http://www.stampedeblue.com/2009/12/...d-out-by-colts
Bill Polian called out by Colts fans on his call-in radio show, gets defensive, seemingly ends show early
If you were a Colts fan within range of an Indianapolis or an Internet connection, you likely listened to the Bill Polian Show this evening. This show is a regular for Bill, where he takes calls from fans from 6pm-7pm on local Indy station HANK FM. However, if you tuned in this evening, what you heard were some very irate but thoughtfully articulate Colts fans essentially tell Bill Polian that his excuses for pulling starters against the Jets were unacceptable to the Colts fanbase (our open thread for the show is here).
* One caller claimed Polian and the Colts had run from the win.
* Another caller, a polite but obviously agitated lady, brought up the point that it was unfair to charge fans high ticket prices during a recession only to see the team pull starters.
* Another fan, which happened to be the last caller of the show, challenged Polian by stating the obviously: The Colts did not put forth a maximum effort to win because they pulled their starters at a critical time in the game.
All of this resistance to Polian, the Colts, and their excuses for not trying to win the ballgame seemed too much for the Colts president. Midway through the final caller, with about ten minutes to go in the show, the show was cut-off. The station immediately threw in music and commercial filler, and thus, the Bill Polian Show was abruptly ended. Perhaps there was a technical failure. Perhaps a major FM radio station in a somewhat large metro area lost their feed. Perhaps one day flaming monkey will shoot magically from my butt.
To put what happened in a proper context, just like pulling the starters Sunday, Bill Polian seemed to pull himself out of the show early to avoid further injury.
Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.
More on this catastrophe of a game and a show after the jump.
Star-divide
To start, Bill Polian's relationship with fans is now severely damaged. It might not even be salvageable. Hoosiers do not take kindly to people belittling their opinions, which is what Polian has done these last 24 hours to Colts fans. I also do not think he or the other powers-that-be in the Colts organization really knew just how much fan backlash there would be against this decision. They seem to be genuinely dumbstruck that people would be this pissed because the Colts pissed away a game.
There is just no way to rationally defend the babbling, logically-flawed nonsense he started his show with, and his at udes towards the very polite, very understandably upset Colts fans seemed to write a new definition for the word "rude." I feel sorry for the Colts PR Department. I really do. No amount of scrubbing and Mr. Clean will be able to easily wash away the murder scene that was the 12/28/09 airing of the Bill Polian Show.
After making a bunch of claims that how winning 23 straight games was important and getting the most wins in a decade was important but going 16-0 wasn't (huh?), Bill Polian started taking some callers. To HANK FM's credit, they did not seem to screen the callers for obvious Polian bootlickers. For this, we commend HANK FM.
The people who called in seemed to gracefully and articulately express the anger fans had towards the decision. The lady caller (whose name escapes me) offered one of the best arguments, but Polian's response to her was anything but articulate or graceful. He accused her on air of reading from "talking points," and did not allow her to respond to his accusation. The final caller, who was cut off when the show was seemingly stopped short ten minutes early, was the one who sounded as if he got the under Polian's skin. He stated pretty much what many of us have said the last 24 hours. Polian made a claim that the Colts give maximum effort during every game, and expect that effort from players, coaches, and personnel people. The caller countered with an obvious, and devastating retort: Benching starters at a critical time in a ball game is NOT giving maximum effort to win.
This seemed to drive Polian nuts.
Polian then countered, with his voice much more animated, by asking the caller what would do if he ran the Indianapolis Colts with the upcoming game against the Buffalo Bills. Would he force injured players to play in a meaningless game? The caller countered that such a request or situation was not what he and other fans were questioning. The caller then seemed to make the point that Peyton Manning, Dallas Clark, and Reggie Wayne were all pulled from the football game yesterday at a critical time, and the benchings were not injury-related. The issue wasn't playing injured players. The issue was benching healthy ones when the game was still winnable.
It was at this point that the broadcast went dead.
When the dust settles from all this, the damage done between the Colts organization and the fans will be quite severe. Bill Polian did nothing last night to stop the angry tide against him. If anything, he incited more. The man is an abject failure at public relations and has seemingly no regard for fans or their opinions.
Dear Jim Irsay, lock this guy up somewhere and cool him off. That, or give him a rattle and a diaper. Either way, keep him away from hard-working, loyal Colts fans, because he clearly doesn't like it when they hold him to adult-like standards of accountability and respect.
And the chickens come home to roost.
After years of being an asshole, talking , and demanding rule changes every time his team gets owned, Bill Polian takes a little criticism for once. And he ducks for cover immediately.
Bill Belichick is the same type of asshole, but at least he faces criticism with two middle fingers in the air.
Midway through the final caller, with about ten minutes to go in the show, the show was cut-off. The station immediately threw in music and commercial filler, and thus, the Bill Polian Show was abruptly ended. Perhaps there was a technical failure. Perhaps a major FM radio station in a somewhat large metro area lost their feed. Perhaps one day flaming monkey will shoot magically from my butt.I've never listened to his show. Good stuff, but not all that surprising.
He deserves all the hate calls he got and will get. People are pissed off, and, since they pay the outrageous ticket prices (not to mention we paid for LOS), they deserve better than what they got from him.
