By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

UPDATED: 4:00 a.m. Friday, February 2:

• So much for the “quiet” week of distant football observing. The Boston Globe’s Jackie MacMullan continues her string of revelatory features with area athletes, this time focusing on the suddenly spiraling saga of former Patriots linebacker, Ted Johnson.

Coinciding with MacMullan’s piece is one from Alan Schwarz at the New York Times, detailing much of the same sordid details from Johnson’s playing career. (The Times, of course, owns the Globe.)

Riding the recent wave of stories on brain injuries, led by Schwarz’s January 18 reporting on Andre Waters MacMullan proceeds to pen a 2,500-word feature in which Johnson starkly admits to being addicted to a simulant, lashes out at coach Bill Belichick and claims he’s had over 30 concussions in his career - among other things.

Schwarz’s story, too, runs over 2,500 words. (You’ll recognize Schwarz more for his baseball work and his usual turns at the Keeping Score space on Sundays in the Times, but his recent works on this topic is a significant change of pace for Schwarz.)

In MacMullan’s story both Belichick and Johnson each give their sides of what Johnson is claiming, including that Belichick somehow forced him to practice by giving him a blue, contact jersey following one of his concussions. Schwarz, was not able to speak with Belichick directly as Jackie Mack was, and was left to include that Belichick “. . . declined to comment on Mr. Johnson’s medical experience with the team or his allegations regarding their actions.”

WEEI 850 AM is going to have a field day with this one, rest assured.

. . . It appears from the initial response to the piece, that the Boston area again has a Super Bowl Surprise ( ala 1986’s Pats’ drug revelations after the Bears loss) on its hands - this time before the Big Game. ESPN has already announced that Friday’s “Outside the Lines First Report” will focus on the Johnson story and the web site, ESPN.com, linked to the AP story on the MacMullan and Schwarz pieces at 1:34 a.m. Two hours later, 110 news outlets, by Google’s count, had a version of the story at their sites.

Included in the AP story:

Patriots spokesman Stacey James told The Associated Press on Thursday night that the team was aware of the report but was not prepared to comment.

. . . Of course we need to remember, as Schwarz points out:

Mr. Johnson, who has a 2-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son, is currently in divorce proceedings with his wife, Jackie, a situation that he admitted was compounding his depression.

He was arrested in July on domestic assault-and-battery charges, which were later dropped because his wife declined to testify. Mr. Johnson said that his concussive symptoms and drug addiction not only precipitated his marriage’s decline but began several years before it, specifically that preseason of 2002.

At the time of those arrests this past summer, we rode Johnson and Bob Lobel hard for the softball-laden interview and the blatant attempt at face-saving on Johnson’s part (July 24, 2006 if you care to skim the Shots’ archives).

Interestingly, MacMullan - who recently faced questions about a story on Assante Samuel which was held to coincide with the start of the Pats playoff run - indicates in the Johnson story that she was aware of his drug dependency and life issues as early as this summer.

Now, with Johnson in the midst of a divorce and the calculated timing of this media blitz, we are again left with some doubts about the motives and modus operandi of the long-time Pats favorite who was part of three Super Bowl-winning teams and retired two years ago. (He spent the 2005 season working as an analyst for CBS4’s local broadcast team on Pats’ gameday coverage.) Johnson is using the defense of “not wanting to see others go through what he is going through,” but in the end, these things inevitably turn into brawls over money, accountability and the questions that surround “winning at all costs.”

. . . The twist with Johnson’s revelations is that he his directly accusing the coach of pushing the players beyond their capacities. That aspect would make the NFL, it’s owners and its coaches accomplices in the injustices that many - including ESPN’s Mike Ditka, quite loudly - have been railing about since the recent NY Times story on post-concussion effects.

This is exactly the type of Bowl Eve Bombshell that the league tries to ensure won’t ever happen during its sports biggest week. Let’s see how far it gets rolling between now and Sunday.

• The Herald, as of 4 a.m., had nothing on the Johnson reports. And we still aren’t sure whether the Globe is playing it on A1, but we suspect they will, or certainly should.

• This is at least Jackie Mack’s third, substantial story of the past 18 or so months, including Tedy Bruschi, Samuels and now Johnson. She’s developing quite the reputation as the writer/reporter you go to when you need to get your message out. That’s a powerful, well-earned, platform for MacMullan and one that the Globe needs to respect and covet.

