WhatIfGodWasALeaf
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I think it's also worth noting that Burke often tosses out the odd soundbite to take the spotlight off of his team.
The Brian Burke Thread
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BlueWhiteBlood
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Zee said:
Same network, no? I wouldn't show up either, but he probably should have had somebody cancel or something.
Zee
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BlueWhiteBlood said:
No, the interview was on NewsTalk1010, McCowan is on the FAN590 (unless both are ultimately owned by the same parent company).
Still what does that mean, Burke will now blow off any media interview because he was upset by John Moore's question?
To all the "it's Burke being Burke", he needs to grow up and act a bit more professionally. He's only running the biggest sports franchise in Toronto, and one of the biggest in North America. Stop acting like a damn baby.
GhostofPotvin29
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I'm honestly not bothered by it. A big "who cares" from me.
Burke's job is to run the Leafs for MLSE not answer to the reporters of Toronto. I think we would all think a little differently if we had to answer the same stupid questions from the same stupid people everyday of our lives. Not to mention the people asking have really never done anything in their life except ask questions and write opinion pieces that don't ever require them to actually accomplish all of the things they suggest.
We can all come on here and suggest what we think the Leafs should have done about many things yet we have no idea if such suggestions were even possible. We think all players would just die to wear the Leaf colors even though there is really nothing to suggest that this is true. We have no idea how hard Burke and Nonis tried to make the team better every July 1st and trade deadline yet we rail against them as if they had the pick of any player they wanted and could get a discount on each as well.
Burke has been a lot nicer to hacks like Simmons and such than I ever would. The Dick on talk radio yesterday would have gotten a simple F*** Off from me if I was asked such a stupid question. You want to know if someone should be fired, ask their boss. And really how can anyone really answer this question? Say yes and your gone. Say no and your an arrogant prick.
That's my rant for the day, thanks for your time.
We can all come on here and suggest what we think the Leafs should have done about many things yet we have no idea if such suggestions were even possible. We think all players would just die to wear the Leaf colors even though there is really nothing to suggest that this is true. We have no idea how hard Burke and Nonis tried to make the team better every July 1st and trade deadline yet we rail against them as if they had the pick of any player they wanted and could get a discount on each as well.
Burke has been a lot nicer to hacks like Simmons and such than I ever would. The Dick on talk radio yesterday would have gotten a simple F*** Off from me if I was asked such a stupid question. You want to know if someone should be fired, ask their boss. And really how can anyone really answer this question? Say yes and your gone. Say no and your an arrogant prick.
That's my rant for the day, thanks for your time.
Corn Flake
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Bates said:
*Like*
Kin
New member
I look forward to upcoming Brian Burke interviews where he answers such pre-approved questions as "Real Sports Bar and Grill: Great Sports Bar or the Greatest Sports Bar?" and "How do you think the fan experience at the ACC can be upgraded from fantastic to super-fantastic?" for his cheering throngs of fans.
Mikhail Bloodnovsky
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Bates said:
In addition to job as GM, Burke also holds the title of President. Since MLSE is owned by a faceless pension board (soon to be owned by two faceless giant media corporations) he is therefore the face of the most important aspect of MLSE which is the hockey team. Having the president act like a child because his results have been poor reflects badly both on him and MLSE. Did you see RIM co-CEO's flip out to the media when everything was falling apart recently?
I watch the news and BNN quite a bit and I can say that I have never heard anyone ask Balsille the stupid questions that Burke gets asked on a daily basis. And if anyone should be asked about losing their job it would be the ceo of a company that has lost 80% of it's stock value in 18 months. The people with the "right" to question Burke about results are these so called faceless corporations and I have a feeling they are quite happy with the "results" at MLSE, after all they are a business and not a hockey team.
Manhattan Maple Leaf
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Corn Flake said:
One thing that I haven?t seen mentioned here and that I feel is quite pertinent to Burke?s interview is the context under which the interview was probably done.
As I?m sure many of you already know, earlier this week Brian and Patrick Burke, along with numerous other NHLers launched an initiative called ?You Can Play? which deals with homophobia in hockey.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/play-behind-patrick-burke-bold-effort-using-nhl-143441932.html
This initiative was no doubt at least somewhat inspired by Patrick?s brother and Burke?s son Brendan, who I?m sure everyone knows passed about 2 years ago.
What I haven?t seen mentioned here is that one of the main reasons Burke agreed to do this interview on some radio station I?ve never heard of was probably to discuss this initiative. I think everyone here can understand how this initiative is probably pretty important to Burke, and that it isn?t ridiculous to believe that Burke wanted the initiative to be the main focus of the interview; not Ron Wilson or the Leafs struggles or Burke?s job security.
I also think the people that are trying to frame the debate as if the interviewer can only ask pre-determined questions about Real Sports are frankly wasting everyone?s time trying to stir up controversy; even if they?re just doing it sarcastically.
If I had agreed to do an interview to discuss something that important to me, and then saw it hi-jacked so that the initiative wasn?t the main story, I would be pretty frustrated too. Like it or not, given the line of questioning in the interview the main story wasn?t going to be ?You Can Play? (which by the way has received significantly less publicity than Burke?s response to these questions which were was posted on TSN for 24 hours).
