the 4th star

Here’s Bob Irving on Richard Cloutier Reports this morning, talking about the Winnipeg Blue Bombers decision to cut the phone line to the Mike Kelly Show. Clearly the station is not on board with the move, but faced with the prospect of a watered-down, everything is OK in Bomberland format or canceling the show outright, they had little choice but to embrace a new existence of delivering the Mike Kelly message through rose-coloured glasses. If the house organ wasn’t loud enough before, just wait until you hear the vetted questions from e-mailers in the coming weeks.

And this bullshit about having people step up and challenge Kelly in person at the Upperdeck? Puh-leez. With Hustler & Lawless and Doug Brown bookending Kelly’s hour, that’s a Bomber-friendly zone where the Blue and Gold mob will always rule the day. Here’s Irving and Cloutier:

Irving: Every coach who has ever done this kind of programming, Richard, is going to take some shots because you’re not going to win every game. And when you lose, fans are going to have questions as to why you lost and why you did this and why you did that. Um, I don’t know where to start on this whole issue. I understand…it’s become, with Mike Kelly this year, some of the calls have been very personal. And they have attacked him very personally.

Let me jump in here. What exactly constitutes a personal attack? Can someone please explain to me or give me an example of a caller speaking out of turn about Kelly’s family or his daughters? Did someone say something bad about Andy Reid? Has there been any shots taken at this appearance? Those are personal attacks. Asking the coach of a football team about his record in his only other head coaching position is not a personal attack. Telling him that his offence sucks is not a personal attack. Continue Bob…

Irving: Not the last show but the show before that, when they were beaten here by Montreal at home and then the Monday show…I left the Upperdeck sports bar at McPhillips Casino (where the show is held) just shaking my head thinking that was a tough night for Mike Kelly. It really was. People went after him in a vicious, vicious nasty way, and I felt for the guy. Now having said that, I understand how difficult it can be. You and I have done open-line radio for years, and when you open the phone lines up, you’re putting yourself on the line. And you’ve been told you’re an idiot — so have I — that’s the way it goes when you do open lines. And if you’re not prepared to accept some of that, you better move on.

Cloutier: Peter Warren taught me way back when…he used to have a little annual gathering where he’d throw the hate letters into the fire. That type of thing. It goes with the territory, Bob.

Irving: It does and in particular in pro sports, the head coach of any team in any city in North America, when the team is struggling they’re going to get some heat from the fans. That’s just the way it works. And Mike Kelly understands that, so does Lyle Bauer. Mike has been extremely confrontational, more so than any coach I’ve ever done this show with — not even close. Not. Even. Close. He’s been very confrontational, so he’s brought a lot of this on himself there’s no doubt about that. But he would, as he did in that comment, he would justify that by saying ‘Hey I’m from Philadelphia and when people lash out at me I lash back out at them.’

Here’s where it gets good. Irving goes out of his way to tell listeners that it is not CJOB’s decision to cut access to the coach. It appears Irving and Cloutier do not need telephones to take a few shots at Kelly:

Irving: I want people to understand that it’s not our idea. CJOB did not propose this, this comes from Lyle Bauer and Mike Kelly. They wanted to eliminate the phone-in portion of the Mike Kelly Show. That left us with basically two choices: We compromise, and go along and do the show and have questions from e-mailers and people who are at Upperdeck sports bar, or we eliminate the show.

We discussed both options and we’ll discuss both options again during the off-season, but we felt that for now the show is still worthwhile doing. It was worthwhile doing having Mike Kelly on for an hour every Monday night to talk about his football team because he is the head coach — people want to know what he has to say. So we agreed to this. We reluctantly agreed to this. As I’ve said, I’ve done this for a long time and I know it can be tough. Doug Berry last year got assailed some nights when they were on their way to a 2-8 record but he was able to suck it up and fight through it. I say to the listeners and the fans, were not in favour of this but we’ve agreed to it. We’ve respected the opinions of Lyle Bauer and Mike Kelly and we’ve agreed to do it for the rest of the year.

It’s regrettable in my opinion, that the fans — and the fans pay the salaries of these coaches and players — and if they forget that, then they need to be reminded of it. We regret that they won’t be able to interact on the phone with Mike Kelly anymore.

Cloutier: This is one of those situations where, having heard some of those calls, you think that’s not a majority of the people. Most people, I think, are reasonable human beings and understand the intricacies of a football team winning and losing. But when a coach is out there and ramping up the heat and then you decide at some point I’ve had enough heat, I’m backing off here, that also tells you something about that individual, as well.

—-

Irving’s comments on the community ownership aspect of the football team is probably an indirect response to Kelly’s views on who he actually has to answer to. Here’s Kelly, responding to a “Lawless” question regarding the community nature of the the Blue Bombers and the coach’s role in it:

“I’ve never seen your name or your name or your name on my paycheque. I think we get a little bit overboard with that thing. The people in town, the community ownership, they’re not the ones that are ultimately going to make the determination on what my employment is or anybody else in this building.”

Actually, Mike, they are. It’s called not buying tickets and phoning the Bombers office to complain about the head coach 100 times a day (which is what probably what led to the Bauer decision to cut the phone calls). Once again, Kelly and the team have shown little respect for the fans and the people who support their lifestyle through ticket purchases and jersey sales. Of course, it’s easy to be brash when your buddy is the one who gave you the gig in the first place.

So, when does Kelly decide to not address the media after a loss? You know it’s coming.