ESPN: The Cardinals workplace culture

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Michael snuggles the cap space
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a few thoughts:

Basically the story is that Mike is a total jerk.

I suspect there is context for why the team is uptight about keeping female employees away from coaches and players. Not saying its justified, but this doesn't happen randomly.

Weirdest / most disturbing anecdote: Mike yelling at a line manager **for asking** if sick time can be used for jury duty. That is such a low stakes, day to day kind of question that should have been dispatched without the team owner getting involved. His reaction is so out of proportion to the issue.

and ... Mike B alienating people in the local community is consistent with what i have seen.
 

Dr. Jones

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This is effectively a reprint of the Athletic article from a month ago. Same people and commentary.

Kind of plagiaristic really
Agreed. ESPN seems to be moving further away from journalism and more towards aggregation. It's definitely plagiarism adjace if not worse (IMO).

Regarding the content. Nothing changes until you excise the Bidwill tumor. This is a 40 to 50 year problem at this point and it has really caused me to become much more casual in my fandom than I was a short time ago.

Sad stuff for me. But a total catastrophe for the lives MB and his henchmen continue to terrorize.
 

kerouac9

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a few thoughts:

Basically the story is that Mike is a total jerk.

I suspect there is context for why the team is uptight about keeping female employees away from coaches and players. Not saying its justified, but this doesn't happen randomly.

Weirdest / most disturbing anecdote: Mike yelling at a line manager **for asking** if sick time can be used for jury duty. That is such a low stakes, day to day kind of question that should have been dispatched without the team owner getting involved. His reaction is so out of proportion to the issue.

and ... Mike B alienating people in the local community is consistent with what i have seen.

Yeah. This was crazy. Michael not only yelled at her, they suspended her two days without pay for bringing up the issue at all. Then it seems like they had her write a form email saying it was her fault for essentially overreacting to the situation that they can use whenever anyone asks.

Just wild, awful stuff.

This is effectively a reprint of the Athletic article from a month ago. Same people and commentary.

Kind of plagiaristic really

That's only true if you only read the headline. There are tons of new details in here, even if there aren't actions described from within the past 12-18 months.
 

Chris_Sanders

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Yeah. This was crazy. Michael not only yelled at her, they suspended her two days without pay for bringing up the issue at all. Then it seems like they had her write a form email saying it was her fault for essentially overreacting to the situation that they can use whenever anyone asks.

Just wild, awful stuff.



That's only true if you only read the headline. There are tons of new details in here, even if there aren't actions described from within the past 12-18 months.

I read the article and found it be strikingly similar, especially with the people that are on record.
 

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Michael snuggles the cap space
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the ESPN take on this has lots of Ron Minegar on the record -- who comes across as credible and balanced

and fwiw: the entire episode on how Mike handled the Minegar letter and its use in the McDonough situation is such a cluster -- a complete unforced error

it just makes me wonder who he is taking advice from, or if he is taking advice from anyone.
 

Cardsmasochist

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Remember back in the Sun Devil Stadium days when Michael blamed all of the organization’s problems on a lack of a stadium? And these types of stories were a thing of the past now that Michael has taken over the reins from his dad? Mike was going to turn the Cardinals into a modern day football team that could compete. The days of frugality and pettiness were over as long as you gave Bidwill a new stadium.

Remember?
 
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Krangodnzr

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Yeah. This was crazy. Michael not only yelled at her, they suspended her two days without pay for bringing up the issue at all. Then it seems like they had her write a form email saying it was her fault for essentially overreacting to the situation that they can use whenever anyone asks.

Just wild, awful stuff.



That's only true if you only read the headline. There are tons of new details in here, even if there aren't actions described from within the past 12-18 months.
I picked out a few new details, but there is a lot of stuff that is the same.
 

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Michael snuggles the cap space
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in the FWIW category:

I have had the unfortunate experience of having one direct boss that acted like this as well as working one step removed from a CEO (thus, having direct contact with them) who was like this-

my observation is that people who act like this are pretty miserable in their personal lives and it shows up at work.
 

RON_IN_OC

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Isn't this just basically more piling on of the things previously reported over the past year?
 

kerouac9

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I picked out a few new details, but there is a lot of stuff that is the same.
Yeah. It's 85% stuff that we've heard before (and we're in the 1% of fans, so we keep close tabs on this, even it most of it will be new to casual fans of the team), but the 15% is still pretty brutal:

- The jury duty story
- Michael holding all-hands meetings for both Keim and Minegar to yell at them in front of everyone (including stadium staff on a livestream)
- Women employees feeling like they were allowed to use certain stairwells(!!!!)
- Michael getting in some bureaucrat's grill after the stadium was approved to say that he did this
 

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I don’t doubt that they guy is a horrible dude to work for. I don’t know for sure, but you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
That said, just quit and go work somewhere else. You don’t have a right to work for the Cardinals. You don’t have a right to be happy.
 

ASUCHRIS

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MB is a trash owner, and to expect much change from him at this point is pie in the sky. Some people will defend him no matter what, because there are always those people.

We'll remain in the dregs of the NFL as long as MB is owner.
 
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