Mark Block: Nike Responds

Duck, could you just start a thread about how the elites don't come to letsrun.com (Where your id becomes reality) and leave the Block threads to discussions about Block?

4th in the GSL wrote:

Real life experience taught me that there could be a reasonable reason how he got in there -- such as there not being tight security -- which seems to be the case.

Real life experience has taught me that putting much stock in the first PR response of a large corporation to a possible scandal is ill advised.

I agree that USATF also has some explaining to do, though their ham-fisted performance this past week does not make me optimistic that any meaningful response will be forthcoming.

Let me put this another way. In the words of Don Draper "People do stuff."

You know, people do stupid stuff. Stuff happens, guys like Block end up getting to places they shouldn't. And someone else gets called on the carpet for it.

It's all going to play out. Trying to spin a big conspiracy is long odds.

I think the calm explanations some people pointed out make more sense. One of his friends felt sorry for him and got him a pass for some free food or something. It far more likely something human and trivial like that than something else.

But, what the hell is USATF etc., allowing the guy even around track and field at all for ten years.

But, Victor Conte and Regina Jacobs are both coaching youth track, right?

Conte should have done ten years in prison.

Dear Forum Readers,

I have been actively trying to sabotage threads related to Mark Block. This immature behavior was a result of my inability to separate the issue of drug cheats from my pride in Oregon.

My sincerest apologies,

A Duck

Trying to spin a big conspiracy is long odds.

Not sure if anyone is trying to spin a big conspiracy, I personally think something like this points to the massive indifference that institutions and individuals directly involved in running and funding the sport continue to show towards efforts to clean it up. If NBC doesn't care (not one mention of Gatlin's drug suspension in the coverage I saw), if Nike doesn't care, if USATF doesn't care, well then who is left?

4th in the GSL wrote, in part:

"...letsrun.com (Where your id becomes reality)..."

Post of the MF Day!

TLW wrote:

What a joke. Gaining entrance to the elite VIP of Nike is an informal process? Are you fu.cking serious? What a joke of a response. The response makes me angry. Do they think people are stupid enough to buy this?

Exactly. It's ONLY the Nike's VIP box, prime real estate, at the most important T&F event in the country. Of course it's not an informal process. Indeed, it's a unacceptable brush off response from Nike.

You'll notice that about half a dozen people posted on the topic of whether LR really carried the reputation to be taken seriously.

BTW, re: immature behavior, there's an imposter using my handle...which I have tried in the past to register, but this crap website delivers inane error messages when I have...

I'd like to sum things up this way: Several people have made the point that LRC promotes the heck out of their chat boards - so the site and the boards are considered one.

I've heard of chat boards where people find out a member needs a bone marrow transplant and they all fan out and get tested for compatibility. Or someone has an emergency and they all chip in to lend a hand.

This ain't that kind of place. Even the owners are rude, dumb, and possibly liars on occasion here.

Read a thread from 6 years ago, some of the same qualities exist...but the discourse is generally on a higher level.

This place has gotten worse and lower over time and that is exactly why people don't take it seriously.

The "timing scandal" the Mark Block thing, this is the Brojo's desperate attempts to look like real journalist.

Kind of hard to do when you maintain a website with the design and behavior standards of 1998.

C'mon people. Letsrun made an admirable but failed attempt at trying to be Woodward and Bernstein here. The Oregonian is nothing but a gossip rag these days. Oregonian writer Ken Goe's blog site essentially is telling the world, 'the Oregonian has given up reporting news but here is a bunch of links to other sources that you may want to read'. Them picking up the Letsun story is nothing Letsrun should be proud of. Good advertising maybe but that is it.

I was at the Trials in the East Grandstand and got a good look at the Nike "VIP" section and saw the entrance to it. It was nothing more than what you see in the picture. A bunch of seats separated from the rest of Hayward Field seating. There was just an usher to look at tickets or passes. Obviously Nike doled out a bunch of tickets within the company for these seats and Nike employees could trade or giveaway these tickets as they saw fit. Obviously Block was likely friends with various people who got these tickets.

Not clear what it means to be banned from the sport but Letsrun doesn't show anything to suggest Block violated that ban.

Maybe if Block got his pass directly from Knight or senior executives at Nike there would be a story but Letsrun doesn't show that.

In short, there is nothing to see here. Move on.

^Stop using my handle. That's not me posting all of this anti Lets Run stuff.

So you are totally OK with convicted drug trafficker Mark Block going out for dinner with current Olympic Track team members and sitting in the Nike VIP section?

the letter why wrote:

Pretty sure her name rhymes with better.

Do you have a weird accent or something?

Does Pablo know where to find you in Kona?

Why does it even matter if I, you or Letsun.com are ok with it or not? Are you ok with Demi Moore getting separated from Ashton Kutcher? Give me a reason why I should care. I'm ok with Nike employees and associates retaining a friendship with Block if that is what you are asking and that is all this is about as far as Letsrun.com has reported. Anyway you don't even know what "Nike VIP section" means. I told you what I saw. I don't think it means much of anything.

ryan foreman wrote:

Why does it even matter if I, you or Letsun.com are ok with it or not? Are you ok with Demi Moore getting separated from Ashton Kutcher? Give me a reason why I should care. I'm ok with Nike employees and associates retaining a friendship with Block if that is what you are asking and that is all this is about as far as Letsrun.com has reported. Anyway you don't even know what "Nike VIP section" means. I told you what I saw. I don't think it means much of anything.

