm-8pm slot are ecstatic to have potential customers tune out a watered-down product. As the broadcast rights holder, the media organization that spends the most money to cover the club, shouldn’t they have a say in whether Kelly can moonlight as the program director? I thought the idea was to lessen his work plate. No doubt Bauer is behind this decision. Read between the lines as Kelly finishes his announcement by calling out the Winnipeg fans once again. It’s just killing him.

“If I was in Philadelphia they’d love it. There wouldn’t even be an issue. I just don’t understand why somebody thinks that they can come and attack me and I’m not going to attack them back. That’s just how I was raised. In Philadelphia and Chicago, that’s how you live. That’s how you grow up. It’s a give and take. Here if I give it back, everybody flips out. ‘Oh, he can’t say that.’ Well, yeah, I can say that. If you’re going to come at me, then I’m going to come at you.”

“If you think you can stand up and ask a question, then stand up and ask a question, but don’t hide behind a computer or a phone and act like you’re a big guy.”

I think I can stand up and ask a question. Hello, Mike. I’m not a Bomber fan but I know lots of people who are. Yeah, they love to drink at games. Anyway, my question is about hiding behind a computer. Um…sorry, I’m a little nervous, but isn’t cutting the open phone lines and vetting emails before they make the light of day exactly the sort of hiding you’re doing now?