• How long until steroids filter into this discussion? Oh, that’s right. It’s the NFL - no one does steroids in the NFL. . .

• Imagine if the Pats had made it to face the Bears - when and how would this story have been played by the Globe, then?

END OF UPDATED MATERIAL

• Rough week for the local Old Media types and from this perch, it was a fascinating look at how quickly the Web 2.0 world is forging ahead – almost at warp speed.

The “Adult Swim” guerilla-marketing stunt was a truly fascinating event to watch unfold. The TV talking heads were practically spinning in their high chairs and for some reason, Shots got stuck on ABC5’s local coverage – especially once we discovered Natalie Jacobson would be joining the discussion shortly after we tuned in to WCVB (in the 4 p.m.-range on Wednesday). It’s always revealing to peer into how some of the pioneers in this market (i.e., Nat) are still learning their jobs – seemingly every day.

Quite honestly, Jacobson made reference to how the story was being “worked” in the newsroom by the 20-something generation through some computer forensics and New Media savvy, and how amazing it was for Jacobson to be watching. A youngish, male producer – who was woefully under-identified – wound up joining Ed Harding and the ex-Chet-ette on-air to help unravel the mystery. Harding was especially outraged at just how much time and energy had been wasted – and rightfully so - we shared his contained rage.

Later, on NECN, the addicting Jim Braude had to call up the network’s Web Master (and New Media specialist) Steve Safran, for a phoner to help further explain how the story was – as everything these days – web-based and web-powered.

‘Right. So you’re four grafs in Shots and you haven’t slammed a single person, nor mentioned a single sports-related hook (aside from Harding’s Sports Dept. background). I’m outta here – it’s not like there’s not more ridiculous Super Bowl absurdities to read,’ the Valued Reader thinks.

True enough, Valued Reader. So how about this? The Boston Globe’s Gordon Edes got snookered pretty good by the technology monsters this week, himself. Despite a dedicated effort to set the record straight, Edes and his paper fell for some subtle, misplaced humor from a creative writing expert, Theo’s pops, Leslie Epstein - via email.

We’re guessing that if the conversation had been oral, rather than written, Edes would have felt the drip of Epstein the Elder’s Yiddisha shtick. (Shots certainly did in our initial reading of Ede’s Wednesday piece - to the point of chuckling out loud. Until I realized Edes was playing it straight.

Through e-mail, Edes saw it as a scoop worthy, his paper deemed, of top-of-the-fold placement. It’s safe to assume that at least one editor also didn’t see the red flags of the email from Leslie (for instancde, the next Orthodox rabbi to step near Nathan’s will be the first), and so, the Globe was forced to retract and rectify (through AP) an honest mistake by a diligent, gifted reporter. But still, one that was probably avoidable.

Edes is barely at fault here (although a secondary confirmation of at least the nuptial’s location or a casual “Are you pulling my leg?” might have averted the situation). More than anything, Leslie needs to know that Red Sox Nation doesn’t necessarily “get” the humor of his sophisticated level. And that the pressure is so intense to have exclusive content, that sometimes even the simplest of jokes can casue a bit of a ruckus.

And here, it occurs to us, that the city’s media folks - and others - were truly the hoax victims of the week.

. . . The story got magnified a bit with the Track Gals’ Thursday rip job that even managed to share some front page space with “The Hoax on Us” cover.

• Hey neighbor, Have an Asahi! just doesn’t have the same ring. And how about our guy, Dice K’s chugging ability? Like it was milk or something. This guy’s gonna be fun. . .

• The Red Sox lottery for premium 2007 tickets is taking entrants currently. Green Monster Seats are $140 each for 2007 with Green Monster Standing Room tickets at of $30 each.

The 2003 pricing for the debut of Monster seats was $50 and they ranged from $90 to $130 last season. (They are truly the most unique seats in the house, bar none. I won;t judge whether they are worth the money, but that $30 SRO ticket would be well worth the investment.)

Right field deck seats (with table top) are now $110 per with a mandatory $100 food tab for the table of four. Seats alone on the right field deck were between $65-90 during last season.

It’s all part of the “price of success” and there’s no sign that the prcies are over the market threshold. Believe me, every Monster seat will be gone and a waiting list would reach into the thousands.

