Sunday, October 09, 2011

I don't think Gene appreciates the give and take of Twitter

If you are an Athletic Director and your team is headed towards its first losing season in 13 years and your controversial, handpicked coach is floundering, you might want to keep a low profile. Or if you are Gene DeFilippo you can use your new twitter account to take a passive aggressive jab at your own fans by mentioning one of their hot buttons.


Here is what Gene said via Twitter during the Clemson pregame.


@BCGeneD Gene DeFilippo
Very impressive to see ALL Clemson fans in their seats 10 minutes before kickoff, in time for the National Anthem.


It didn't take long for the BC fanbase to retort. Highlights include:



@amartin1004 Adam Martin
@BCGeneD BC fans would be too if they'd had 7 hrs to tailgate first like clemson fans.


@BCHysteria A.J Black
@TheSeanMcMahon I was kind of numb to this whole game. Now I am just pissed off because of our passive aggressive AD. Thanks @BCgened


@sleepkins Garv
#FireGDF RT @BCGeneD Very impressive to see ALL Clemson fans in their seats 10 minutes before kickoff, in time for the National Anthem.


@SaturdaysOnShea Saturdays on Shea
Disappointed by @BCGeneD 's earlier tweet about Clemson fans. Seems like a backhanded comment at BC fans @BCHysteria @BCMike22 #WeWereBC


@EdzoRyan Ed Ryan
Just stop it. RT @BCGeneD Very impressive to see ALL Clemson fans in their seats 10 minutes before kickoff, in time for the National Anthem.


@steve_acampa Steve Acampa
how not to connect with your fans RT “@BCGeneD: Very impressive to see ALL Clemson fans in their seats 10 minutes before kickoff


@runhappy625 Kelly
When we were good, wasn't a prob! RT @BCGeneD: Very impressive to see ALL Clemson fans in their seats 10 minutes before kickoff"


@Salvuccim Michael Salvucci
@BCGeneD maybe if you put a competitive football team on the field for your fans they'd do the same? #BCFootball #firespaz


@GoanEmcee Goan Emcee
@BCGeneD Very impressive to see ALL Clemson fans support a competent coach who leads a team to more than one win. #firespaz


@ChrisFollett Christopher Follett
BCPD should teargas tailgaters at kickoff. RT @BCGeneD Very impressive to see ALL Clemson fans in their seats 10 minutes before kickoff.


@ADavo10 Adam Davison
@BCGeneD they are in their seats because Clemson is fun to watch. BC slowly kills fan interest one handoff at a time #FireSpaz


@sullidop Stephen Sullivan
@BCGeneD understandable, they're excited to have a top 10 team


@SoaringtoGlory Soaring to Glory
Our AD is bashing his own fans and the FB coach is burning the program to the ground...yeah BC!


@mandylizz Amanda
Way to continue being a hypocritical douche, DeFilippo



I am sure Gene will delicately defuse this situation by tweeting on Donor Based Seating, Men's Lacrosse and of course extending Spaz's contract.

32 comments:

Joe Bags said...

This was the last straw for me. I finally emailed Gene. Enough is enough.

chicagofire1871 said...

Good luck Joe. Last year I mailed Gene a letter and in return I received a Basketball media guide thanking me for my support...wha?! This year's letter received no response. GDF can kiss his Flynn Fund donation from me goodbye. Terrible program and horrendous leadership.

Jeff said...

Ha ha ha, maybe while GDF is visiting Clemson, he can ask them how to build an exciting program! Or perhaps an exciting game-day atmosphere? Anything? ... Buehler???

About Five said...

In Gene's mind he is a little God who should be listened too when your not praising him. Maybe He should bring back the weekly television show where he chats up how great it is. This sounds strangely like someone else, but the name isn't coming to mind.

FYI - Clemson fans do not always get into stadium before kickoff. #8, homecoming, and being there for the kill have something to do with this week's timeliness.

Erik said...

One of the funnier posts in a long time.

eagleboston said...

You can criticize Gene for a million things but he is dead right on this issue and this illustrates how out of touch BC fans are with college football reality. Every other stadium I have been to has a much better and enthusiastic atmosphere than BC. And don't give me the lame excuse that the team stinks. I remember attending a critical ACC game during the Matt Ryan years and the stadium was half-full at kick-off. Are you kidding me? BC fans cannot support their team by creating a big-time atmosphere as the teams burst through the tunnels?

