More Questions Than Answers
There have been some questions as to why we took down the Spring Game photos from the other day. We have been specifically contacted by the athletics department regarding these photos. We are currently discussing with them what is and is not appropriate to go up online. While these discussions continue, we have taken down all Spring Game photos as a show of good faith. Even ones that show individual drills or plays post-snap.
Of course, we bleed as much blue as the next guy. And, to an equal extent, gold. We would never want to harm Cal football in any way, shape, or form. While we want you guys to enjoy the photos as much as we do, if the athletics department requests that they stay down, then, of course, out of respect, they will stay down. As previously mentioned, while discussions are ongoing, they stay down.
However, HydroTech’s analyses will continue with screen shots from prior televised games. And we will have reports of practices that we have attended and any practices we might attend in the future. Of course, these reports will *continue* to not contain ANY information about plays or formations. Hopefully, this answers some of your questions.
Twist… don’t worry about us… if the team feels it may hurt them… then that’s also indirectly hurting us as fans… plus those pictures are entertainment for us… but its serious business or the team and for the MichSt spies.
Sure i’m a liberal Cal grad, but i don’t think this qualifies as a 1st amendment issue.
Comment by danzig — April 23, 2008 @ 7:20 pm
I think the bigger frustration Danzig is that those who went to the Cal Day practice, which was open to the public and so the fans would have no other guidance to go on, there was no instruction regarding taking pictures or anything like that. While I think it is a fools-errand to try and stop pictures from the open practice from being taken or being posted publically, I know that CGB, myself and most other bloggers would respect whatever rules they wanted, had they been stated/posted. But nowhere was it stated to anyone. I mean all they had to do was post a sign, give out a handout, say something over the loudspeaker, say something in the e-mail invitation to the event, anything like that. It’s unfair to this site to force them into a situation which such negative publicity and compromise the hard work they’ve done to promote Cal football (Hydros post is useless until he can find alternate photos) when they were given no reasonable guidance on the subject.
Hopefully this can be avoided in the future through better communication to the fans.
Comment by Ken Crawford — April 23, 2008 @ 8:29 pm
I don’t know, I’m not reacting as well to this as you guys. I think it was a pretty unreasonable request by the Athletic Department, exactly because it was made after the fact. Hypothetical: do you think the MSU “spy” (I like to think there was one, ha) would give back pics? I don’t see how a fan blog is enabling people to recon our team any more than some random dude dressed in Cal gear at Cal Day. The practice was public.
Obviously my main beef is with the notion that everything has to be kept top secret. Tedford’s variations in his formations aren’t all that drastic, and he tends to run the same plays over and over from different sets. The effectiveness of the offense doesn’t come from total surprise–I would venture to say that no offense these days does, IMO, due to the proliferation of easily-distributed media. Tedford’s offense, more than others, works in the context of the game itself; calling specific plays when they would be most effective really means having a grasp of what the defense is doing at that moment. And as Hydro detailed a while ago, setting up the defense over the course of the game.
A few plays in spring ball isn’t going to make a difference, at least not enough of one when weighed against the goodwill generated by having an open practice. I love the Bears and any time I can be somewhere without being there (i.e. getting some pics of the team, woo!) just makes me want to plunk down that donation and season ticket purchase more.
Comment by Ben — April 23, 2008 @ 9:22 pm
I don’t really get it…if anyone can seriously glean anything from those pics….jesus, they deserve it.
Comment by (Not Nasty) Nate — April 24, 2008 @ 1:19 am