Beat Writer Skeptical Of Agents Bashing Williams
May 14th, 2010
That Bucs beat writer Stephen Holder is a classy guy.
Holder worked hard to take the high road while publicly doubting the depth of unsourced claims made by a certain outfit that quoted anonymous agents bashing Doug Williams last year. (Joe will not name the outfit today because he doesn’t feel like dealing with the whiny, juvenile hate e-mail that follows.)
And Holder succeeded on the high road by not naming said outfit when he took time to throw cold water on those anti-Williams rumors during a radio interview on 1010 AM.
Appearing as a guest with Shaun King and Toby David, Holder, who works for the St. Pete Times, was asked how the recently departed Williams is regarded by the Buccaneers and NFL executives. Holder responded by defending Williams, even though he wasn’t prompted to.
Toby David: In football circles, how is Doug Williams regarded by executives with the Buccaneers and around the league. What was his reputation?
Stephen Holder: …I know that there was some talk that he was not highly regarded. I have not, I have to be honest, I have not heard that from people. And, you know, I’m not going to tell you it’s a frequent topic of conversation, per se, but I have not gotten that sense from people. And it doesn’t mean that there’s not any sense of that out there, but I have not heard that from people. I feel like for what they asked him to do, he did it adequately. And that’s the bottom line here. They weren’t asking him to perform a general manager type role. Yeah, he would be dealing with agents in some capacity, but the majority of those conversations are going to take place with the general manager, when you get into the high-level conversations, you know. So he’s not the one negotiating contracts. He’s not the one making a decision on whether they want to sign a player or not sign a player. So, you know, that’s where you really get to develop those reputations among agents and people in that circle. So I don’t really know that there’s much sentiment out there about that. There may have been some, and clearly there was because I know it’s been expressed. But I’ve not heard that, and I don’t get the sense that it’s nearly as widespread as we’ve been told. So that’s my opinion of that.”
That was a curious response from Holder, considering he wasn’t asked about agents, only about NFL executives and Bucs officials.
In honor of Holder taking such a high-road, non-confrontational stance on this issue, Joe will decline his usual post-ending comment.
Joe’s readers can read between the lines themselves.
May 14th, 2010 at 10:16 am
Of course agents are not going to love dealing with Williams because the love snowballing Dominik.
Clayton 25 mill, Nugent 2.5 mill, Crowell 2+ mill, Ward 15 mill – if I were an agent I would prefer dealing with Duminik also.
Doug’s feelings were probably pretty strong that signing Clayton to a 25 million deal, and letting AB walk etc were mistakes.
May 14th, 2010 at 10:35 am
Holder also wrote this article in Dec. 2008 describing how Chucky was largely responsible for bringing Williams in, and Doug’s involvement with signing AB.
Two huge strikes against him in the eyes of the current regime I am sure.
http://blogs.tampabay.com/bucs/2008/12/doug-williams-c.html
May 14th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Joe, you must be a little sensitive about the topic.
I am a Doug Williams fan but to try to support your position with the luke warm response by Holder? Strange. Not sure that this one hits the mark. Holder did not refute the PR report, just that he had not heard the same fom other people. He also said that what he felt Williams had done his job “adequately.”
By the way, Holder was asked about Williams is regarded in “football circles” and “around the league,” so that is probably why he brought up agents . . . oh and the fact that he is aware of the PR report, which he acknowledged as true.
May 14th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Joe here,
JimBuc wrote: “I am a Doug Williams fan but to try to support your position with the luke warm response by Holder?”
Position. What position? …Also, it sounds like you didn’t hear the audio, which is linked.
And, of course, Joe’s pretty sensitive about everything. Hence, the Web site.
May 14th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
I wonder if there is some sort of confidentiality agreement between Doug and the Bucs.
If not, id love to hear from him about the inner workings of the Dom administration.
Reading between the lines I think he has a lot to say about that topic.
May 14th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Joe you forgot to say BSPN sucks 🙂
May 14th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Eric — why would he have a confidentiality agreement?
May 14th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
JOe here,
JimBuc – I think you’ll find that Bates, Chucky, Jags and Williams were clammed up contractually. Quite certain at this point that Chucky was bought out and paid in full shortly after he left, making him off the payroll for a long time. ..>Williams will let us all know for sure, I believe, since he’s a talker, he’s accessible, and has lots of friends in the local media.
May 15th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Joe — that is an interesting theory. I guess you must think the Glazers paid Gruden more than he was due under the contract, right? Why else would Gruden accept and early buyout and confidentiality provision? Same I guess for all the rest, right? They were all paid in excess of their existing contracts, as consideration for the confidentiality? I guess that may be possible, but inconsistent with the notion that the Glazers are broke or cheap.
May 15th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Joe here,
JimBuc – Think lottery winner lump sum versus long term payout. But not as drastic. Don’t think they gave him more money at all.