Good principle, but Joey was making like 2k from his contract. That's not hiring people money. His sponsor should have found a way to market his image or racing to benefit from the contract - but they prob have so many more signed athletes that it was an afterthought.
Does he not have an agent? Regardless, $2000 does not make exactly mean you are a professional athlete. If he wants this to be 100% his professional career, he's going to need to either run faster or learn additional skills in branding and social media marketing. Neither of these is the responsibility of the sponsor.
Now that I've read the actual blog post, that $2K was just from the one small sponsor.
This is kind of a bummer, actually. I've followed Joey on Instagram for years now and I've always enjoyed watching him race and seeing his updates, both good and bad.
I know a lot of people on here call not-quite-elite guys who spend their 20's chasing their running dreams "peter pan types" but I like seeing a guy who is willing to dream the impossible dream. Joey is a down to earth guy and an honest worker. I hope he gets a break here soon.
In the words of Amby Burfoot (and more directly, Man of La Mancha); to dream the impossible dream. to fight the impossible foe. to bear with unbearable sorrow: to run where the brave dare not go.
He's 29 and there were collegians among the 6 finishers ahead of him at the OT. He had to know going back to 2023 that 4+ guys would have to fall, hit the barrier, or otherwise DNF for him to have any shot at the podium. He gave it a shot, 6 years should be plenty enough time to tell if he has what it takes. He may have improved a bunch, but the rest of the country and the world has only gotten faster. He can do what he wants with his life, it's his time. The Quixotic sidebar is probably apropos.
Does he not have an agent? Regardless, $2000 does not make exactly mean you are a professional athlete. If he wants this to be 100% his professional career, he's going to need to either run faster or learn additional skills in branding and social media marketing. Neither of these is the responsibility of the sponsor.
Now that I've read the actual blog post, that $2K was just from the one small sponsor.
This is kind of a bummer, actually. I've followed Joey on Instagram for years now and I've always enjoyed watching him race and seeing his updates, both good and bad.
I know a lot of people on here call not-quite-elite guys who spend their 20's chasing their running dreams "peter pan types" but I like seeing a guy who is willing to dream the impossible dream. Joey is a down to earth guy and an honest worker. I hope he gets a break here soon.
In the words of Amby Burfoot (and more directly, Man of La Mancha); to dream the impossible dream. to fight the impossible foe. to bear with unbearable sorrow: to run where the brave dare not go.
He's 29 and there were collegians among the 6 finishers ahead of him at the OT. He had to know going back to 2023 that 4+ guys would have to fall, hit the barrier, or otherwise DNF for him to have any shot at the podium. He gave it a shot, 6 years should be plenty enough time to tell if he has what it takes. He may have improved a bunch, but the rest of the country and the world has only gotten faster. He can do what he wants with his life, it's his time. The Quixotic sidebar is probably apropos.
Not exactly sure what the last sentence meant but I agree with it.
I’ll never hate on a guy for chasing the dream running pro.
But Tinmans fall absolutely has to do with their results, high school and college kids would much rather watch cooper and Cole’s videos because they’re actually world class and win.
What am I supposed to root for as a Tinman fan? Drew battling for 5th at trials?
I’ll never hate on a guy for chasing the dream running pro.
But Tinmans fall absolutely has to do with their results, high school and college kids would much rather watch cooper and Cole’s videos because they’re actually world class and win.
What am I supposed to root for as a Tinman fan? Drew battling for 5th at trials?
What exactly are they dreaming about? It’s not as though running is a professional sport where there’s these multimillion dollar contracts being handed out. Even if they do go pro, they’ll be sponsored for a few years and then have to go get a real job.
Professional sports is entertainment. The business model is putting asses in seats and eyes in front of screens. Distance running does neither. It is what it is.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
Thought this was a good read. What has happened to LRC? This is the kind of guy this place really used to get behind. From relatively unknown college runner to 7th at the Olympic Trials 3k steeple 3 seconds off of making the team. Just committed to running after college, put in the work, & has gotten to a solid place in the sport. I don't get how anything he wrote is controversial or should make anybody feel a type of way. It's mostly just commentary on the reality for good but not great pro runners. There's no money in the sport & sponsors want you to spend your time promoting stuff you may or may not use. My only reaction to this is that I wish the 7th best steepler in the US could make a living wage. Feel like that's all anybody should be saying here.
Good runner but limited potential on international stage.
Hope he has other skills besides running.
Went to Santa Clara University, but no mention of his major. I'm guessing Liberal Arts. Joey is articulate so a possible career in Law (as a mature student) might be good.
I’ll never hate on a guy for chasing the dream running pro.
But Tinmans fall absolutely has to do with their results, high school and college kids would much rather watch cooper and Cole’s videos because they’re actually world class and win.
What am I supposed to root for as a Tinman fan? Drew battling for 5th at trials?
You’re totally wrong with results being the downfall of the channel. Elite running is just too difficult to find a runner to follow who always wins. Maybe Jakob but besides that the best of the best middle distance guys aren’t going to win every single time. Look at the ups and downs of the OAC people. This business is hard.
Yeah the SOVA videos are the it thing right now but their runners aren’t going to put up consistent results enough to drive the channel. Maybe Cole but certainly not Cooper. ALSO SOVA WOULDN'T EXIST WITHOUT TINMAN. They’re following the same exact model and the same exact style of YouTube videos. Their channel will eventually slow down the way Tinman’s channel has. There’s a lifecycle to these things if they don’t adapt or find different ways to engage viewers, folks are going to not watch.
I get that you want to root for someone who always wins but I think you need to change your metric for success for these runners. You got to take the good with the bad and be willing to accept some of your favorite runners may not win medals/races all the time BUT achieve great personal feats in the process.
Also Drew placed 4th in the trails not 5th you dickhead.
Clayton Young showed how to do a vlog series right
Totally agree with you here.
Videos are cinematic (which you don’t have to have to draw viewers in but certainly helps), a decent amount of time between videos so the viewer is hungry for the next, based around a race so there’s a very easy to follow narrative and story arc.
Also found a way to make you follow/root for Clayton when he probably won’t ever be the odds on favorite to win top American. They have humanized him so well that your average viewer probably desperately wants him to beat Mantz.
Also I imagine it’s easier to negotiate with sponsors. Tinman probably ended up forcing videos because they felt like they needed to for sponsors. I bet Clayton’s team negotiated with sponsors for X amount of videos and then could get creative from there. Very cut and dry.
I’ll never hate on a guy for chasing the dream running pro.
But Tinmans fall absolutely has to do with their results, high school and college kids would much rather watch cooper and Cole’s videos because they’re actually world class and win.
What am I supposed to root for as a Tinman fan? Drew battling for 5th at trials?
The appeal of TME was chasing the dream of continuing to be part of a bro pro team after leaving your high school or college team.
Most high school and college runners on teams are not elite pro level material. But they enjoy running and also enjoy being part of that team.
So the TME fans could accept and relate to the fact that TME members were not elite pros and winning races, but those fans liked the lifestyle and effort.
And they could relate to rooting for a guy like Drew getting 5th at the Trials, just like they could relate to rooting for the very best runner on their school team getting 5th at the Conference meet or a big Invitational.
