Having just recently returned from the first "real" vacation that I've taken in far too long, I've been playing a bit of catch-up. Something that I finally got to read was this interview with Brian Dunseth. I thought that it was a good exchange and Dunseth did a pretty good job of walking the tight rope of answering questions truthfully without shoving someone down the stairs. MLS is a relatively small world and it probably does him no good to set fire to some bridges.
As many of you might know, Dunseth is a true Sirk Notebook Hall of Famer. Sirk always told me that Dunseth was a good guy, a straight shooter, and just a fun guy with whom to talk and joke. I got my opportunity to hang out with Dunseth in 2004 at MLS Cup when Sirk, Fiddy Cent, and I went to Los Angeles to watch "the Eastern Conference Champions take on the Western Conference Champions." We met up with Dunseth before the game and then grabbed some dinner with Dunseth and others at the beach after the game.
Unlike a lot of Crew supporters, it seems, I don't really talk to many Crew players. I doubt that I've talked to more than five of them ever; it's just not my thing. I don't go to the stadium club after the game, I don't go to a lot of functions, so I don't have many opportunities to talk to these players. Hanging out with Dunseth after MLS Cup 2004 represented my first opportunity, really, to talk at length with an MLS player. It was fun, entertaining, and, frankly, rather enlightening for me. It really put into focus for me the fact that these guys are people, too.
Dunseth noted how a lot of people - players, their families, their friends - read message boards and the like, seeing both the good and the bad that people write about them. I made a couple of cracks about some players, players that Dunseth knew, and while he would chuckle he'd also point out some things about them - how nice they might be, how they could be counted on to always help out, how they might have stuck together when playing in a foreign country. He also would point out that it was disappointing at times, seemingly moreso for the players' families, to see guys absolutely "housed" on message boards, shredded beyond belief.
I don't think that I ever really completely shredded anybody, though I can be a dick so I'm sure that I made my fair share of posts that probably went beyond the player's on-field performance (or lack thereof...). And while I have no problem with those who might be a bit more aggressive in their posts and comments (especially those who while aggressive are knowledgable), I decided after talking to Dunseth that I would really try to focus my opinions on a player's performance and try to temper my comments, remembering that I don't know these guys personally so there's no point in attacking them on that level. I know that's not for everyone, but after hanging out with Dunseth I realized that it was for me.
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Love your post, its great that you got to hang around Dunseth and appreciate a little of the players side of the experience. The guys out there are real people. They and their families undoubtably read internet message boards. Reading hurtful things about you or your teammates is always hard.
As a player, even when you are on television its weird when people who you don't know come up and think they know you, or want to hang around you or your teammates.
It's unfortunate when talk radio guys talk so bad about the college kids on the OSU football team. I mean, they are still just kids, trying their best out there in truly high pressure situations. Sometimes losses or mistakes in games make for growth in later games and even future years.
So as a fan, we really should just support our team, and basically just hope that the dynamics of what happens in practice everyday leads to something special that we can indirectly be a part of.
I'm not saying never criticize. However try to keep it positive when the guys on the field are working hard for the team. If they are obviously lazy, or more into themselves instead helping the team win, then I'm all for letting your displeasure be known. But in general, we as fans will never know who the guys you can count on are, and who the lazy idiots are.
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