Why Not Just Say You Hate Max Hall

I have actually enjoyed the SLTrib's Jay Drew in his assignment as the BYU beat writer at his paper.



He wrote an article yesterday entitled, BYU football: Love him or hate him, Max Hall has made his mark

http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_14011116



I was disappointed and usually I look past such articles, but I thought I'd write him an email and let him know of my feelings. He didn't respond, so I thought I'd share my views with those here to see if I was off base (not that I would really care, but it's good to know). Here's the contents of my email:



Jay,

I still can say that I’ve appreciated your BYU coverage for the SLTrib, but I can’t stand by and say I wasn’t disappointed in your article entitled:



BYU football: Love him or hate him, Max Hall has made his mark



Here are some of my issues with the context of the article:



“…an apology/clarification he insists wasn't coerced by BYU officials,…”



That implies that someone was doubting that he didn’t decide on his own. Maybe you have a deep source that tells you otherwise, if not, then you’re using too strong of a word and trying to paint your own picture negatively in response to his own virulent diatribe.



“Hall realizes he will never be forgiven by a large portion of Utah fans, and even some Cougar lovers.”



Which “Cougar lovers”? Those “blue hairs” that never get up and sing the fight song or cheer? I’ve heard plenty of BYU fans say, like me, that we didn’t think it was appropriate to say what he did, but that they will never forgive him? Come on Jay! That’s a stretch and a pretty general statement that makes it sound like there are many. [He beat Utah 2 of 3 times--you're a down right lousy BYU fan in my eyes if you judged his whole career by some insensitive statement he made after one game]



“He doesn't seem to care. ‘I moved on a long time ago,’ he said.”



What? That’s taking that statement a bit out of context. He doesn’t care, so we go back to where you somewhat inferred that he might not have apologized on his own? The only way he didn’t care was if he was lying and he just apologized because he was made to or he did it to appease people?



“Hall said. ‘I think I have done enough in my career for people to remember me by, but it would obviously be nice to go out on a big win, to go out on a bang.’ Not that he hasn't already.”



I can’t figure out Jay if you are just a fan of Gordon Monson and his style of sarcastic writing and you want to emulate him or what with that last comment.



“Adding to the consternation for some is the fact that Hall has already left, in a way.”



He is done with school and has made the decision he wants to try to make it to the next level. With the holidays coming, he sent his wife down where they will next be living. You made it sound like it was something wrong that he did. How many of these guys in his same situation have not done the same? He’s not the first by far of BYU or Utah players.



What made that last statement worse was your next using an old McMahon reference:



“Asked if he is concerned that putting Provo in his rearview mirror in less than a week is a sign Hall might have already checked out mentally,…”



That was another great jab that most of us understand exactly what you are saying with historical reference, but I don’t feel it appropriate. You’re categorizing him with that statement of being just “like” Jim McMahon in temperament.



“For his part, Hall has also let go, it seems, of the anger he expressed in that same postgame rant toward "fans who sit behind screen names on the internet and say bad things about you."



Once again, using the term, “it seems” insinuates that maybe you think he isn’t sincere.



Maybe that’s what you are bottom line trying to say in your sardonic article.



I honestly don’t understand if you just don’t like the guy or someone told you that you have to, because you work for the SLTrib (which has a history of storied coverage of BYU that I kind of liked that you were breaking the paper away from and why I had started to read your coverage and enjoy it), make some sarcastic and innuendo based comments. Now I realize that my last statement was similarly sarcastic as well and a shot at the SLTrib, but I think that comes from my disappointment in what I read.



I’m not totally without seeing some things through Cougar-blue goggles, but what you wrote didn’t seem objective, unless like I stated, you actually don’t like Max Hall. In talking with others about your article, and yes, they are also BYU fans, that is the feeling we got from your words. Yes, you tried to tie it up more politely in the last few paragraphs, but for me the damage was done and the feeling was already cast.



I hope this isn’t where you are heading in the future, because as I’ve said, I have liked your work because I know you don’t wear Cougar-blue goggles, but you’re trying to enter, by writing like this, into the playing field shared by so many of the local Salt Lake media that seem to have to constantly critique BYU to ensure that you know that they are not a BYU fan, or because they are a BYU fan, demonstrate quite often through their criticism ad nauseum that they are ever-so-independent of any notion that they are a BYU homer.



Had I not grown up and lived the majority of my life in a different sport market other than Salt Lake(I was born and raised in northeastern-Ohio with Cleveland being the main media center), I might have never recognized this difference, but I did and it has made me not enjoy the overall feeling of the local media. They make me to feel like a Buckeye living in Ann Arbor at times and it’s not enjoyable. I grew up with the local stations actually making you feel that they liked the team they covered, and they got critical at times, but it wasn’t constant like I hadn’t see you doing regularly and yet it almost seems like you changed a bit because of what Max said.



