This week in Twitter beefs: Sports talk radio guy VS former Broncos tight end
“The debate reached a full boil on Twitter yesterday when former Broncos, Texans and Seahawks tight end and six-year NFL veteran Jeb Putzier (@88jeb) went rounds with Mile High Sports’ board operator and sports radio host Joshua Dover (@JoshuaDover). “
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In the wake of the airing of the PBS Frontline documentary “League of Denial”, a heated debate in boiling up as to whether former NFL players (who were paid well to play football) have a legitimate gripe knowing that information regarding the long-term effects of head trauma was withheld from them.
Many former players have expressed their indignation via social media that they were not given the opportunity to make an informed decision regarding their own health. Others have asserted that, even had the research regarding concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy not been buried by the league, athletes would have continued to play the game and that they therefore have no room to complain.
Skeptics point to the fact that not a single current NFL player has left the game since the Frontline episode aired as evidence that concerns over head trauma are overblown and that the reaction to the documentary by retired players is contrived. Those who played the game downplay those opinions, asserting that nobody who didn’t suit up on Sundays is qualified to comment on their situations.
The debate reached a full boil on Twitter yesterday when former Broncos, Texans and Seahawks tight end and six-year NFL veteran Jeb Putzier (@88jeb) went rounds with Mile High Sports’ board operator and sports radio host Joshua Dover (@JoshuaDover).
The Twitter squabble was precipitated by these comments Tweeted by Dover on Wednesday:
Putzier did not concur with Dover’s musings and he began to pepper the talk show host with Tweets, which Putzier has since deleted. The only remnant of Putzier’s involvement in the beef is this “final word” Tweet:
I won’t say I have never deleted a Tweet. I admit that I have a time or two, but Putzier’s attempt to cover his social tracks by obliterating his side of the conversation was a chump move. To sum up what Putzier said to Dover, he told him that he had no room to comment since he never played, blasted him for working at a “brokered” station, threatened to reveal his identity to current and former Broncos around Dove Valley and attempted to intimidate Dover by insinuating that he was bigger and stronger than the radio host. It was a typically “high school jock” approach to debate. His writing off Dover’s opinion based solely on the fact that Dover was never a professional football player was silly.
Dover, for his part, displayed no more maturity than Putzier did. He certainly did not take the “high road”. It’s my opinion that, if Dover worked for any other radio station, that his approach to the spat would have earned him sanctions. Whether or not Dover’s position is correct or justified, he addressed a former Denver athlete in a very disrespectful way. Dover is in no position to tell Jeb Putzier what he would have done differently had he known more about head trauma.
The conversation that has emerged since the airing of “League of Denial” makes for fascinating debate. It’s not likely that former players would have decided to leave football if the NFL had been open about the information it had about head trauma and CTE. It’s even less likely that any current players will opt to leave the game. The likely result of the information revealed in the documentary is a long-term migration away from football by young people, precipitated by a refusal of parents to let them play.
