Who here is Bubba from Beech Grove?

is Exhibit A as to why newspapers are going into extinction.

the symbolic “Bubba from Beech Grove” knows just as much about the team (if note more) as a reporter/columnist with access does.

The stereo-type is this, small minded, white bread, yokels. So Kravitz is dissing them and bloggers at the same time. Kinda offensive.

which I have to agree with him. I enjoy reading the updated blogs and such from people, but why disallow one person the choice to report via blogs, tweets, whatever in real time, compared to Joe Sitsonbench who has unimpeded obversation?

To me, it’s not so much ‘who’ knows more, it’s ‘how’ something is being done. That makes no sense to me. So what if Kravitz doesn’t blog or tweet? That’s not the point. Disallowing notebooks on the first day was utterly ridiculous and put that in the ‘Say What’ hall of fame.

Let’s face it, the Colts aren’t the most media access friendly organization out there keeping things like injuries close to the vest. “Manning only had one surgery on his knee, we swear!! He’s just playing Scrabble in the back room trying to get the triple word score!”

Love the Colts, but I just prefer watching them on Sundays.

It’s not just the Colts. Maybe they have valid reasons for the seemingly silly rules. You know one of their slogans is, never explain.

The Colts, like many NFL teams, are beginning to finally get the notion that new media (like blogs, Twitter, etc.) is changing how people get their information about a team. Prior to new media, NFL teams had nice, cushy relationships with reporters. They would arrange what would be reported, when it would be reported, and how it would be reported. In return, the reporters got “access” (aka, they could interview players and coaches). If reporters violated these under-the-table relationships, they would be denied access to players and coaches, and shut out of all the “team access.” They wouldn’t get news scoops. They wouldn’t get insider info. and, eventually, they’d be fired by their news organization for not being effective.

Today, if you notice on blogs like this, you get just as much information (and, in many cases, more information) about the Colts than you get from Indy Star. All we do is publish what fans send us, or write summaries of what we see and what other bloggers see. We get this information via email, Twitter, IM, Skype, etc. this kind of technology breaks down the wall destroys the filter the old, traditional media applied when fans wanted coverage of their team.

For old school football people, like Bill Parcells and Bill Polian, this drives them absolutely crazy.

If reporters Tweet news back to their readers without it being “approved” by the Colts, Polian and Parcells can point a finger at that reporter and cut him or her out of the loop. This gives them control over the information that comes out of their team. However, when a fan does it, what are Polian or Parcells going to do? Yell at them? The fan is the paying customer. You start banning mobile devices or, worse, closing training camp and practices to fans, your team will see a STEEP decline in ticket sales and fan participation. You’ll see players get booed more at home. you’ll see less patience from fans.

In short, you can treat a reporter like garbage and get away with it. Treat a fan that way, and you’ll quickly be checking the want ads.

Indeed, it is bloggers like me that drives people like Polian and Parcells nuts. I am a paid media professional (just like Bob Kravitz). I work for a nice sized company that is affiliated with a larger company (just like Bob Kravitz). However, unlike Bob, I’m not a columnist at a newspaper and I do not seek “access” to the team in a traditional way. Guys like John Oehser can give us plenty of access to players which (and this is not a knock on John, who is vital to Colts blogging in general), often is rather dull. Players are coached and educated to talk a certain way when interviewed. Much of what they say is the same old recycled crap no matter who is interviewing them. It’s called “media control.”

My job is to collect information and present to my community (you guys) for consumption and discussion. My job is not to take only the information the team approves and report on it in order to satisfy my editor. This gives me much more freedom to be critical and, in some cases, a little more “honest” than guys like Kravitz.

In general, the NFL’s banning of Twitter is just another example of how the league wants to control all information coming from their teams. When players and fans are empowered, it takes power away from the top brass. They don’t like that. But, like always, there are ways around such draconian rules. One of the cracks in the system is blogs, like Stampede Blue. And while I have a very nice relationship with the Colts, I personally feel my most effective role is to remain outside their system. I can get player interviews through their agents, or through their foundations. I can get access to the team through several contacts I have, or by going to a practice or camp and writing what I see. If I write something that pisses off Bill Polian, he has the right to contact my boss (Jim Bankoff former executive with AOL and current President of SB Nation) and tell him I’m an asshole. Jim then has the right to say “Thanks Mr. Polian, but we don’t play the kinds of games you play with more traditional media. My guy has the right to call you a Get off my lawn you dirty kids! old man. Did you also know he called you the greatest football man in the history of the league?”

So, as the media landscape changes, not just here but also in politics, Hollywood, and other places, the old, entrenched guard will try and resist it, but like all things they will grow old, whither away, and the new will supplant them. The same thing will happen to us one day.

Hope this explains a few things.

Definitely 3.