I reporter reached out to me to clear up some confusion he had. It struck me that if he was confused, others might be … so I figured it would be best to clear up his questions publicly.
First, two topics I shouldn’t have to waste my time on:
Apparently this reporter found out that I tell the Pros some variation of “winning too often comes with its own headaches.” He was confused (or excited) by this. Winning does come with its own special problems for Pros. As Pregame always stresses, it’s difficult to beat the book. When a Pro gets on a big winning streak – or wins more than usual over an extended period of time – his followers start thinking that winning is easy. So they start betting more. Often too much. And then when the inevitable losing streak comes, a bettor can go broke fast. Yes, I often stress to the Pros – and I stress it publicly - that it’s a Pro’s job to manage expectations during good and bad times.
When the New York Times Magazine profiled me in February of 2014, and they asked about my academic background … I wasn’t shy expressing that I was a summa cum laude graduate (Spring, 1992) of The Ohio State University, and that I finished #1 in my Finance class. When NYT wrote up the story, they described me as being the “Valedictorian” of my Finance class. I thought this wording sounded good (so added it to my bio). This reporter reached out to Ohio State, and discovered that they don’t officially have Valedictorians. (Yes, that’s how deep of a dive they are doing). I’ve now removed that wording from my public bio. Oh, for the next reporter futilely trying to dig up dirt on me, here’s some more details to check on: I graduated with a 3.97/4.00 GPA (my only non As were one A- and one B+ my third Quarter and one A- my last Quarter). But I won’t tell you the names of all my ex-girlfriends. I don’t want that story told! What a joke.
The third topic is not so clear cut.
The question concerned 3 Pros we had removed for cause: David Glisan, Stan Sharp, and Mike Hook. Initially, we treated their inactive accounts like any other former Pro. Then, I got feedback that leaving up their inactive pages was allowing Pregame to benefit from Search Engine traffic for their names. Respecting this feedback, I had tech delete their accounts from the system. Now, this reporter is wondering why their pick results are not in our archive system. The classic: damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Obviously we wouldn’t archive every graded pick ever from every active Pro in our system if we had anything to hide. I have now posted every pick ever from those 3 pros at this link.
The last topic shows that even grasping criticism can be beneficial if you can sift through the BS. The reporter asked about our announced effort (nearly 2 years ago!) to provide the real name of every Pro (so anyone could research their past) along with their declarations of any past legal troubles. Others have mentioned this too. This delay is on me. Sure, back then, some of the Pros were resistant … but those Pros have not stood the test of time. No matter, the project was and is my responsibility. So I am announcing this new standard will be completed by July 15, 2016. If I am late again, for EVERY DAY after I will donate (with public confirmation) $100 to “Big Brothers Big Sisters” till the project is complete. My wife will not let me be late on this!
One good thing about working so hard to do things right … when you make a mistake, it feels good to admit it because that allows you to fix it.