By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
September 10, 2014
If there is one thing we believe in here at the DetroitSportsRag, it is transparency. From the first column I posted on this websight™ (Terry Foster) almost 12 years ago now about my issues with paying off bookies for NFL and NCAA football wagers, I have been honest with my audience.
I have written about issues with my father on here; discussed the breakup of a relationship with my girlfriend (who is now my wife); her subsequent miscarriage; getting thrown out of a New Year’s Eve house party by a girl because I called her a “dumbass” while playing Pictionary on a first date, among other either embarrassing or personal issues.
I grew up listening religiously to Howard Stern who taught me to always be above-board with my audience and to not hold back anything, so here we are today with a humiliating issue I would rather ignore.
As many of you already know, last Thursday evening at Buffalo Wild Wings in Livonia, I recorded a video Podcast which was to serve as the DSR’s Detroit Lions season preview.
Graciously, three of the more well-known Lions beat writers agreed to participate in this Q & A session. After a long day of working at the Lions’ Allen Park practice facility turning in stories just a few days ahead of the 2014 season, Dave Birkett, Kyle Meinke and Josh Katzenstein all made the trek to Livonia at 8pm to appear on a panel with a lunatic host who, only nine months before, was getting phone calls from Downriver detectives regarding William Clay Ford, Sr. “death threats.”
Yes, at the risk of pissing off fellow co-workers and the Detroit Lions organization, the three gentleman agreed to partake in this informative and humorous look at the 2014 Lions season. And did I mention that Birkett has a pregnant wife waiting at home? No? Well, now I did.
Anyway, it has now been SIX DAYS since we recorded the Lions PREVIEW and it has yet to be posted on the sight. Which is kind of embarrassing since you would normally like to post a season PREVIEW before the actual season COMMENCED!!!!!
So where is the video? That’s a good question. Before contacting the writers from the Freep, News and MLIVE, I posted on Twitter that I was looking for someone to video this for me. I received a Tweet from a young guy who said he could handle it.
After some back and forth emails, he confirmed that he could do it Thursday night. At first, he was going to do it gratis; when he encountered some work issues, I felt guilty and figured I would give him $200 for his time and effort.
On Thursday, this Twitter follower of mine (should have been my first clue, Sherlock) showed up with a friend of his who assisted him in a three-camera shoot of the preview. For some reason, the microphones didn’t work so we instead had to use some boom mic from one of the cameras — which meant we had to scream during the show. For a loudmouth asshole like myself, this was par for the course. Meinke, on the other hand, is a mild-mannered fellow who isn’t accustomed to SCREAMING during normal discourse, so this was a bit of an issue.
I still haven’t heard the actual audio of this production, so I am not sure if Meinke came across like Penn Gillette’s partner, Teller, or not. But based on the last 96 hours, I am not hopeful.
Oh, right. I still haven’t seen the tape or heard the audio — even though this was recorded almost a week ago.
I was originally informed by the guy to whom I gave $200 to record and post the video that it would be done by 6pm on Sunday. I was HOPING to get it up before the 1pm games that afternoon, but a few hours wasn’t going to be a big deal one way or the other.
Well, I never got anything Sunday. On Monday morning I found out that the HD video file was too large to send via email, so they were going to post the show to YouTube themselves. I was starting to Joe Panik at this point, but what was I going to do?
The Lions/Giants MNF game was going to kick off in EIGHT HOURS and the season preview STILL wasn’t up on the DSR. But I could confirm via YouTube that the video was indeed uploading.
Instead of boring you any more with the balance of this story, I will simply paste my iMessages with the videographer over the last 48 hours.
I think I have been fairly reserved — for me, at least.
As you can see from the text messages, I have not received any response since I once again asked what the fuck was going on at 10:03 this morning. That is why I finally had to come clean on here and explain what was going down.
The only thing I regret is playing the “I am going to tell your father” card. “Maybe your not Frank, don’t waste my time.”
At this point, I have no idea if this video will ever be posted; I don’t even give a flying fuck about MY wasted time and effort or the $200 that I am now out (one less Pick-4 Saturday at Kentucky Downs). I feel like total dog shit that this hasn’t aired when Birkett, Meinke and Katzenstein all took time out from their busy lives (even though Meinke doesn’t own a TV) to do you and me a favor though.
It sucks. And I don’t know what to do at this point except vent.
Hopefully, one day this will air. Because unlike the never-released Jerry Lewis movie, “The Day the Clown Cried,” about a washed-up entertainer trying to humor Jewish children on a train to Auschwitz — this thing was pretty damn funny. And a little less offensive.
The ball is in your court, Ty.
Recorded a pretty cool Podcast today with a couple Free Press writers and Detroit News writers.