• I’m about 10 days late on this one, but Salem News stalwart, Bill “Kippy” Kipouras did a nice job of fleshing out the Super Sub’s side of things in the aftermath of his odd dismissal from the North Shore Spirit.

• Join me in watching the Roger Goodell initiation press conference. Is this when Tagliabue gets to paddle him? Fun begins at 11:30 form what we can tell, should run about an hour and be on both NFLN and ESPN.

• Sadly, we’re only about 20 pages into the Providence Journal’s Kevin McNamara’s debut book, “Basketball Warfare,” but it’s not because of the topic (the Big East) or the writing (exceptional); instead, it’s been about my lack of reading time (the lack of beach days always hurts Shots).

McNamara is one of the premier college hoops writers in the nation and the book is exactly the type of project that can help lead to a lucrative second project (witness Holley’s forthcoming Bruschi book). And if you know anything about the good folks at the Providence Journal, you know that KMac is one of the elite in Cianci’s old roost of Providence.

• Some serious re-designs going on all over the Interweb Sports World. From Yahoo! Sports, to SI.com, to our fave, CSTV.com - it’s all moving ahead just about the time the majority of Boston’s serious sports media organizations are just discovering some of the nuances of the Web world.

• CN8, bless their souls, will be running a tribute to the Hull Drowned Hogs this Friday night in a story reported (but not swum) by Jeb Fisher. Shots did one take on a voice over for part of the piece, but the audio playback I heard sounded a bit weak. The video will more than make up for anything that I screw up.

If the Drowned Hogs frolic in the ocean’s brine
Spring arrives right on time
But if they dunk and scream back out,
Winter will be a six week bout

(It ain’t no Sports Haiku, but it’ll do.)

. . . The ’07 Hog Swim was one of my coldest in memory and yes, we can confirm the rumors that I have not committed to ’08 as is the usual custom following each swim, are true and substantiated.

I’m going to take some time and discuss it with my friends, family and former mentor, Coach Bloom, and I will report after Spring Training whether or not I’ll be back for the next Hog crawl. As you know, training for the event begins no less than 10 months prior.

Nothing worse than rash decisions that lead to pre-mature retirement, or worse yet, retirement-then-un-retirement-then-re-retirement.

We’re not quitters on quitting. If we’re done, it’s done for good and you can put the bathrobe in the rafters.

. . . A very nice coup on Wednesday night for the 11 p.m., local-origination “Out of Bounds” Empire: Phil Burton had a (mostly) one-on-one with Kobe Bryant from the Garden and John Carchedi had a Shaq interview taped earlier in the day (to promote a product O’Neal is aligned with). Say what you will about the fledgling “OOB” show (which Shot appears on with some regularity), but there aren’t many local places that give you both Shaq and Kobe, one-on-one, in the same show. That’s a national-level evening if I’ve ever seen (and been a part) of one.

• I’ll give the Boston Sports Guy the Super Bowl week media MVP from what I’ve seen and gotten into. It sort of has this feel of Jerry on his last tour with Dead. Not that Sports Guy is fat, drug-riddle and about to kick the bucket.

But doesn’t he seem ready to be gone from ESPN? Or am I projecting again?

• Shots is going with a slightly abbreviated effort this week so that you may go and check out a package I helped put together for the February issue of Boston Sports Review magazine. Titled, “Race in Boston Sports, 2007,” the seven page piece offers, analysis and insight from, among others, the Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan, Peter Roby from Northeastern University, WEEI’s Michael Holley and several area professional athletes and coaches.

Holley, in fact, engages in a bit of a word war with ex-Boston Herald columnist, Howard Bryant (page 22 of the linked PDF file).

To say I’m proud of the story would probably be overstating things, but I do like that magazines such as still exist where such topics can be discussed and where some of the city’s opinion-shapers can be heard, at length.

Check it out, if you would. Or better yet, pick up a copy of the newly glossy title, BSR, at your local newsdealer. Ask for it by name! Four bucks for 50 pages of enjoyable editorial to last you the month.

• Careful out there – remember that New Year’s Eve and Super Bowl Day eve are two of the more significant Amateur Nights on the celebration calendar. Heads up and seat buckles on, folks.


David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. And can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmedDOTcom