Thanks for Four Years of Awesome
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Blogged Around Philly: Farewell Edition
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Apparently the Eagles’ decision to let Brian Dawkins walk is having a ripple effect that’s even being felt by staff at Lincoln Financial Field. Dan Leone, who worked on the stadium staff, was fired for posting a Facebook status update that read, “Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver … Dam Eagles R Retarded.”
This is a strange story with many different implications, not the least of which is simple. It’s a situation in which nobody seems to be right. We’ll do our best to wade through this murky situation.
The first issue to deal with is that of free speech, which we only seem to value when what’s being said is something we agree with. People on all sides of the spectrum are guilty of this, but it seems to be a disease of the Left more often than not. The First Amendment that Americans bandy about when we feel like saying what we please is thrown out the window when someone else says something that offends our delicate sensibilities. The situation with Don Imus back in 2007 is a perfect example of that. Even people who normally have their head on straight (Keith Olbermann, we’re looking at you) were clamoring for this guy’s termination. The right to express yourself, apparently, only goes as far as what’s deemed “appropriate”. Evelyn Beatrice Hall (not Voltaire) once said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Dan Leone is a fan of the Eagles as well as being an employee. He was not at work, he was in his private life in which he voiced his opinion on the decision by his beloved football team to let a beloved player walk. He had every right to say what he said, that doesn’t make him any less of an idiot.
Another aspect of this story is that it brings to light how stupid the era of hyper-communication is making a lot of younger people. That’s right, for a lot of you reading this, the Internet is making you dumb. We text, we instant message, we abbreviate EVERYTHING, and we’re constantly letting people know what we’re doing via Twitter, harboring the delusion that people actually care. Constant virtual communication is making this generation terrible communicators. Let’s look at this statement, “Dam Eagles R Retarded.” First of all, unless a “Dam Eagle” is a rare majestic bird that holds back large amounts of water for the purposes of irrigation or hydro-electricity, there’s a misspelling right there. The real bothersome thing, though, is the “R” because it smacks of laziness and/or hypocrisy. Either you’re too lazy to add the “a” and “e” to the word, or you legitimately think that’s how the word is spelled which would make you, well, retarded.
Look, we’re not here to play Grammar Nazi (we’ll leave that to the hilarious Proofreading Philly), but this is a microcosm of a spreading phenomena, one that others have noticed as well. Perhaps if we all moderated our Internet use (with the exception of going to Phillyist nineteen times a day, of course) a little better, we could be able to speak to each other or voice our opinions without using monosyllabic letters and numb3rs instead of words. Although, since when we ever been all that good at moderation?
Adding to all of this is the dawning reality that everything a person puts up on a social networking site is something they are now liable for. Privacy settings be damned, the picture of you dressed as an Aborigine shotgunning down an Uluru-sized beer-bong filled with Fosters is gonna find its way to the church social. Is that right? Of course it’s not; it’s an invasion of privacy, but it’s a reality. Social networking sites are a way of sharing things with your friends, not the outside world, but opponents will say the Internet is the Internet and you’re responsible for what you post. Fair point, even if intention and context are completely ignored. Stories like this are going to start becoming more and more frequent regardless of the ethics involved and that’s just something we’re going to have to get used to in the modern world. Dan Leone should have known that, and as an employee of the Eagles (albeit part-time) he should have been more aware of what he was doing.
Honestly, we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least briefly mention the football aspect of this story. What in the name of sweet Cthulhu were the Eagles thinking letting Dawkins walk? Look, we all know he was getting older. We were all pretty sure he wasn’t going to keep up his usual stellar play and be the most dominant safety in the game, but he was still incredibly valuable to the team on the field, in the locker room, and with public relations. Most importantly, the Eagles don’t have an immediate successor at the position, which means they’ll now have to focus on that position as well as the many others they need to address this off-season. It was a dumb move and it’s hard not to get the feeling that the Eagles have entered full “Rebuilding Mode.”
It seems the Eagles either took issue with Leone criticizing the team or they took offense to his use of the word “retarded.” Either way, they were wrong. Not that Leone isn’t at fault for just being a dumb prat, but last we checked that wasn’t a fireable offense (see: Reid, Andy). If the Eagles had an issue with Leone, they should have brought him upstairs or sent him a letter basically telling him to watch himself and not to be so reckless in the future, but in a terrible economy, they decided to boot this guy out the door for speaking his mind. The team was completely within its legal right to terminate Leone, but ethically it was a bad move. It’s a no-win situation, which is kind of like being an Eagles fan.
Image Credit: Flickr user avlxyz.
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