Dovster

I have been a journalist since the early 1970's and not once, in all this time, have I written about a personal problem I faced with some business.

I'm sorry, but that is plain unprofessional.

Admittedly, it might have been excused if Peter King was writing for "Air Travel Weekly" but where is the connection to sports?

I can't believe he is slamming low-level employees for their work attitude when demonstrating such a poor one himself.



------------------
Sir Dovster, OBE
(Omni Boycotter Extraordinaire)

hnechets

Hmmm...

I never caught that, Dovster. Good eye!

But since it's outside the general discussion here, I won't comment further on it.

I will say that the incident has resulted in a lot of very enlightening discussion on this thread.

Thanks!

NoStressHere

Yes indeed. When I see a poster suggest we should call authorities because a college age daughter has been gone 15 minutes to get a pretzel I start to understand the hysteria that has created the TSA great pointy search. Comments like being safe 999 out of thousand (or whatever it was he said) make me worry... worry about people that fly off the handle and call in the authorities in such matters.

Amazing. Simply amazing.

sammy343

However, Peter King's Monday Morning QB is a column that he runs every Monday that is full with things unrelated to football. He mentions his daughter's field hockey games, all the places he's taken her on their college hunt, which Starbucks he has frequented, etc... I believe that a good amount of people who like the column like it in part to his ramblings on lots of subjects. His "Aggrevating/Enjoyable Travel Note of the Week" is something that he puts in almost every column, the only difference with his last column is that he went on and on about it.

Perhaps it is unprofessional, but it is certainly not unusual given the history of his MMQB column.

HobokenFlyer

As a regular MMQB reader, I find Mr. King slightly self-indulgent. I like his football analysis, however, I have grown tiresome of his non-football stuff. Especially, about his daughters and Montclair softball/field hockey/mock trial.

I could really care less about what his daughter/s is/are doing unless they have some uncanny insight into football.

When I read MMQB, I immediately skip over anything to do with Montclair sports or his daughters. Mr. King coddles his kids; from featured spots in his nationally syndicated column to "yogurt pretzel" runs. Why couldn't the kid just get a Snickers bar out of the vending machines, but instead needs a $3 yogurt pretzel from behind security?

Be careful any future gentlemen callers to the King Daughters; princesses and high maintenance looms!

But anyway, the bottom line is this; it's King's fault and I am sure his initial attitude to the agents wasn't great (either because he was PO'd at his daughter, but God forbid he reprimand her, so he takes it out on the agents or he was "don't you know who I am from "Inside the NFL" on HBO?) therefore, the poorly trained agents responded worse and threw fuel on the fire.

I think most of the time when an agent threatens security, it is bogus; I doubt Mr. King, arrogant he may seem to be, would be worth of a "security" call. That's a cop out to not trying to satisfy and albeit "difficult" customer.

Now, if Mr. King, made it clear to the agents before he left and secured that they would hold their seats if they arrive at 14 minutes before flight time and THEN the agents screwed him; then I can see the frustration a little better. However, it doesn't seem that he made that sort of deal with the agents therefore, they weren't under a complete obligation to bend over backwards for him.

I do find the agents were being unprofessional; I don't see them getting promoted to any major market soon. Their poor judgement coupled with King's poor decisions and attitude made this what it is and these schlubs from South Bend do not have a national forum to air their grievences. Mr. King, keep it to yourself and write this letter straight to Atlanta and VIA Atlanta by CNN/SI.

My $0.02.

- HobokenFlyer

[This message has been edited by HobokenFlyer (edited Feb 29, 2004).]

CLTFlyer

Well, a week after, Peter King followed up on his column of a week before. Looks like many took him to task.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...mqb/index.html

HE'S ANGRY AT MY SELFISHNESS FOR WRITING ABOUT THE DELTA PROBLEM. From Erik Urban of Burlington, Mass.: "You should stop trying to get readers to feel sorry for or empathize with you. The complaint you levied against Delta for giving away your seats on your flight home fell on deaf ears here. You have no one to blame for the entire situation except your daughter, who apparently couldn't navigate a 'postage-stamp-sized' airport sufficiently in the 15 minutes she had to ensure you boarded the flight home. Bottom line, instead of whining like a 3-year-old with a tantrum, Mary Beth needs to realize that you can't hold up everyone else just because your Daddy writes for Sports Illustrated. I'll continue to read MMQB, but I would appreciate not being solicited for sympathy when you or your family mess up.''

Of the many letters that came in about the Delta problem, and there were a few supportive ones, this one illustrated the tenor of the readers best. Your point: We don't care about your petty and selfish problems, particularly when they're of your own making. Three comments:

1. "Monday Morning Quarterback'' is a pretty long column. It's usually several thousand words. I share some personal things that happen to me -- like the foul ball thing last year, like the Delta mix-up this year -- that some people will find tedious, selfish and boring. Others enjoy reading about it. If it bothers you, I respectfully recommend that you move on to the next item, because I'm going to continue writing about things that happen to me outside of covering football.

2. I tried to convey in the column that the reason I was ticked off was not only that we were bumped when the agents knew we'd be right back. Technically, they had the right to bump us. But as I wrote, the attitude -- ignoring us, refusing to give us an explanation, and then mocking us as one of them walked outside -- is what was so condemnable. As I wrote: "All they had to do, even one of them, was to explain exactly what happened, which they never did, and say they're sorry, but rules are rules, and we had to be there at 3:45, and we weren't. I would have been angry, but not volcanic.'' Mary Beth's Daddy working for SI had nothing to do with this; those guys had no idea who I was, and if they did, who cares?

3. A Delta official from the Cincinnati hub, Tom Brunckhorst, called on Tuesday. Nice man. Said the airline investigated my claim. Said the gate agents were wrong to hold such a hard line when clearly the flight would have gotten out on time. I told him, basically, that I have nothing against Delta, but I won't fly the airlines for a year. I told him I appreciated him being honest. It's over, and we can all move on now.

Dick Ginkowski

I agree with the Communist Air spokesman which is simply common sense.

Interestingly Mr. King bypasses any discussion of his own laxness here.

JS

emphasis added:

Well, well, well, now we're so pissed off we aren't going to fly ANYONE! Good for you!

ATLpax

This is my favorite thing from his column (mailbag) this week (note the last line from BHW of Boston):

HE'S ANGRY AT ME. From BHW of Boston: "Why on earth did you write about 'poor Isaac Hilton' and his bladder issue? Did you NEED to reveal that to a nation of readers? You don't think this guy will be ridiculed in the macho world of sports now that you've broadcast his problem? Maybe he wasn't so scared that he pi**ed himself, as you imply. Maybe he has an actual urological problem. Either way, it doesn't really matter. You outed him needlessly. And you think the guys at the Delta desk behaved unprofessionally.''

Peter King:
Fair point. Personally, I think it's a topic of interest to readers, and the player is a public figure by virtue of choosing to attempt to play in the NFL. But your points are good ones too. I'd re-think it if I had it to do over again.

amanuensis

Indeed, that is also what I thought was the most interesting part of the article -- his failure to blame himself for at least part of the problem.