Any media outlet that gives sports activities protection, owes it to their viewers to tell and educate in an correct means, assuming after all the intent is to be credible. Retailers which can be persistently credible develop reputations as dependable sources. People who don’t finally lose the belief of their viewers. Enter Inside Entry on 105.7 The Fan.
Now earlier than I get too far alongside, let me make it clear the place I stand on the three-headed monster that varieties Inside Entry. Ken Weinman offers a wealth of sports activities information and he’s the present’s pacesetter. He could be overtly snarky and condescending, but when you will get past that (generally I can’t), he’s a nice level guard within the sports activities speak area. Tim Barbalace is an up-and-coming sports activities speak expertise. His enchancment is marked and when he goes solo at instances in the course of the 6 o’clock hour, his preparedness and work ethic shine.
After which there’s Jason La Canfora…
Photograph Credit score: X (left to proper: Ken Weinman, Jason La Canfora, Tim Barbalace)
La Canfora has expertise as a reporter for the Washington Submit and as a league insider (if solely by title) for each NFL Community and CBS Sports activities. So, whereas the resume seems to be spectacular and suggests a fantastic get by The Fan, the substance isn’t there. Neither is the accuracy or reliability. And actually that’s a disservice to Weinman and Barbalace.
On Thursday, February 27, La Canfora went off on one other of his squealing soliloquies that sounded strikingly much like a hog slaughterhouse. Solely the swine makes extra sense.
To set the stage for his rudderless rant, La Canfora had his board op cue up The Misfits. How applicable. The music alternative? Final Caress which begins off like this:
I acquired one thing to say
I killed your child immediately
And it doesn’t matter a lot to me
So long as it’s lifeless
Who picks that music? It’s an affront to The Fan’s viewers and the station’s sponsors. Nonetheless, with the music taking part in within the background, La Canfora reminded his viewers earlier than he began his diatribe that, “We always strive to keep it real around here.”
Positive, they do! And within the case of La Canfora – actual dumb!
The goal of his microphone drenching blather was none apart from certainly one of La Canfora’s favourite whipping boys, a person he’s labeled, “Silent Steve”, aka Ravens proprietor Steve Bisciotti who he claims is just too low cost to go all-in to win a Tremendous Bowl. La Canfora proudly states that the Eagles, Chiefs, Payments, 49ers, Browns, Rams, Vikings, Dolphins, Texans, Packers and Commanders all have house owners who clearly need to win greater than Bisciotti based mostly solely on the money that they spend in a given season – as if money spending is the clear precursor to profitable a Tremendous Bowl.
It’s not.
RSR contributor Cole Jackson posted this on X:
Here is SB champions money spending and money spending rank since 2010.
Discover something?
Being even within the single digits is uncommon and there does not seem like a correlation between CASH SPENT and profitable.#TruthHurts https://t.co/sUih0oT4gu pic.twitter.com/yE8KEIKJct
Again in 2022, La Canfora made comparable claims about Bisciotti which impressed an article I wrote known as, Money Over Cap: Dispelling the Notion That the Ravens Are Low-cost. For the advantage of Ravens followers who may need been listening to La Canfora on the time, I wished to supply details about money spending within the NFL as an instance why La Canfora was mistaken, once more. And he nonetheless is. A part of that article is price repeating right here in order that followers can brush off La Canfora’s misguided claims which can be as actual because the Easter Bunny, with all due respect to Russell Stover.
Signing bonuses (money paid up entrance), for cap functions, are prorated over the time period of a contract. So, for instance, if a participant indicators a 5-year deal and a part of the deal features a $25M signing bonus, that bonus hits the cap at $5M per yr for the five-year time period. Nonetheless, the precise money spent on that bonus is $25M in yr one. So, the money over cap for that participant in yr one because it pertains to the bonus, is $25M in money, $5M in opposition to the cap. Therefore the time period, money over cap.
The extra offers like this {that a} staff buildings in a given season, the extra it is going to carry the money spent over the cap quantity – a cap quantity that’s predetermined by the league for ALL TEAMS. A quantity that’s totally enforceable. If groups should not in compliance, they are going to be fined and/or have draft picks taken away, because the Dallas Cowboys and the staff previously generally known as the Washington Redskins keep in mind all too properly.
However La Canfora thinks the cap is faux! Don’t consider me? Hearken to the audio clip beneath beginning on the 2:00 mark. He genuinely believes that groups can manipulate the cap in perpetuity to accumulate the most effective gamers cash should purchase and by no means be impacted by the cap. And groups that don’t spend-spend-spend both don’t need to win sufficient or they’re too low cost. Or each.
