As a new convert to the benefits of twitter, I have learned it is really easy to stick your foot in a pile of muck. Whether intentional or he is just oblivious to his twitter farts, Merritt has taken a few far too many. Recently he has offended a good number of the Timbers Army, calling them idiots and morons.
I have been reading his tweets over the last few months and I have one thing to say: Merritt Paulson needs to cancel his twitter account. He comes off as a petulant brat, a spoiled rich kid, and often a jerk nearly every time he takes the time to cram some holier than thou missive into 140 characters or less. His tweeting is condescending. Like he is insecure enough to think that all of our love and admiration will help him feel less insecure, and that tweeting will prove that he isn’t insecure. Perhaps it comes from being the son of a hippie who followed Bob Dylan around when she was younger, but his sense of entitlement has finally smacked me in the face.
I know people love the fact he is so accessible. I know they may even love it because he feels like a real, social media friend when he makes personal tweets. But I fail to see how a friend, even a real social media friend can get away with calling his friends morons and idiots. I love being called a moron, especially by Merritt. I get enough abuse from sunshine (and I am sure I will receive some for this post), that looking forward to being abused by a man I pay a rather good chunk of change to seems, well, either masochistic or just stupid.
I feel that my money gives me the right to complain about the management and the way things are going with this team. Yes, I am a noob and new to this love of the Timbers, but I am not such a noob to misunderstand the difference between good and bad. It must be a lonely place, defending Gavin while the majority of us in the Northend ask for his head on a stake, but that does not give him the right to call the people who make it possible for him to stay in business morons.
Perhaps the entitlement has warped his noggin so much that he believes because he made it possible for the Timbers to go into the MLS that we should actually thank him, not criticize him and his buddy Gavin. Whether he asks for it or not, I really think Merritt wants us fans to kiss his ass, not Gavin’s. But engaging in a war of words with his moronic fans and supporters he turns into a moron. It is embarrassing. I read the interactions and wonder what the rest of the MLS must think of us.
Even if Merritt is frustrated with the results, the results don’t change as a result of his idiotic tweets. Nobody is getting what they want—us a new GM and Merritt an end to the frustrations of an Army. Unfortunately, all Merritt is doing is stoking the fire and adding a target to his own back.
But the recent outburst at unhappy members of the Timbers Army was not the beginning. There was the well documented social media battle with Eric Wynalda. Ironically, Merritt called him a twitter train wreck, on twitter, like a twitter train wreck. I hope in the current train wreck does not end like that one. We all know what it felt like when Wynalda and Cal FC humiliated the Timbers, and Merritt. Again, as karma has it, when you act like a moron you look like a moron. But even the humiliation of that loss was not enough to keep him off Twitter and away from Wynalda.
Whatever made Merritt believe that it was ok to initiate the attack on Wynalda seemed to grab ahold of him again. We have all wondered who the next coach would be. But Merritt made certain to let us know who it would not be, treating him like a second class citizen in the process. Tweeting to Wynalda:
@Wynalda11 eric – how can “no” be an answer if you have never even had a conversation let alone an interview? I’m confused here.
That was the third tweet directed in a smarmy and unprofessional manner at a guy Merritt called a train wreck. Either Merritt is trying to start another public argument or he is an idiot and a moron, neither really favorable reviews. Just shut up and hire a good coach!
I don’t need reassuring, do I? I have to believe he is doing his job without him getting on the smartphone to remind me he is a moron. Just let this happen through the next article published by his bro, GCA.
So here’s hoping he meant what he tweeted when he wrote:
The days of me responding to supporters on twitter regularly may be over. too easy to take 140 characters out of context.
The Timbers have given the rest of the league plenty to laugh about this season without Merritt stuffing his silver foot in his mouth. As Mark Twain said, “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”
RCTID,
Shecky
all i have to say on this subject is this: if you, my noobian pal, are allowed the platform to schlep your gavin one-liners, merritt has every right to be a fool on the twatterverse–regardless of being a twitter trainwreck.
The recent Wynalda tweets were in reply to Wynalda saying he was not getting the Timbers job in a manner than insinuated he’d made it far into the process. It wasn’t a case of Merritt just lashing out into the digital ether.
yup. clearly, shecky is having a pissy morning.
i am not sure wynalda insinuated that he was in the running. a few weeks back i asked him point blank if he had interviewed and his answer was “i have not.” no insinuation there.
not that i agree with my fellow blogger’s stance (i dont–i am indifferent to the entire thing and feel there could have been a better use of today’s slot than railing on the owner), but i think his broader concern is that merritt often tends to act moronic on the twatterverse, which reflects poorly on the organization as a whole. i know through conversations with shecky that it hit him hard when merritt called the northend and the army “morons.” frankly, if he wants to call us morons, fine. it always helps your cause to alienate your supporters.
I did follow the whole recent wynalda/Paulson exchange and for Paulson to reply, 3 times, to a guy he called a twitter train wreck seems rather insightful, in the bad way, to me. What is the point? why even respond? And 3 times? Pot, kettle, black.
And sure, Paulson has every right to make himself look like a fool. I just don’t figure it to be the wisest move on his part. He has an awful lot more to lose than me.
I liked that MP uses (used?) twitter because it’s always an unfiltered viewport to the emotions roiling through our owner as team fortune ebbs and flows. I think we’ll all be more frustrated by a silent club management that only communicates through careful, press release pablum.
My great hope with Merritt is still that he’s bright enough to learn as he goes. In general, I think that sports team ownership is always in part a vanity project. It’s like owning a unique restaurant or pub. If the commercial entity prospers, your self-image prospers. So when vocal fans tell MP that his general manager and coach are totally inept and failures, some part of him reacts that things are being personalized by people who will always resent him. It’s his problem to figure out what’s valid criticism and what’s just resentment.
You know, any service business that deals directly with customers has behind the scenes staff discussions where, to blow off emotional steam, customer references can run to the equivalent of “idiots” and “morons.” It’s how everyone deals mentally with their most unrealistic customers. Doesn’t mean you don’t value them. And, you never insult them publicly.
I hope Merritt will see the value of a communication middle way where some tempering of that twitter impulsiveness occurs, but we don’t go full-bore iron curtain.