Twitter post on Coach Kill

[FanSinceTheFifties]

Probably a more responsible tweet would have read: "Just saw an ambulance leave TCF. Anyone know if it was somebody related to the team? If so, hopefully they are ok."

Just my opinion.

Even better would have been: "Just saw ambulance leave TCF with flashing lights. Anyone know why?"

 

[STPGopher]

Probably a more responsible tweet would have read: "Just saw an ambulance leave TCF. Anyone know if it was somebody related to the team? If so, hopefully they are ok."

Just my opinion.

+1 I like Nadine and think she is a good person. I hope as she grows older, that she'll realize that posts like this can be hurtful.

 

[Calgoph]

What are you talking about?

People speculate on health issues of other people ALL THE TIME. When we see a player get laid out and lay on the field woozy, we all think (or say), "looks like he has a concussion". It's not reckless and usually comes from a place of concern. When I saw Marcus Lattimore hurt his knee, I was talking to a friend and we both were talking about how he blew out his knee and we hoped his career wouldn't be over. Why would that be wrong?

I feel bad for Coach Kill in that his medical issues are public and I imagine it is annoying. However, that's not going to stop people from worrying about him, because we like him and we hope the best for him. You seem to be expecting her to either be cryptic in her tweet and avoiding the elephant in the room or your asking her to see a situation and not have a natural response.

You're way off track here.

A private conversation with friends does not equate to something being published very publicly. Newspapers, radio, or TV would never publish or broadcast a statement like what GL posted. It would indeed be considered irresponsible. Given such flimsy evidence, could you imagine a radio guy saying, "It might have been Kill in the ambulance so I hope someone who was there will give me a call to verify? No way that happens. Well, maybe Doogie would do it.

And game broadcasters do not make it a practice to speculate about who is injured. They always wait to make a positive ID first. If they speak prematurely they retract it immediately or are reminded to do so by the little man in their ear.

This whole incident just reinforces my opinion of Twitter. It's basically a gabfest for attention seekers and rumor mongers. People just wish everything was factual.

 

[MJGopher]

You accurately point out that they would have obviously thought she was referring to Coach Kill, yet you somehow are arguing that people wouldn't have been speculating about a possible seizure? That doesn't make sense. The reason that people would have immediately thought of Kill is because of his seizure issue.

It seems like the people who are bashing Nadine for this tweet are doing so because they wanted the tweet to be more cryptic. Either way, people would have been worried about Coach Kill and they would have been worried about him because of a possible seizure. Making it more cryptic does absolutely nothing.

If this tweet had come from an ordinary fan, I honestly probably wouldn't have even given 1 ounce of credibility to it and it most definitely wouldn't have been re-tweeted by Glen Mason who has a much wider following base than a local media member.

However, when it came from Nadine, who over time has established herself as someone who has an in with the Gopher program and has a blog for the biggest newspaper in the cities, it gets taken as fact by many. That is my only issue. If you want to be someone in the media, then you are going to be held to a slightly higher standard. Although, as others at the Star Trib have reminded us in the past few weeks - that higher standard doesn't really matter to them.

 

[Rosemountian]

Classic Nadine. She does a good job, but if you have a media hat....you are always wearing it. Sorry.

 

[paulser21]

Nadine, I love your work. That being said....

The first thing I thought when I saw this thread was that Kill possibly had another episode. You have a lot of followers on twitter and have closer ties to this team then the majority of us. By posting a tweet like that and including Coach Kills name, you make people speculate that he did indeed have a seizure. I hope in the future you choose a better way of phrasing your tweets.

 

[tikited]

This whole incident just reinforces my opinion of Twitter. It's basically a gabfest for attention seekers and rumor mongers. People just wish everything was factual.

This.

 

[50PoundHead]

You're way off track here.

A private conversation with friends does not equate to something being published very publicly. Newspapers, radio, or TV would never publish or broadcast a statement like what GL posted. It would indeed be considered irresponsible. Given such flimsy evidence, could you imagine a radio guy saying, "It might have been Kill in the ambulance so I hope someone who was there will give me a call to verify? No way that happens. Well, maybe Doogie would do it.

And game broadcasters do not make it a practice to speculate about who is injured. They always wait to make a positive ID first. If they speak prematurely they retract it immediately or are reminded to do so by the little man in their ear.

This whole incident just reinforces my opinion of Twitter. It's basically a gabfest for attention seekers and rumor mongers. People just wish everything was factual.

You said it better than I did.

 

[Lakeville Goldy]

If I saw a random ambulence on 35W would I ask if Coach Kill was in it?

There's thousands of fans in the stands, plus the players, coaches and staff, not to mention it may have been going to another call away from the stadium, NOT to the hospital.

I get why, but honestly it was poor judgment to make the leap that it was Kill...

 

[Formo]

Mason is a tool. He wants so desperately for Kill to fail so he doesn't look bad. Every week he makes ridiculous statements that confirm why he's a loser. He delights in Minnesota failures and down plays the successes. Best to just ignore him and stay focused on the obvious upward path this program is taking.

You, sir, are an idiot. Not only is there not a shred of truth to your post, it's borderline libel.

Noticed this from Mason too. Extremely irresponsible considering there are thousands of people in and around the stadium. So irresponsible it makes me think she knows something and put it out there like that (probably unlikely she'd know and nobody else would).

The irresponsible part was Mase re-tweeting it. But it's not the end of the world. Nadine was asking a question if anyone knew if it was Coach. She hardly speculated that it was him. You guys need to go back to reading comp classes.

I am one of the biggest Mason haters in GopherHole but I don't believe there is a shred of truth in your post. I believe Mason likes and admires Kill and wants him to succeed even in ways that he himself failed as Gophers coach. I have come around to the point of view that Mason is a pretty good guy. I just didn't like him as our coach.

Yup.

I know people like to jump up and down about Mason, but Nadine is the one who was acting wildly irresponsible here. She's the one who started this fire. I expect more out of her.

?!

 

[Formo]

no offense, but unless you are also now a trained medical professional let's not also start speculating on exactly what was wrong with the gentleman we both saw. i highly doubt you know for sure whether he had a heart attack, fainted, or if it was something else entirely. for all we know, it may have been something where they could simply treat him on site with fluids/IV, etc. to see if he could just fully recover on site. perhaps he did and taking him to a hospital was purely precautionary.

again, unless we have hard evidence/facts, i have to agree that it is somewhat irresponsible to even vaguely insinuate, ask the question, or invoke coach kill's name into it the way you did on twitter. i don't think the way it was put out there on twitter is fair at all to coach kill. just my two cents.

that said, i still enjoy your stuff and think you do a fine job here and in your minneapolis star tribune blog. keep up the good work. just suggesting in the future it might be better to think deeper if that kind of tweet is fair without really knowing/confirming any of the facts involved.

Supe.. Just can it. She was NOT speculating. She ASKED A F#$KING QUESTION!

Good f%&#k, some of you people need to get off your high horse and learn to read.

 

[dpodoll68]

She hardly speculated that it was him.

By including his name, she is inherently speculating that it was him.

 

[GophersInIowa]

Am I the only one here under 40 that doesn't use twitter?

 

[MNVCGUY]

Am I the only one here under 40 that doesn't use twitter?

Under 40 and Twitter holds little to no interest to me. I have toyed with it online a little but really have little interest in it.

 

[Dr.Don]

Am I the only one here under 40 that doesn't use twitter?

OK, why did you exclude those of us over 40??? Now I am pissed because I was excluded from this poll.

We need Stan to develop a poll on this.