That Webb article is a breach of professional decorum.

The article did read like a bad British tabloid. Well, at least the paragraphs I had patience enough to read.

Writing aside, who gives a good god damn if Webb blows off some steam after a bad race. It shows he cares and has some passion. Good for him!!

What's wrong with reporting Webb's tantrum? He is maybe the most sought after and followed American track athlete today and we, track fans, need to know what's going on with him. The camera's don't turn off when hockey players start fighting; the cameras are still rolling when the coach is kicking dirt over the umpire's shoes; the cameras keep shooting McEnro giving it to the chair ump. You Webb lovers need to loosen up a tad.

Oh, if you only thought he was crackers before this event then here's your proof.

I think an article like this is a good thing for the sport, but a bad thing for the individual being picked on. Running is more individual-oriented, whereas, for examle, the NFL is predominantly team based. If an NFL player is singled out, that is appropriate, as he has let his team down for the millions he is paid. Running is on a different level though, but every professional athlete should be prepared to take media heat in any form.

The guy was upset and frustrated after a disappointing race. His coach had talked beforehand of the need for Webb to get better at putting sub-par races into perspective, so it's not really too surprising to me that Webb struggled to control his frustration.

Wejo stating "there was no effort to mock Webb in the article" is a little hard to believe. The article is full of loaded and judgmental language. It's one thing to say "Webb was upset," and another to say "Webb had a temper tantrum, a complete meltdown."

Additionally, the bulk of the article is lacking in newsworthiness. What's the point of the "workout #1, #2, #3" stuff, with "he talked to his agent for a while" in between? Salazar's athletes often do workouts after races. The article's implication is that Webb went out of his mind after the race and ran amok on the track for a full hour.

I think the purpose of the article was sensationalistic, and while it's well possible the Letsrun.com staff consider themselves supporters of Webb as a runner, it's a little hard to believe they're oblivious to the extremely mocking tone of their own article.

That "article" showcased the worst of Letsrun. The fact that it came from the Brojos just adds to my disappointment. It was lazy journalism and devolved into paparazzi-ism.

The way in which this was covered says more about the brojos and the puerile nature of their "reporting" than it does about Webb. His reaction was newsworthy. I was at the meet and hung around for a while after the last event and I saw him doing his repeats. It struck me as very odd, esp. in that there seemed to be little structure or point to what he was doing. I got the sense he was taking out his frustrations on himself, and the hatchet job on this site corroborates that.

The gratuitous editorializing and hysterical "omg" tone is where this thing went off the rails. "Professional decorum" indeed. Pot, meet kettle.

The other night I was watching "Invictus", a generally well-received movie based on a well-received book. One of the key early scenes shows the players venting in the locker room after getting their asses kicked. Anyone who's seen the movie will know the scene I'm talking about, but to recap the players bitch about the taste of the beers they've been handed. The team captain forces them to toast their failure, everyone takes a swig of the beer, then he says "you're right it does taste like shit" and chucks his can at the wall. His teammates follow his lead, making a nice mess for someone to clean up. That team ended up winning the world championship and becoming national heroes. If anyone bitched about their lack of "professional decorum" when the details of the beer-chucking became public I'm sure they were hooted down for being uptight prigs. And rightly so.

Get over yourselves, brojos.

Both sides are making a big deal over nothing.

The article is actually flattering to Webb IMO.

It shows he's still got fire. He's working out after the race.

It's not like he phoned the race in for an appearance fee then spent his time in the locker room taking cell phone pics of his junk and sending them to cute high school girls.

Clueless Joe wrote:

Formica Table wrote:

In total agreement. What purpose is that write-up supposed to serve?

How could patent amateurs like the brojos ever breach "professional decorum?"

That's like criticizing creationists for being violating the principles of the scientific inquiry.

Actually it would be like criticizing materialistic naturalism for "being violating the principle of the scientific inquiry", to use your grammar.

smh! Go away troll!

who edits this garbage? wrote:

I was at the meet and hung around for a while after the last event and I saw him doing his repeats. It struck me as very odd, esp. in that there seemed to be little structure or point to what he was doing. I got the sense he was taking out his frustrations on himself, and the hatchet job on this site corroborates that.