He should look over his shoulder for a while.
Good read. I never understood the praise Polian recieved. The colts have been great for awhile now, but can only claim one le.
He obviously has an eye for talent...as to why his teams always fall short in the postseason, I have no idea. Those early 90's Bills teams were also his doing.
This is all going to end very badly for the Colts. You know if they lose in the Playoffs right or wrong, critics are going to go right back to benching the starters in Week 16.
as a colts fan i hope the colts lose in the first playoff game, so next time they get an easy schedule they go for 19-0
lol Polian
You're right! Only if all 11 Polians on each side of the ball played better!
Who finds better talent than Polian? Go listen to more Toby Keith records and gtfo.
Its fine if you want to rest some players that are injured, but not every one is injured. To give up like that on a game is bull . You could see the agitation on Mannings face. He wanted out there badly. He shoulda been out there.
Polian is massively overrated. He got really lucky to get Manning, because Manning is the one who has kept that team elite for all this time. Manning even took a paycut so Polian could build on their weakspots, and they still constantly have a ty defense and run game. Polian sucks.
Wherever he goes, that team starts winning. You think he has just gotten lucky for the last 20 years?
I agree with the decision to say screw the game, but it doesn't seem like everyone within the organization (including all the players) was on board. Caldwell said the record didn't matter and that game didn't matter either. Jeff Saturday said that you play the game to win and if you're not there to win then why play at all?
The players bust their asses all season long so it only seems right that you include them in this decision. In the end it's the players who decide how hard they want to play for their coach.
I'd much rather have Al Davis making decisions.
great talent evaluator
but in his time with the colts, he still hasnt been able to build a defense, despite the fact that defense has been their obvious weakness pretty much his entire time there. you would think that after all the attention he paid to their offense, by now he could have built something better than what they have on defense currently. if peyton had the luxury of a defense like worthelssburger or brady had, he would likely have at least 3 rings by now
My favorite is when Polian pulled a nutty in the Gillette Stadium pressbox:
In a Journal notes section written by Curran and two other staff writers, Polian had his own headline “Press-box sideshow,” in which his outbursts were described as pounding his fist repeatedly on a table, throwing a left hook into the air, whipping his notebook, leaping from his chair and “cursing unintelligibly under his breath.”
And as backup quarterback Doug Flutie rolled out with pressure on his heels, Polian muttered, “Break his leg.”
Successful GM, total wad.
http://thebestsportsblog.com/2005/11/10/24/
You wouldn't rather have a Super Bowl le?
these fans can go screw themselves.
Its not Polians job to please the fans, its his job to build a super bowl winning franchise and he thought his best chance at winning one was to keep his players healthy.
And plus, if these fans knew anything then they would figure that there would be a chance that this would happen and they took the risk by buying the tickets.
Its like buying tickets to a preseason game and then complaining when they take the starters out.
Did he cheat history? Who knows, but he was doing his job and the fans should've known that this could've happened.
Oops...I sent this too soon.
Polian walked out of his radio show because he didn't like the comments going against his decision. It was extremely immature, rude, disrespectful, and unprofessional of him, to say the least.
Thanks to the people (fans and non-fans) here in Marion and surrounding counties...and the Lucas family, that team got the damn stadium they were whining about. Thanks to the fans, the tickets are sold out 3 years in advance.
Yes, the team is good, and yes, he played a huge part of it, but there are many aspects to that team being what they are. The decisions he made were to satisfy his own wants or needs. It didn't satisfy the fans, and I'm willing to bet, it didn't satisfy the players.
As someone pointed out earlier, why is it important to break the other records, and then fall flat here?
And this argument about resting the players so they don't get injured...that's complete BS. They could be injured in practice. They would be injured during the first snap of the game. They could be injured walking into LOS. Give me a break. That reason is weak.
Oh...and NO, buying season tickets or buying a ticket to the game against the Jets is NOT like buying tickets to a pre-season game and then being surprised when the starters don't play. The Colts had a chance at history here. Totally different.
Last edited by SpursFanFirst; 12-29-2009 at 04:29 PM.
btw,
We have an update to the original story.
Emmis Communications is claiming that the show aired in its entirety here in Indy, but there was an internet issue that prevented listeners from hearing the last 10 minutes.
I don't/didn't listen, so I can't say if it definitely aired the whole time.
I'm not arguing the chances of Manning getting injured, as I agree its almost impossible considering he hasn't been injured all season.
However, this is still his team and there is a reason he's the owner and not the fans. He wanted to make sure his guys got some rest. And in a game like this there's obviously a chance that the starters can be taken out since they've clinched homefield. I don't think they have a right to get their money back just because they wanted to see them get a record that has no significant value anyway.
All Bill Polian wants to do is see his team win a superbow, and thats why he made the decision. If they go on to win it, this will be a non issue among anybody.
Irsay is the owner, not Polian. As far as I know, Irsay hasn't said a word.
And people asking for their money back is silly. I would agree.
What I'm saying, though, is that this city has spent A LOT of money trying to keep that team happy. The least management can do is take us into consideration when making decisions.
At the very least, Polian should treat the fans with the respect we deserve.
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