While the rest of the country has focused its time and effort on ensuring that the White House deports Justin Bieber (bravo by the way), here in Baltimore, Ravens fans want to kick someone else out town – the Baltimore Sun’s Mike Preston. As it turns out, it’s wildly unpopular to report anything negative about Charm City’s darling pro football team. 105.7 The Fan’s Glenn Younes even admitted that the Baltimore media does its best to “keep the Ravens in the forefront of the news and in mostly a great way.”
(The baseball team on the other hand? Well, everyone pile on.)
I’ll give the quick synopsis if for some reason you missed it.
Monday in Owings Mills, the Ravens announced the hiring of Gary Kubiak as their new offensive coordinator. This caught many in the local and national media off guard as everyone was reporting that Baltimore had narrowed their search to two candidates, Kyle Shanahan and Jim Hostler. Even Harbaugh and the Ravens’ own “media reporters” acknowledged such information over the weekend leading up to the announcement.
Suddenly, a much more qualified candidate emerged in media reports and hours later the team announced Kub and Rick Dennison would be added to the coaching staff in 2014. So what happened? Well that’s what really stirred up some commotion.
As the story unfolded, Preston reported that Harbaugh wanted to promote Hostler, but that GM Ozzie Newsome didn’t particularly care for the head coach’s decision.
“John, you have to aim higher. Hostler, huh? What exactly has he done? Remember, John, you’ve got one chance to get this right. If you don’t, you could lose the right to name future coaches and eventually your job. I have strongly recommended Kubiak to the owner and he said, ‘Go get him.’ The owner is on board with Kubiak and we’ve got the green light. Now, would you prefer to go down with Hoss or Kubs?”
Game over.
After Preston’s story hit the paywall-restricted interwebs, everyone from Harbaugh to Ravens PR man Kevin Byrne and a slew of purple kool-aid induced fans took exception to it.
Side note: I’ve never seen anything like Byrne’s “story” on “what really went down”. The Ravens Senior Vice President or Public and Community Relations has an actual blog on BaltimoreRavens.com named “The Byrne Identity” (how cute) that he used to essentially trash a member of the local media. If you really want to see something crazy, read the comments from fans that think Byrne is some sort of unbiased reporter sharing factual information to the public rather than doing damage control. Boy, the Ravens aren’t used to having to react to a negative story.
My column this week isn’t intended to agree or disagree with Preston. I’m certainly not in the know. I have no sources inside The Castle, the Ravens lock me out just like the rest of the fans. Go read Tony Lombardi’s piece if you really want to find out what happened.
I suppose I’m here to focus my attention on Preston, who many tough guy internet commenters want fired. The funny thing is, this isn’t his first run in with the Ravens and their cult-like fans.
Back in October, the Baltimore City Paper’s Jim Meyer asked for Preston to be fired after he tweeted that it was time for Brendon Ayanbadejo to go away. Meyer said Preston’s comments were “insensitive, idiotic, and ignorant at best, spiteful and homophobic at worst.” In the end Preston was probably right – maybe it would have been better if Ayanbadejo stopped talking. Recently, Ayanbadejo told FOX Sports that his former teammates smoked marijuana prior to the Super Bowl. I can’t wait to see Kevin Byrne react to that on his blog.
Things have been so smooth with the Ravens the past few seasons that it’s easy to forget about when negative news was reported. Leading up to his firing, Preston heavily criticized Ravens head coach Brian Billick for his clock management, play-calling and losing the locker room. Preston wrote that the “Compu Coach,” as he used to so lovingly call him, “fooled the local media (no big task), the Modell family, which hired him, and twice did the same with current owner Steve Bisciotti and general manager Ozzie Newsome.” That’s probably why Billick has been so brash to him over the years.
Preston also ruffled some feathers when he wrote that Harbaugh “wanted [Ed] Reed back as much as he wants a root canal.” Byrne also took exception to that column, though didn’t call Preston out by name.
Whether you love him or hate him, there’s a place for Mike Preston.
Baltimore media doesn’t need to be on the level of Philadelphia, New York or Boston, but they do need someone holding the Ravens’ feet to the fire.
Not everything that comes out of Owings Mills is going to be sunshine and lollipops despite what Byrne and the organization opines.
Let’s make sure Bieber gets his tight-jean, v-neck t-shirt wearing ass out of town…but Preston, he’s welcome to stay.
