Chris Snow - New director of hockey operations for the Minnesota Wild

David calls and asks to borrow my 3carat diamond studs and my new Pateke Phillipe for the ESPY's.....no problem, but I tell him I need them for a friends wedding at the end of the month.  Dickhead flies directly to the D.R. after the show, and doesn't get back to Boston until 3 weeks later.  He tries to laugh it off and I told him to F*ck himself and he could keep the diamonds......that cheap prick asks for $2 when we go to Dunkies, there's no way "alligator arms" would splurge on real ice.

 

for us geezers, we point to giants gm ernie accorsi, a scribe in philly in the early '60s.

and when did pissing off a star player become a negative for a beat writer? it says here it's part of doing your job right.

 

Oh, I'm sure that blog won't be long in coming. ;D

And I'm also sure Snow wasn't saying anything about the business. He was just taking advantage of an incredible opportunity. Kudos to him. But to answer your question, it says:
1. The pay scale has to improve more than 3% every year for anyone to stay in this business. We all can't be trophy husbands like Modaho ... or trophy wives, even.
2. Newspaper conglomeration is destroying this business more than anything else. Nobody who matters in the journalism business cares about journalism anymore, as at least some of them once did. They were still shrewd businessmen then, but it wasn't ALL about cutting costs and 18% profit margins, as it seems to be now.
3. Barring better pay, a 24-year-old will want to stay in what can often be a thankless job/industry when there's other reasons to stick around, when there's optimism for the future. Examples include: making a real difference (inside and outside the newsroom), the sense that people above and around you actually want you to succeed (and will reward you if you do), the respect that comes with doing a good job, the chance to earn more money/responsibility/success if you continue to work hard.
4. That's not going to happen in the current environment.
5. The talent pool is eventually going to dry up. There might be more J-school graduates than ever before, but they're not going to stick around for long when they see the realities of the biz.

 

I wonder what kind of eye the hockey lifers are going to cast on Chris.

 

they'll probably be quite resistant, at least at first. the other interesting thing is that risebrough should be -- although i don't know if he is -- on shaky ground in minnesota. that franchise had better start producing. their 2003 run was a fluke and they can no longer use the expansion card. i think in a couple of years the fans will star to realize that although the arena is beautiful and the timberwolves suck ass, it's time to start winning. so my point is that this kind of job offers little security because in sports, new managament always has the prerogative to clean house.

 

Amen. Minnesota hockey fans aren't going to pay big money to watch horseshit hockey when they drive down I-94 a few miles and watch the Gophers contend for national titles for considerably less money.

 

Good point.

Speaking of expansion teams, Columbus doesn't even have the 2003 playoff run to hang its hat on. How does MacLean keep that job?

 

A senile owner.

 

[spreading kerosene-flicking Zippo]Maybe Simmons will come back east and take Snow's place?[/spreading kerosene-flicking Zippo]

 

Probably the same eye that was cast on him here

 

The thread on SportsFrontOfficePersonnel.com has already been locked.

 

Going back to the where-they-started theme, Brian Billick has a journalism degree and started out with an SID internship.