The Right to Complain

In recent weeks, there have been a number of columns bashing the FedEx Cup. I've written a couple and journalists way more powerful than myself have. We've laid into the concept, Commissioner Finchem, the courses, the payout, and everything about it. Now, the same group of guys who have been crushing the FEC are going to change their column topics and also bash the players for complaining about the FedEx Cup.

Jason Sobel over at ESPN.com and Doug Ferguson of the AP came out with two today. They're the latest and among the most visible to do the old switcheroo.

First, Sobel on the players' complaints:

The time-honored practice of bemoaning subtle inequities has hardly swayed in these times of $10 million payouts and lucrative sponsorship deals. ...

Players complain when the course is too long and they complain when it's too short. They complain when the greens are lightning fast and when they're bumpy. They complain about weather that is too hot or too cold, when the wind howls, the rain pours down or the sun is just a bit too sunny. ...

Consider it ironic that a format built specifically to spur greater fan interest has developed an adverse effect in recent weeks due to players' negative comments on the changes. Just don't consider it anything new.

And, now from Ferguson, just in case you don't click the link:

The inaugural year of the FedExCup has worked about as well as can be expected. Going into the TOUR Championship, an argument can be made that the three players with the best chance of capturing the cup are the best three players in golf this year -- Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker and Phil Mickelson.

Even so, most of these guys have found some reason to complain. Woods and Mickelson have been the most critical about making the FedExCup bonus money deferred compensation instead of a pile of cash waiting for them on the 18th green at East Lake. Some have said the playoffs began with too many players. Others have said it's too hard for guys at the bottom to move toward the top. A common complaint is that four weeks in a row is too much golf.

It must be hard for fans to stomach the thought of these guys playing for $63 million over four weeks, in tournaments that have produced some of the best golf of the year, yet going out of their way to nitpick every detail.

And it's a comical coincidence that the FedExCup was patterned after NASCAR, where 12 drivers qualify for the final 10 races that comprise "The Chase" to see who wins the Nextel Cup. Those dozen drivers will be in New York on Thursday doing promotional blitzes on everything from ESPN Zone to Letterman to Regis. Can you imagine PGA TOUR players going out of their way to do that?

There's a reason why PGA Tour players hate the media. Actually, there are quite a number. But, this is one of the biggest ones. It is the common complaint of players that the media is seemingly on their side one moment, seeking their opinion, and then in a flash, that information is used against them.

Rory Sabbatini spoke about it in Boston:

No, actually the media has been the double-edged sword in the fact that I'll make a statement and they tend to paraphrase it to their liking and change it. You know, if anybody actually had bothered going back and reading transcripts from previous interviews, they would understand what I said instead of just going with the paraphrasing and following that lead. You know, I'll say that the media has really put a very bitter taste in my mouth.

The situation is I speak my mind. People always say they want something different; you get me, you get something different, and then they burn you for it. So what do you want, do you want different or do you want the usual fraternal player out here? You guys need to pick and choose what you want. If you want your generic standard answer, hey, I can spend all day long here and talk generic answer with you. But that's not the person I am. You know, if the situation continues where people continue to burn me and manipulate what I say into what they want to turn it into, I'm just not going to bother talking. That's why, you guys have got to pick and choose what you want.

This switcheroo is one of the instances that Sabbatini mentions. The media has been nailing everyone in Ponte Vedra on setting up a concept that supposedly did not get officialy buy in from players, allowed players to skip events and still contend for the prize, give away a boatload in deferred money, move away from the money list as a measuring stick, and so forth.

Now, some members of the media are turning the tide on the players and telling them to shut up because they're still playing for $63 million between the overall payout and the touranment purse for each Playoff event.

Sobel even goes so far as to say that player complaints are what is ruining the momentum of the FedEx Cup. I don't think that's the case. If you read message boards and blogs of fans, you can quickly surmise that a lot of fans wouldn't like the concept even if Tiger Woods laid a big fat kiss on Tim Finchem and the folks from FedEx tomorrow and thanked them and God for the divine intervention to create such an amazing, rewarding, and exciting opportunity.

The concept is hard to understand. It's not a real playoff system. The money thing ticks off fans regardless of who gets paid at the end. The Western Open has been ruined. The Tour didn't consider that these guys might actually skip events. The rank and file get too many opportunities to play for a concept designed to allow only 15 guys to have a chance to win. Only 15 guys can win at the start, and only 3 going into the final event have a realistic shot.

That's stuff I have heard directly from fans to my inbox.

It's almost as though some in the media are saying they reserve the exclusive right to complain about the FedEx Cup. That's simply not the case. The players have just as much of a right to complain as the media and fans do. The concept represents their sport. It can dictate their playing schedule. It has meaning for their lives and their livelihood.

If someone came to me and told me that I could make $250,000 next year BUT I would have to work for 9 weeks in a row without a day off, I don't know that I would take it. It's the same circumstance.

Are the Tour players pampered? Of course! Does that give them any less right to complain about something that everybody is saying, at the minimum, could stand some tweaking? No.