Sports Reporter, Sun-Sentinel

Me again. I see someone moved up the Packers beat team job thread, so never mind the first part of my post about MJS not advertising the position.

Shows you how much I pay attention. (Whacks himself in head)

 

Extremely well said.

 

Oh, brother. What we've been discussing, and wondering about, is something that, shall I say it again?...just doesn't happen in this business...or any business, for that matter.

Nobody said he couldn't be homesick. Although, what, he's over his homesickness? Milwaukee's pretty far from NY, too.

Nobody said covering preps is better than covering the Packers (although that might be debatable, depending on your interests and goals). Nobody said they couldn't understand how somebody might want to cover pro football instead of high schools.

And, if he's so otherworldly talented, the types of jobs he ultimately wants -- I'm guessing pro sports for ESPN/Yahoo! Sports here -- those types of jobs WILL come up for him, regardless of any cutbacks. And, as he's on his way to proving, his age/youth will matter not one iota.

You make it sound like the opportunities for him are drying up. In point of fact, the opportunities have been multiplying in recent years for people like Dunne. The opportunities have gotten better for their scarcity. The stuff being dropped/de-emphasized by newspapers are not beats like the Packers, but preps and the lesser sports and local-college coverage that would formerly have been the intermediate steps to the more elite jobs. And, what's more, many of the veterans who are similarly talented and hard-working either have been run out of the business or otherwise pushed aside, so guys like Dunne have less of that to contend and compete with than they might have had "back in the day."

So, really, all the current climate has done is allow Dunne to just skip the dues-paying, and the stuff that, apparently, he knows he doesn't want to do, and that, now, luckily for him, he doesn't have to do.

Don't make this into some kind of sob story.

It has been well worthy of discussion because Dunne's path and speed to his Packers job has been unusual -- stunning, actually, in its single-mindedness, speed and success -- and because his apparent handling of his conflicting job opportunities has been said to be questionable.

Here's hoping that he has picked up something here from us.

 

The point I wanted to get through is that if you spend any amount of time talking to Tyler, you'll realize that he is a good-hearted kid with a great work ethic. So whatever "red flags" you might worry about when somebody changes jobs frequently are easily alleviated. He doesn't wear out his welcome. He is not a subversive person. He is not a dick. End of story. Folks on anonymous message boards can armchair quarterback his career-decisions all they want. But his career-decisions are in no way indicative of some tragic character flaw. Talk to any of his previous editors and I'm sure they will tell you that. Beyond that, I don't understand the fuss.

 

He might not be a dick, but texting in a rejection after accepting the job is a dick move.
And if you can't understand that, then you're blissfully oblivious too.

 

I think people are freaking out way more than they should over this.

The kid is doing what is best for him. Obviously, he has something going for him in that caught Stephens and Garry Howard's replacement's attention. When you're looking for work, sometimes when it rains, it pours. You get one offer and then you immediately look a lot better to another paper. The result is that sometimes you have to make a tough decision.

Should he have called Stephens to explain what he was doing and why he was doing it? Of course he should have.

Did he pick the better of the two jobs? No question. Did he pick the job with better job security? I sure as hell think so.

I don't know the kid and I've never read a single thing he's written, but people are freaking out way more than they should be.

Congrats to Tyler and I hope he learns from two of the best NFL beat writers out there in McGinn and Silverstein.

 

I'm not sure anyone's freaking out, except maybe over the texting -- which, frankly, we ought not to do, anymore. It even kind of makes sense in this case, especially given the place texting has in the world today.

Got something uncomfortable to say to someone? Text them instead. It's easier, by far; it gets it over with, and you never have to be there, or on the phone, to answer back when somebody responds, if you don't want to.

I wouldn't even accuse Dunne of texting his resignation in, especially given how great he's supposed to be at this work. That's how little I would think of doing it, and how bad it is, especially for somebody who's supposed to be a great reporter and not afraid to ask/say practically anything, to anyone. It would make me think that, "Nah, he couldn't/wouldn't have done that."

So, I haven't even addressed it at all.

I think what is really causing the discussion, at least for me, is the fact that Dunne has, essentially, done in one year what normally takes an entire career to accomplish.

We're wondering about how, why and the particulars of that. What's so puzzling? It's a good discussion...obviously, or else it wouldn't have lasted this long.

 

I agree we've made far too much of this. No more responses here.

 

Disagree. We haven't made nearly enough of it.

FREE TYLER!

 

Tyler, if you are reading this, I hope you're laughing at the sanctimony rather than taking any of it seriously.

 

My two cents: A person's word ought to mean something. But every rule has an exception, and frankly, I have no time to worry about Mr. Dunne and his career. I'll spend that time focused on furthering my own career.

 

Everyone should be posting from their phones on this thread.