Okay y'all. From reading through most of these pages it seems only one side of this pretty sad real life story has been told.
To start i'll be clear that my comments below are all from first hand experiences of Tom and TME in the past 18 months or so.
What is clear is this is a mess. None of either party would ever have wanted to have it come to this but here we are. Hopefully the light shed here will result in a private finalization between the two parties.
Since Tom was fired a month ago I gather he has closed all channels of communication to the TME guys. I suspect the TME guys have been quiet for a reason.
I fully expect they would rather resolve this in private. As a fellow High School Coach and Father, I urge Tom if reading this to talk to the TME guys and come to an agreed resolution rather than giving prime time viewership and more fuel to the fire here on Letsrun.
This would allow Tom to focus back on what he is best at... coaching!
Also this would allow the TME guys to race without this weight evidently (Drake results) on their shoulders.
If the TME guys told all the reasons they fired Tom, it could get very ugly for Tom. From what i've experienced, below is only the tip of an iceberg. It is best this is resolved privately ASAP.
I'll present some facts and first hand observations;
Tom should have had a more robust contract. Clearly.
All parties, TME guys, Tom and Adidas have fallen short here.
TME guys should 100% change the name of the training group.
If they still have merchandise to sell now, then they need a very generous royalty compensation to Tom for further use of his name.
TME should already have cut Tom into some sort of royalty or payment for use of his nickname on all the merchandise so far.
Neither TME or Tom could have envisioned the amount of $$$ created by the merch. Probably why no royalty / payment contract was ever set up?
TME guys have maybe not made the smartest investments (a Tesla for crying out loud?!) which has likely rubbed Tom the wrong way.Tom clearly feels like he should've been paid more.
Tom, like me, is of an older, middle America generation.
He has some pretty extreme political views that he'll project on you without giving you any chance to engage in a conversation or debate.
His choice of right wing news channels and radio station propaganda debates often make their way into SMS message groups (other athletes often screenshot and send around!) and daily conversations.
Many of his runners would rather he give his expert TRAINING advice and experiences rather than his personal social and political views.I doubt he even realises he's doing this as it's his strong personality.
Tom is vocal about COVID being a hoax and has audibly berated people at the track who choose to wear a mask.
As noted in previous posts by other Letsrun users who have been around Tom... he is very arrogant and very sure of himself. It is very difficult to make suggestions or change his mind. Especially when it comes to training.
I've been engaging with him here on Letsrun for around 12 years. I value his insight but realize there are many roads to Rome.
Tom rarely listens when an athlete is tired. This has led to many injuries that could've been avoided.
The TME guys likely made some small mistakes in their free hours per day not training.
However by hiring and paying for strength coaches, psychologists and mindful coaches, it shows they do try to be as professional as possible to maximise their time and potential.
I wish at their age I was as mature enough to do that.
I don't see Adidas doing those smaller things for them like no doubt Nike, Brooks etc do for their rivals.
Living in Boulder has it's distractions such as going on hikes, sampling beers in breweries and so forth. This however is hardly a daily routine that affects training in any catastrophic way to them.
My High School athletes have come up injured in Adidas Boost shoes in the past. So much so that I persuade their parents NOT to buy Adidas Boost shoes.
Looking at the injuries of Drew, Sam and the other guys I can clearly see the same type of lower leg injuries and pains my top High School athletes have had.
I'll hold back on any further comments on Tom as I think deep down he does have a lot of wonderful qualities.
Heck, there is a reason we're all here reading this now. The success of Tom's coaching plus the talented results of those runners!
I hope the light shed here gives more of a full picture and Tom engages with the TME guys to bring a close to this.
We are all just runners, coaches, parents and competitors chasing the dream.