Nick Canepa: Beating A Dead Horse After You Drug It With Chill Pills

On Friday evening, Nick Canepa weighed in on Bill Johnston's "Chill Pill" post. It contained the usual amount of material I disagree with so I figured I would respond.

From the U-T San Diego, Friday October 19th:

What they might say in some of the politer circles, with pinkie extended from martini, is that Bill Johnston has created quite a manure storm by blowing just a little hot air.

Go-to references for Nick Canepa: manure, Winston Churchill, "He's no Mike Schmidt . . .", Sez Me, and _________________.

Bill is a kind man, a giving man, a devoted man who created the San Diego chapter of the Huntington's Disease Society when his wife Ramona contracted this horrible thing more than a decade ago.

This is football, that's all. Bill Johnston simply wrote a blog with his opinion in it -- he didn't stab Monica Seles during a game break at a tournament in Hamburg. I don't think it's necessary to bring his character into play here because as stated, it was only a blog about football. Nobody disputes that he is a good man. Paragraphs regarding his sterling character will only be necessary when he's accused of stabbing Monica Seles one day. And let's be honest, Seles is a fossil. It's more likely to be Agnieszka Radwanska.

However, in no way am I here today to say Johnston as a professional was right when he wrote a Thursday column on the Chargers Web site asking fans to "take a chill pill" following Monday night's embarrassing defeat to the Denver Broncos.

I agree with Nick Canepa here. Although I would have wrote, ". . . as the Public Relations Director for the Chargers, but more importantly, as a professional . . .".

Nick seems to be forgetting that, that small distinction, is actually a pretty large one. That whole "PR Director Writes Scolding Blog!" thing is why San Diego went bonkers.

But it was his right. The problem is that he didn't really say what he wanted to say in the correct manner. So he's not Hemingway. But what he wrote, which I found to be innocuous, infuriated so many Chargers fans it ended up going national, or viral, or whatever the hip phrase is at the moment.

C'mon! This isn't the [obscenity]* Constitutional Convention. It was his right?

Terse prose. Reads like For Whom The Bell Tolls. Very Hemingway of me.

As a rule, Bill is wise enough to air his laundry indoors.

You mean, Bill is usually wise?

I then welcomed him to the world of column writing and that if he's going to continue his career as a Web scribe he'd be wise to develop a thicker skin. Because as far as I'm concerned, this is a molehill turned into a typical social media Himalaya. It will be long gone once the next molehill comes along.

I don't really think it is a molehill. Nick could have written Bill's words. He's paid as a columnist for an independent newspaper. I could have written Bill's words. I'm an idiot. But Bill can't write Bill's words because he works for the Chargers; In the capacity of Public Relations Director. We're the public. Definitely not a molehill.

For the record, I respect Nick Canepa's thick skin. For the record, I do not "hate" Nick Canepa. For the record, I'm having a grilled cheese sandwich and soup this evening because it's simple and fantastic during this type of weather.

What Bill did wrong was write too deeply from the heart of the fan he has been all his life, as if the criticism is incredulous to him.

You want to error on the side of caution? Write from your bowels, never your heart.

He wrote: "What's wrong with you people?" It ticked fans off. Not the right thing for a PR guy to say to his constituents.

If you're going to go all-in with an indictment of the fan-base, I would have suggested, "What's wrong with you sissified, [redacted]-dumpsters?" Really, go all-in.

He wrote: "Take a chill pill." Once again, a softer tact would have been advisable.

This was actually awesome. There's a t-shirt now!

But the Chargers have a Website. The U-T has a Website. I write for it and many more on our staff members express their opinions on it. A whole lot of readers disagree with what we have to say and many of them think they're in the great majority, when in fact it's often the exact opposite.

It's not the same Nick! You get paid to give your opinion, independently. Think of it this way: you are like Switzerland, Nick. You don't have an army, you make great time-pieces, and your chocolate is delicious. Bill Johnson is like the POTUS. He just told his people to f*ck themselves with the election right around the corner. That doesn't fly.

They don't know my business any more than I know theirs. They don't hand out expert diplomas to every blogger and tweeter. But everybody has a voice now. If Johnston wants to have one, why should we have a problem with it? It isn't as though he told every fan to move to L.A.

This is only half true. I have received a diploma but it says nothing about being an expert. And how dare you say we ALL move to L.A.!

[Bill Johnston] "A lot of people think it's from the team point of view, but it isn't. It's from my point of view. It was a column, like your column in the paper."

Except it wasn't like that at all.

Bill Johnston deserves a hall pass. He also has to see a skin specialist.

Seeing a skin specialist is a waste of time. Use Proactive with Micro-crystal Medicine. Just look at Juliann Hough's complexion!

Sunday's game in Cleveland can't get here soon enough. Amirite, brothers and sisters?