But even that part isn't noteworthy. Salazar athletes often do workouts after early-season races.

It's easy to picture Letsrun.com slamming a non-running media outlet for making a big deal out of this and attempting psychoanalysis when none is merited.

This just goes to show how much of a baby Alan Webb is. Get over it.. You ran a sub par race for your first one out. I was a 9:15 steepler and my sr year I ran a 10:25 first race out and was ticked but I didn't act like a child after the race. I simply put my flats on and jogged for 4 miles with my ipod and wishing for next week to get there faster.. The next week ran 9:28 and knew that it was all going to come back in time.

Your a professional... Grow UP! This is why him not staying in college was a bad thing. He simply didn't mature and still acts like a punk when things don't go his way.. It really ticks me off because he is one of my favorite runners. I love watching him race and how he celebrates. But watching him behave like a kid is dissapointing. I hope his mother calls him and chews is butt out like he was 5

While I wasn't at the meet, I stand behind the article. We did not put up the article on a whim. It was taken down from the homepage earlier by mistake while two people updated the site at the same time and we didn't notice it until after the Super Bowl.

quote from WEJO

This has to be one of the most intelligent and articulate threads on the site in years. While you may stand behind the atricle, the overwhelming majority of your readers disagree. That should tell you something. Personally, I gained no insight on the Boston Games from Emory's diatribe. I found the tenor/tone of the article sorely in need of editing. It would have been enough to spend a paragraph deatiling Webb's frustation. The front page banner headline seems gratuitous at best. I will leave it up to you as to whether apologize to Mr Webb. Don't be surprised if Race or Meet Director suddenly reconsiders giving Emory full access.

There were a lot of people cooling down on the track after the meet because of the weather, and most of them were amazed/amused at Webb's antics. But at the same time, it wasn't something that needed a long poorly-written (no offense guys) article. Basically, a single paragraph could have easily captured the moment. The suprising thing is that a long article was written but they didn't disclose what Webb and Flynn were (loudly) talking about, which was what REALLY fascinated the people still at the track...

From Runnersworld.com

Webb had withdrawn from the race due to the flu and then re-entered in the 11th hour, and he could be heard vociferously expressing regret that he'd even boarded a plane from Oregon to Boston.

Now isn't that much better?

Grow up webb wrote:

This just goes to show how much of a baby Alan Webb is. Get over it.. Your a professional... Grow UP!

Yeah, come on Alan, become like almost all the other athletes and give us one of those boring canned speeches.

Repeat after me, "One day at a time". "Gave it 110 percent". "Keep my confidence in our program". Why does anyone listen to athlete interviews anyway? As if we need to verify that their plan is not going to change to practicing every other day, giving a half assed effort, and changing coaches after every poor performance.

Of course, once he made the point that he was disappointed and misjudged his recovery from sickness and injury, it wasn't necessary to repeat it. Whatever. I guess Alberto should get a handler for Alan if it's that big a deal. Personally, I liked seeing Alan give an unguarded interview.

The article was fine. If you are a (semi) public figure and you do something out of the ordinary people will notice and comment.

That is what this is. Blame Webb, not the report. Why are they not to mention that he was really pissed?

This article is a classless piece of trash. You guys are a joke. I cant even take what you write seriously. No difference at all from a tabloid piece.

This is alltime low even for a couple of massive tools like you guys

wejo wrote:

Perhaps we could do a better job in putting in words what actually happened.

Isn't "putting in words what actually happened" your entire job?

To the 2 people that are defending Wejo, how do you feel about the part where Wejo is comparing Webb to a middle schooler? What was the exact quote? Oh yah, it's "Webb threw a tantrum after the race that would put a middle schooler to shame."

Is that statement alone not poor journalism or something that you would see out of a tabloid magazine?

And that quote is just one of many that uses a seriously condescending overtone! I agree with everyone else...that tabloid needs to come off and with an apology.

I'm in Ithaca. Maybe I should start hanging around the Cornell squad so that I can write up similar articles about Rojo's athletes. I bet they occasionally do things that "would put a middle schooler to shame" and given his attitude toward Webb, I'm sure he'd be happy to have commentary about such acts plastered on the internet.