Sorry I’m not smoking the same stuff you are, but where I come from, if you don’t like someone, you generally say it and don’t beat around the bushes so much. And if that is not your feelings on the guy, then what you wrote could have fooled me.



Jim Vallen

I just went and checked the tab on the article where you can give a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on the context. As of this moment, 69 have voted. 46 gave it a thumbs down and 23 SNOT fans (or those "Cougar lovers" that won't forgive Max ) gave it a thumbs up. That's a much higher than average rejection of one of Jay Drew's articles.

I am glad you wrote him, I was also pretty disappointed in that article. Jay has done a great job of putting off writing on the Cougars, it's remarkable when you know that he's a die-hard Ute fan, but obviously the situation with Max was too much for him to not attack Hall. It's very disappointing that he would stoop so low.

hawkwing wrote:
I am glad you wrote him, I was also pretty disappointed in that article. Jay has done a great job of putting off writing on the Cougars, it's remarkable when you know that he's a die-hard Ute fan, but obviously the situation with Max was too much for him to not attack Hall. It's very disappointing that he would stoop so low.

So he was a die-hard Ute fan huh? I didn't know that and he has done a remarkable job considering then. You might be right and that would be consistent with such an article because he is offended as a Ute fan, but as the BYU sports beat writer, how can you rip the team you're covering? You can critize them without much of a rise out of the faithful following, but you have to try hard not to offend your readers. But you can write an article exactly like he did to attempt to vent. That's what the article felt and sounded like to me. I had been surprised when I read it because I have basically followed him daily since he took over and I hadn't seen that tendency, but something seemed to happen that has been starting to show it's head.



With no malice aimed at Jay Drew, that's what a paper gets when they hire someone whose favorite team is the arch-rival of the team you are assigned to cover. Not so smart of an idea, and we'll have to see if this disappears as Max ends his BYU career.

EM_Puma wrote:

I am glad you wrote him, I was also pretty disappointed in that article. Jay has done a great job of putting off writing on the Cougars, it's remarkable when you know that he's a die-hard Ute fan, but obviously the situation with Max was too much for him to not attack Hall. It's very disappointing that he would stoop so low.

So he was a die-hard Ute fan huh? I didn't know that and he has done a remarkable job considering then. You might be right and that would be consistent with such an article because he is offended as a Ute fan, but as the BYU sports beat writer, how can you rip the team you're covering? You can critize them without much of a rise out of the faithful following, but you have to try hard not to offend your readers. But you can write an article exactly like he did to attempt to vent. That's what the article felt and sounded like to me. I had been surprised when I read it because I have basically followed him daily since he took over and I hadn't seen that tendency, but something seemed to happen that has been starting to show it's head.



With no malice aimed at Jay Drew, that's what a paper gets when they hire someone whose favorite team is the arch-rival of the team you are assigned to cover. Not so smart of an idea, and we'll have to see if this disappears as Max ends his BYU career.

Jay is a U grad, and his first blog post after taking over for Rhiannon Potkey was an attempt to mollify BYU fans who were hesitant to embrace a U grad as their beat writer:

Jay Drew wrote:
For my first post, I figure I should let you know a little about myself.



I am a lifelong Utahn, having graduated from Bingham High and the University of Utah.



But don't hold that against me -- Bingham is a fine school.



As for the U., let me say this right off the bat: I am not a Ute fan, and haven't been since the day I started working for The Tribune back in 1990. That journalists don't (or aren't supposed to) cheer for or against teams in the market they cover was drilled into my head by the sports editor who hired me, Dick Rosetta, and reiterated through the years by Kurt Kragthorpe and now, Michael Anastasi.



Just as importantly, though, I don't harbor any grudges or disrepect toward any school. I'm here to cover the teams, especially football and men's basketball, and bring readers of this blog, the Web site and the printed version of The Tribune the same professional coverage and insight you came to expect from Rhiannon.

http://blogs.sltrib.com/byu/archive/2008_07_01_archive.htm



I read the bolded part to mean--I'm a fan, but I'm supposed to hide it.

Well Jay wouldn't be the first Utah Graduate to not be Ute fan. ;)

oh, I see the problem now. He was a Bingham Miner. We Miners really are a bunch of clowns.

Admittedly, I didn't read the whole article. And without a doubt the media in general has blown his original comments way out of proportion. There is a serious double standard when it come to the expectations and criticism of the two programs.



That said, I didn't find anything particularly inflammatory in Jay's article. What's more, I think he has done superb job as the beat writer. I was ready to write of the Tribune altogether as the rest of the paper isn't even worth the paper it's printed on. But he's done a remarkable job and has become my second source for my BYU fix behind only TBS. Sure he could have written some of the things in the article a littler differently so that there wouldn't have been quite so many seeming inferences or allusions. But sometimes I know I certainly take offense when none is meant.