True the tailgating is horrific. But that is not the fault of the BC administration or the players. The rules are due to the Massholes from the City of Boston. Stop making excuses. Have some accountability. Get your asses in the seat for kick-off and support our team as every virtually every single fan-base in America manages to do.

canttakeit said...

gene-Please go away

I have spoken with enough family and friends this morning who will stop all Flynn Fund donations-hate to do it to Bill Flynn's memory-and they amount to over 14,000.00-until this miniature moron is gone. Both the moron and boss will be getting letters this week.

I know the Jesuits hate sports, but he is very shortsighted if he doesn't undersatnd that one of the major causes of BC's growth was due to the exposure from Flutie and the following sports success.

canttakeit said...

Encourage all to do the same. The loss of donations for the short terms will not be anywhere near as harmful as anymore time with the the moron.

mod34b said...

Very amusing collage of tweets. I am sure you must have left out the ruder tweets.

Twitter seems like the Haiku of the modern age! - short, peppy and packed with content!

Yes, yes, yes - GDF is a fool when it comes to effective use of the media. This is another great example. Your last para is funny!

SaturdaysOnShea said...

eagleboston,

You are completely right and I agree with what you're saying. Even during the Ryan days, the stadium would be half- full at kickoff. I had the chance to go to Clemson once and it was an amazing thing to see everyone in the stands in time for the "most exciting 30 seconds in college football." But that's not the point here. The point here is Gene is taking a thinly veiled jab at the people who are his customers, first and foremost, and doing so at a time when he is under severe scrutiny. His tweet was neither the time nor place to be making such a statement.

Additionally, the fans for years have been making suggestions to make the gameday atmosphere at BC more exciting and welcoming to the fans and these suggestions have been consistently ignored. Gene is in no place to be making such a statement regarding our fans right now.

canttakeit said...

And while we are talking about the cops, how about the stadium guards. There is one guy on the Shea Field entrance who would not let me hand tickets to my kids (who didn't rush to get in for the kickoff0 because I had them inside the stadium. I had to go all the way downstairs to meet the kids at a different entrance. Let alone the guard who then gave my kids friends a hard time for sitting with us in 3 of 30-40 empty seats in our section

canttakeit said...

from Boston Herald

Harris could also choose to take advantage of an NCAA rule that allows seniors who have graduated at one school, but have a year of eligibility left, to transfer to another school. Former N.C. State quarterback Russell Wilson transferred after last season, and is putting up Heisman-quality numbers this year at Wisconsin.

Wouldn't this be just a kick in the pants

Anonymous said...

To those that are pulling their flynn fund donations due to a bad season. Is it safe to assume that you will be giving it to the General Fund instead? or to one of the schools?

Skip said...

I suggest that people mark their donations to the national champion Boston College sailing team.

Mod20Be said...

What the heck is going on over there???

eagleboston said...

Good point BCMurt. While he is right about the fans not making it to the stadium for kick-off, he should have found a more positive way to encourage fans to get to their seats. Although I think he has tried the positive way and it simply has not worked. But, he should know that shaming people who are already incensed at a 1-5 record is probably not a wise idea.

blockparty said...

atl, whats the uconn block story? just GDF trying to prevent uconn from joining the acc? i saw your twitter account.

ATL_eagle said...

The Globe said BC blocked UConn's entry into the ACC. I don't know if we have that much power but it doesn't reflect well on Gene.

Mr. Tambourine MAn said...

I'll hope that there is nothing actually behind this Montel theory. The only three times I can think of where someone used this are Wilson, that Oregon QB who was kicked off the team, and Greg Paulus at 'Cuse. In each case the player either wasn't wanted or pushed out of the program, I cannot imagine that BC would do that to Montel. Side note: Montel is in the hospital capital of the world, how is this knee still a lingering issue?

Mr. Tambourine MAn said...

ATL, I would think that blocking UConn from the ACC would reflect well on Gene as protecting BC's interests in the ACC. The fact that he spouted off to Jags about it making him seem like he was running the show was probably not a great idea. Can't imagine that anyone at Duke reading this article will take it very well.

EL MIZ said...

that gene tweet is truly bizarre. work on improving what is currently a terrible game day experience instead of lambasting your customers to show up on time. i can think of several things off of the top of my head -- improving the tailgating scene, hiring better stadium staff (the vast majority of whom are incompetent and hard to deal with), telling the BCPD/boston police to back off and not bully people (this has been better this year).

hey gene, the team is 1-5! we have yet to beat a team in the ACC or division 1! you improve your end (a coach who cares, instills excitement, etc) and we'll get to our seats sooner.

