Daily Archives: July 25, 2010

Favre as Diva? Not Without Help.

The American mainstream media mob is at it again.

From the Duke lacrosse case to the let’s-get-Michael-Vick-back-into-jail drama over the shooting at his birthday party, the big American mainstream media is an odd little monster.

They’ve made Mark McGwire a steroid pariah in 2010, but they’ve completely forgiven their buddies Alex Rodrioguez and Andy Pettitte (hell, they’re Yankees, after all). With Rodriguez chasing his 600th home run, they have forgotten completely that A-Rod only half-admitted his own steroid use, but they still shit on McGwire because he doesn’t want to talk to them about it.

These people stink, and their sick little stench is now on Brett Favre.

The latest media mob war in the United States is to paint Favre as some kind of “diva,” (their word) because he’s 43 years old and he’s probably not going to fully commit to playing for the Minnesota Vikings this season until after the third week of training camp.

Like that’s somehow a surprise.

Take Dan Wetzel’s latest column at yahoo.com, entitled “Favre Stars as NFL’s Biggest Diva.” It was dripping with sarcasm and cynicism, but sounded more like a guy who was pissed that Favre wasn’t calling him every 10 minutes with the next scoop.

Then there is Mike Florio’s NBC column entitled “Favre is more diva than good ‘ol boy.” It’s nasty and probably farther off base than it needs to be.

And now we have Tim Dahlberg’s Associated Press column that says of Favre: “There was major flooding this week in Wisconsin, a state where Brett Favre used to ply his trade. It was getting pretty deep once again in Mississippi, too, in what has now become an annual rite of summer. The drama queen of the South was giving interviews and accepting selected visitors, including one who for some reason still wants to coach him this season.”

That just reaked of, “Please call me, please call me, Brett. I’m important, too.”

It’s kind of sad watching the American news media act like a snooty 13-year-old girl, drooling all over herself, calling Favre “a drama queen,” while hoping beyond hope that when the big decision to play or not play is made, he’ll call her first.

If Favre is a “diva,” and my experience (which is only about a dozen post-game interviews in a controlled team environment) suggests he’s not, it’s because the big U.S. media machine has declared him a diva.

Let’s not forget, you can’t be a “diva,” unless you’re allowed to be a diva and nobody enables Brett Favre like the American mainstream media machine.

Not only is mob wrong far too often, it’s way too whiney.

* * *

Now let me get this straight: First base umpire Gary Darling blows a call (what else is new?), Baltimore’s Ty Wigginton argues, inadvertently bumps the umpire and gets a three-game suspension, but the guy who screwed up the call gets no penalty at all?

Major League Baseball has truly messed up priorities.

Replay, please.