Any respectable journalist would be aware of this, and would ensure that the main focus of the interview was the initiative instead of Burke?s job security (which he quite frankly has absolutely no control over).
There are probably more important things to Burke than discussing the Leafs and their pathetic season, and I imagine given the tragedy that occurred this is one of them. Under the context that the interview likely took place (i.e. the same day/day after this initiative was launched), how can anyone not understand how diverting the main focus of the interview would piss Burke off?
pnjunction
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Manhattan Maple Leaf said:
Some of the blame lies with Burke. If he'd kept his cool it wouldn't have been as big of a distraction.
caver
Active member
I think Bates has said it best. Burke deserves credit for being as good as he has been with the media. So many sports reporters make outrageous and provocative statements to feed the hockey-mad masses (both pro-Leaf and anti) their daily fix that players and management are constantly answering inane questions. It's common knowledge in the NHL that this is part of the pressure of being in the Leaf organization. I don't blame Burke one bit for snapping at some of them. Go on YouTube and watch Ranger's coach John Tortorella deal with pointed questions. Don Cherry rants on a weekly basis on Coaches Corner! So Burke gets testy a few times and people are shocked? Let the furniture fly! Drop some f-bombs on-air! Put a pencil-neck reporter (preferrably from the Toronto Sun) in a sleeper hold! Give as good as you get! Then we will have something to talk about!
Sudafederov
New member
Fanatic said:
Don't know what Warmington did, but
Feschuk calling Reimer's mom was not cool in my books.
Simmons questioning Burke's commitment on July 1st while he was in Afghanistan was not cool in my books either.
As for the latest 1010 interview, James Duthie had some good insights. I can't find the link to the podcast, but it was yesterday on TSN 1050 Toronto.
Among them,
"Brian overreacted a little bit"
"I think it's a fair question, I don't think it was worded very well"
"My take on it is you're trying to make a soundbite and you're trying to get the guy po'ed to have something that you can play on your radio station all day"
He then went on to say that it while it would be uncommon to be told what the exact questions for the interview were, it's not uncommon for radio station staff to communicate to guests what general topics will be discussed prior to going on air.
Duthie felt that it was possible this happened, where the staff mentioned to Burke general topics beforehand and did not mention the GM job security topic.
He said if this happened and then they threw that poorly phrased question in at the end, he didn't think it was fair.
It's a good interview with Duthie that adds some perspective on what possibly happened.
Kin
New member
Bates said:
Burke lives and dies by results. No more, no less. Anyone coming on here suggesting things that might have been done that would have worked is doing so on the basis of the reality that what Burke has done hasn't worked terribly well.
If you have a job in sales and your sales numbers aren't good, you don't get to whine and moan about how hard you're trying. You get judged on your numbers.
Given the resources Burke has had to work with and the results he's delivered the idea that anyone is being overly tough on him is pretty laughable.
Bates said:
There's a very simple reason that it was a valid question. Last week Burke himself decided the results the team had put up weren't sufficient and merited a significant change in direction. In light of that, it's entirely legitimate to wonder if Burke thinks that the people above him may feel the same about him.
And there are lots of ways for someone to answer that question. I wrote one earlier. He could say "I don't know, that's a question better suited for someone above my paygrade. All I can do is focus on running the team to the best of my ability". Or he could flat out say no and, again, list the reasons why.
The issue here is that you don't need to act like a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum because you get a question you don't like. Burke isn't the first guy in the world to run a sports team in a tough media market. Do Brian Cashman or Mitch Kupchak spaz out over tough questions? No. That's in large part because they have a track record of results to fall back on that insulate them from some of it.
So if Burke doesn't like being asked questions like that he can whine and cry about it or he can pull up his socks and put together a decent team.
Actually Nik if Burke doesn't like the questions and the bullcrap he hears on a daily basis he can do exactly as he did a few days ago and only the people he works for can do something about it. I would think that stuff like this does a lot of damage to Burke's ability to make the Leafs better on a daily basis. What player in their right mind would sign him and his family on to be part of the fishbowl that is the Leafs. This website would be another example of why many would not be interested in joining the team, players are dissected on a daily basis unless of course they play to the absolute best of their ability and the team is successful, not really much to ask. And I guess in sales it would also matter what you are selling. If you are selling Blackberry in the US right now I don't think it would matter how hard you try with the bad press you are getting.
ontariojames
New member
Say what you want about Burke's abilities as a GM, but how anyone can not find his personality to be rather lame,douchey and annoying is beyond me.
Kin
New member
Bates said:
Right, so he's choosing the former. It's not going to change the atmosphere surrounding the team though.
Bates said:
One who gets an offer he likes from the Maple Leafs, same as any other team. It's not like the Maple Leafs have been unable to sign players. Grabo's been part of this hellish fishbowl for years now and he just re-upped to be part of it for five more years.
Bates said:
I'd love to think that players and executives from the team read this website(And if they do, congrats Grabo! Tough luck, Ron) but even if they do there are message boards for every team in every sport.
There's pressure in LA on the Lakers. There's pressure in New York on the Giants. Those teams manage to find a way to win.
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