EagleManhattan said...

"Montel is in the hospital capital of the world, how is this knee still a lingering issue?"

Because BC has chosen a couple butchers from St. E's to take care of our players. Montel had to go outside of our medical team to get the damage from his first surgery fixed. It's a well known criticism of the program, even the players make fun of the medical staff.

Mr. Tambourine MAn said...

EagleManhattan: If thats true, its an embarrassment and a stain on the university. Medicine could be a recruiting tool even. If anything happens, you see the best doctors in the world. How do we not have a partnership with MGH/BI, etc?

neenan said...

"Because BC has chosen a couple butchers from St. E's to take care of our players"

blame the surgeon. Bad form. Butchers??

eaglemanhattan. Do you have a shred of support for your broadside attack on the surgeons? Or the quality of St E operating room (the only service hospital would perform in this case)

don't post garbage

EagleManhattan said...

Jimmy,

I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said before and in much more stark terms. Read the boards. Talk to the players. Hell, Larmond was publicly joking about it on twitter. Most importantly, look at the results. They let Montel practice on a torn meniscus for 6 months and nobody realized it was still torn until he went to Mass General.

eagleinexile said...

Look, if I pay $5,000 for a spot on Gameday, I will go into the stadium when I want or when I get kicked out. Either way, what I won't do is be made to feel guilty about it when I am the one shelling out the cash.

A good AD would launch a massive campaign against the crooked politicians in Newton and Brighton. Buy a couple councilmen's vote with the money. And/or, wage a public campaign by encouraging the student body to register as Mass. voters and use the leverage of 7,000 - 10,000 new voters to strong arm the council.

All politicians care about is protecting their cushy existence. So, if you want them to actually do something, you either have to contribute that cushy existence or threaten it. Otherwise, they are not going to do anything for you.

People say this will not happen. Well, they also used to say that we would never get the Seminary land from the Church in Brighton, and look at things now. Opportunity is always around the corner, but some times you have to chase it down.

chicagofire1871 said...

Unknown,

No I won't be donating to the general fund. My only connection to BC is through the football program. I reward success and penalize failue. Gene and Spaz are failing the program, so, at least from me, they will receive no reward.

Others can care about BC's academics or use it as a crutch. I just want to win.

Winning. I'm the poor Nevin Shapiro;)

Mr. Tambourine MAn said...

If BC wanted to extend tailgaiting, it could be accomplished very easily by simply offering to increase the BC yearly payout to Boston and Newton. I believe BC pays a small fraction of what a regular business would pay due to its non-profit status, cities always like money, and a creative method could be worked out to extend this a couple of hours. People are shelling out $5K for two hours of tailgaiting, they want to enjoy it for a little.

JBQ said...

Remember the story on Billie Flutie. He was diagnosed with a severely torn hamstring that required surgery. When the surgeons "opened him up", they found nothing out of line. Is this a crazy indictment of the medical staff (staph)? Sounds like something out of the "Blues Brothers".

Bosgal33 said...

GDF is a little Napoleon and his Waterloo is here. There are so many things wrong with how BC treats its alumni base and fans, we need our own wiki for it. I genuinely hope that the 2011 is the final countdown for GDF and the joke that BC and its football program have become.

Andrew S. said...

Great post eagleinexile.

As an aside to lots of folks who are out of town and can't make it back to see BC games - the parking lots are probably not even 3/4 full. Most days (even with the threat of rain) there are almost entirely empty floors in the parking garage next to the BCPD station. The Mod lot doesn't fill up either.

I see no reason that Gene should be pulling the arrogance card out at this point in time. Will he also tweet to say "great 2 c all the FSU fans come 2 BC, wish our fans traveled well lol!"? Things are bad and getting worse. Hearing stuff about people pulling their Flynn Fund donations is the last thing the program needs, but is unfortunately necessary to get the point across to GDF.

This becomes more of a lose - lose - lose situation by the week it seems.

Matt said...

Who determines whether BC gets an 12:00 start time or a 3:00 start time? Seems that if Gene could work with the ACC to get most of our games to start at 3:00, he could work with the neighbors to trade a couple more hours of tailgating before the game in exchange for fewer hours after the game. Just a thought...