Well, some of us are made from a stronger moral fiber. And please leave Ashton out of this.

You have a disturbing will to towards vigilante justice. Block got punished for what he did and he is not violating the terms of his punishment. That is according to Letsrun. But that is not good enough for you? You are taking it into your own hands that an added punishment should be that he doesn't sit in some so called "Nike VIP section"?

A Duck wrote:

ryan foreman wrote:

Why does it even matter if I, you or Letsun.com are ok with it or not? Are you ok with Demi Moore getting separated from Ashton Kutcher? Give me a reason why I should care. I'm ok with Nike employees and associates retaining a friendship with Block if that is what you are asking and that is all this is about as far as Letsrun.com has reported. Anyway you don't even know what "Nike VIP section" means. I told you what I saw. I don't think it means much of anything.

Well, some of us are made from a stronger moral fiber. And please leave Ashton out of this.

Mr. Foreman,

Even if one ignores the entire Nike aspect of it, there is something wrong here.

The fact of the matter is a very serious doper - a guy who doped a double world champion - is traveling to meets all around the globe despite having a 10 year ban. If you don't think that means he's almost certainly still involved in the sport, then I think you simply don't think logically. The tweets that have come out are priceless.

Regina Jacobs to her credit moved on and sell real estate.

Mark Block may be a decent human being but he needs to do similarly as he should not be working in the sport and needs to find a new job.

As for Nike, was I trying to imply a huge conspiracy that Nike is secretly funding a doping program with Block, Jeter , Jason Richardson, etc?

No I was not. When people have suggested stuff like that to me about shoe companies in the past, I have always shot it down and said "That would be idiotic from a liability standpoint."

I was rather implying that to certain people at Nike company the fact that this guy doped isn't a big deal. In their minds, tons of the sport used to do it. Lots of guys from the 1970s and 1980s did it and didn't have to pay a price so why should he?

This sentiment is prevelant all over the place in track and field. Go to any college and people will say about a top 10 list "Oh that one was from he spent the summer in Germany and came back huge." People know it. They know what former coaches used, etc.

To me, past doping and current doping are way different.

Do I believe that important people at NIke knew he was in that box and didn't say anything? Absolutely. This isn't some small fish. This is the husband of a former double world champ is was agent to a current world champ.

This isn't just some anonymous guy who is a friend of a Nike summer intern.

The sentiment we want to take on is the one of "Oh it's not that big of a deal." We don't want Nike and USATF tolerating doping at all.

It would be like allowing Bernie Maddoff to come watch somebody ring the NYSE bell.

A Duck wrote:

jhjgfxgf wrote:

There's a difference between going to a website and reading it versus sharing your training and participating in discussions under your name. Your view of "elites" is hilariously generalized.

And your post is poorly constructed.

You haven't spent enough time with elites.

I'll give you one real life example. I ran into a bunch of elites last year at a restaurant before the Payton Jordan. I didn't recognize them by face, but could tell they were probably there for the meet. I asked them their names (Aussies) and sad "yeah, I know your names, from the track websites," one of them said (and you can apply his Australian accent here) "Not that sh*t hole Let's Run.com, then?"

I assured them I'd heard of them on TFN, Runnerspace and Flotrack as well.

Try and think about it from their side.

You're assuming a heck of a lot.

I clearly didn't imply anything except that you don't present a story.

Are you saying the punishment is weak? Because I don't see in the story where he is violating the ban. I may actually agree that based on what he did he should be banned from entering meets just as Pete Rose wasn't allowed to even enter a major league ball park. But he is not. Speaking of Pete Rose. He was punished but many of his former teammates and colleagues continued to speak highly of him and had friendships with him. And for good reasons. Rose had been through the battles with his teammates for many years and was a genuine positive influence. What Rose did wrong doesn't negate what he did right. Obviously there is little public knowledge about Block compared to Rose but I have no problem with Nike employees and athletes continuing to have a relationship with him if it doesn't get in the way of him serving the punishment.

What are you talking about when you say "certain people at Nike", or "important people at Nike"? Who are they and on what authority could they control who comes and goes in this "Nike VIP section". If Phil Knight or a senior executive was directly giving him a pass into this section, then yes that is in bad taste and I can see a story there.

I also don't see the importance of who sits in that section. It looked like it held a good couple hundred people. There wasn't anything all that special about it. Your story suggest that it was like a posh sky suite in football stadiums. It wasn't anything like that. Calling it a "VIP" section is a bit of an oxymorn . And your analogy of letting Madoff ring the bell of the NY stock exchange is completely off base in my view. Madoff's punishment was a life sentence in prison first of all. So just being out on the street for him would have been violating the punishment. Secondly, this is just about Block sitting in a section where only people with Nike passes could go so he could watch a track meet. Nobody is going out of their way to call attention to him.

Maybe the problem here is that I just don't give much respect in the first place to Nike's outward appearances in public and their brand image. Therefore maybe I'm blind to something that sullies that brand image. To me Nike is just a corporation that makes good (and expensive) products. To me all I see is Block wanting to see a track meet and somebody at Nike got him a pass to sit in this section which was nothing but a pretty good seat to view the meet.

TLW wrote:

What a joke. Gaining entrance to the elite VIP of Nike is an informal process? Are you fu.cking serious? What a joke of a response. The response makes me angry. Do they think people are stupid enough to buy this?

A joke, perhaps, but true.

In 2008, I was an uninvited guest at the VIP. Wasn't hard to get in at all.