Audio Clip
Throughout a particularly weak try and make his level concerning the alleged frugal nature of “Silent Steve”, La Canfora prompt that:
1. The State of Maryland has given Bisciotti $600M however he nonetheless gained’t spend like an proprietor who needs to win; and2. Homeowners keen to spend money show that they need to win greater than the Ravens proprietor.
As for the $600M permitted by the State of Maryland for enhancements to M&T Financial institution Stadium, these aren’t funds that the Ravens can spend on the roster. That cash is earmarked for stadium enhancements, the tip sport of which is to supply extra creature comforts for followers who’re keen to spend more cash on the venue which in flip creates extra income alternatives for the State within the type of taxes.
The State didn’t someday have an enormous powwow in Annapolis and determine that since Steve Bisciotti is such an excellent man and Baltimore deserves a winner, that the Meeting concluded, “here, take this $600M and go buy yourself a better football team”. And even when Bisciotti might use that cash as La Canfora suggests, the wage cap just isn’t faux. The wage cap is the lifeblood of the league. It acts as a checks and balances device to advertise aggressive steadiness within the NFL. In any other case, house owners like Jerry Jones, Stan Kroenke, Shahid Khan, Rob Walton and David Tepper to call just a few, would unleash their interior LA Dodgers and open the vault to win a Lombardi.
The wage cap prevents the NFL from changing into a league of haves and have nots like Main League Baseball. And the cap actually doesn’t have all of the loopholes that La Canfora suggests. Positive, there are restructures, extensions and voidable choices that may assist groups in a single season. However finally, frequently kicking the can down the street manifests itself in huge quantities of lifeless cash making it tough to area a aggressive staff. Simply ask the Saints and the Browns.
And talking of the Browns, Cleveland proprietor Jimmy Haslam is likely one of the house owners praised by La Canfora for going all in to attempt to win. I child you not! Jason have to be the one particular person on the planet praising Haslam who isn’t in Haslam’s final will and testomony.
La Canfora then praised the Payments for going all in after they traded for Stefon Diggs and after they signed Von Miller. Diggs was excellent for the Payments, catching 445 balls for five,372 yards and 37 touchdowns throughout his 4 seasons in Buffalo. Diggs earned $77.4M as a member of the Payments however his staff by no means superior past the AFC Championship Sport. After which the Payments wished Diggs gone so badly that they ate $31.1M in lifeless cash to get him out of Orchard Park.
As for Von Miller, he’s earned $47.2M throughout his 3 seasons in Buffalo the place he’s averaged just below 5 sacks per season. Put one other means, that’s $3.4M per sack. However let’s put the Payments down as “all-in” on the La Canfora scorecard.
La Canfora additionally lauded the 49ers for buying Chase Younger who had a whopping 2 ½ sacks in 9 video games in Santa Clara. Then he gave the Vikings and Dolphins plus grades for effort whereas these groups have mixed for precisely 4 playoff wins since Bisciotti took full management of the Ravens in 2004.
There’s no actual correlation between money over cap spending and hoisting the following Lombardi. There’s a correlation between profitable and groups that efficiently handle the wage cap from yr to yr with out mortgaging the long run. These groups usually draft properly, purchase high quality veteran depth at an reasonably priced value and possess a measurable stage of organizational continuity. “Silent Steve” and his franchise do these issues.
La Canfora comes off as a annoyed fanboy. Perhaps that stems from his precipitous fall from relevancy. He was allegedly gifted the insider job at NFL Community due to former Washington Commanders proprietor Daniel Snyder who desperately wished him out of Washington. After three years at NFLN he moved on to CBS Sports activities and was finally changed, by no means actually incomes the title of “Insider”. However they known as him that anyway.
He’s been kicked to the curb by the Orioles, and he lacks the connectivity at The Fort to even method the outline of “insider”. On social media, he’s repeatedly destroyed for his dangerous takes, inaccurate “insider” info and wild hypothesis that not often hits its mark. Even his Baltimore-based podcast with Jerry Coleman tanked not lengthy after its launch.
I wouldn’t blame La Canfora if he’s annoyed. And now he’s diminished himself to a shock jock within the native sports activities scene, however even that misfires as a result of the miscreant does little apart from spew venom within the type of lies and twisted truths to assist his warped agenda characterised by a cantankerous demeanor.
Women and gents, the wage cap is actual. As followers, you shouldn’t be subjected to the rubbish La Canfora masks as the reality, such because the cap is faux. However someplace alongside the road, the fits at Audacy as soon as thought and apparently nonetheless do, that the Baltimore native can be an excellent match for The Fan. As an alternative, he’s John Harbaugh’s fan on the finish of the bar – a fairly loud and obnoxious one at that.
I suppose each village has one.
Do your self a favor and pay no consideration to the person behind that soggy microphone.
After which possibly someday, if we’re all fortunate, we are able to name him “Silent Jason”.
