I remember the first and only time I had legitimate injury news. It was either '03 or '04, I lived in Iowa City at the time and knew someone with direct contact w/the team.
For the life of me, I can't remember the player or the specific game, but my "source" (lol) told me so and so would be out. And it wasn't a 2nd team DT or something, it was a significant name (which makes it all the more surprising I can't remember who).
I remember the vibe of how the info was presented to me very distinctly. It wasn't a "I heard Ferris passed out at 31 Flavors last night..." kind of vibe, more like a "I have a dentist appointment at 2:00 this afternoon" thing. This might sound dumb, but I could just tell. Legit.
Anyways, I was on some pay board at the time - I can't remember if it was a Kakert or JDM joint, but one of those. Scout, Rivals, I dunno. But I do remember thinking "one of the reasons we pay for the privilege of belonging to a pay board is so that we can hear this kind of primo insider dirt". So, I resolved to post it ASAP. It was early Friday evening so, yeah, timely stuff here - it would only be a scoop for another 18 hours or so.
So, I post it. Done. Feels good, man. I'm one of "those guys" now. One of the special people who periodically post shit like, "my little birdie in IC informs me..." and then, whenever the rumor mill starts spinning and people start freaking out, someone @ mentions me, "Hey,
@Luftgekuehlt67 , what is your little birdie hearing on this Herb Grigsby thing?" Hawkeye message board celebrity. I have a Special Purpose now, it's great.
For the record, I didn't do the "little birdie" schtick or whatever. I was nervous (lol) and in a hurry, so I just posted:
"So and so won't play tomorrow".
I don't remember if I even mentioned the nature of the injury, but I knew that too.
So, I make the post and then, maybe like 20 minutes later (remember, this is pre smart phone, so I'm using one of those computer thingies to do this), I go and check to see how my fellow pay board denizens are receiving their new king. I'm wondering if it'll be pinned. Pinned! Can you imagine?!? I'm practically on staff at that point.
Yeah, post is long gone. Mods insta-yanked it so fast it didn't even leave a burn mark. Like it never even happened. No DM, no nothing, just gone.
I'm a little panicked. "Oh, F, I could lose my *membership* over this! I'll have to go to Scout and Scout *sucks*! The mods are dicks! And what about the little birdie in IC?!? What have I done?!?"
I even started doubting if the information is true. I was trying to figure out if the post was removed due to a general aversion for rumor mongering or if maybe the information was *too* good.
I really don't know and, as it turns out, didn't really matter and it did not, in fact, become the turning point in my life I thought it might. I flipped on the radio pre game the next day and one of the very first things to get dropped (after the sponsor pleasantries and whatnot) was that, indeed, so and so would not be playing. The nature of the injury was right on too, my "source" had it nailed.
iowa.forums.rivals.com
