*Transparency on Chicago

[Memento Mori]

There's also the consideration that Valor is Valor and Waldo is Waldo. After having them both in the league for around a year, you notice things about what they do. Valor will always do the most dramatic thing possible. Waldo is fairly volatile and might take something to an unexpected length. It's just something that happens and is a reason why some of us older people didn't even question that it happened. They may have valid reasons, they may just be doing shit.

Fair. I forget about Waldo frequently.

I choose to believe what Valor told us in the War Room before he retired as GM rather than what he posts on forum or in general chat. He’s been hinting at relocating Chicago since he took over as GM. Of course he’d want to voice his relocation ideas on forum.

Perfectly reasonable.

This article isn't about defending steel or his decisions, it's about the fact that hearing the same 5 step plan from every person in the league is annoying and gets to a point where it's completely unhelpful. Especially now that he's gone, it's just something that's not needed. It's overkill. I understand that on an individual basis, each person writing each article probably means no malice and may truly believe that Chicago can get better. But seeing an overwhelming wave of "Chicago sucks and only I can fix it!" is damaging to a person and a team.

Also reasonable. At the same time, I'd say that the Butchers have been one of the biggest stories of S21. There's been the fallout from cutting their kicker, an extremely controversial trade, steel trying to start arguments with anyone and everyone, one of their players demanding a trade, one of their GMs stepping down and demanding a trade, and now the other GM quitting at extremely short notice.

I can see how being the centre of attention has it's negatives, especially when the team is doing poorly. But equally, it's unfair to expect people not to talk about the team that can't stop making headlines.

Finally, the reason I brought up steel and his actions, was because some in this thread were acting as if steel was a blameless victim who was bullied out of the league when this simply isn't the case.

But that’s okay, you are free to criticize all you want. I actually had a good time in Chicago with Steel, even when we disagreed. He had some reasoning behind the moves he made, whether the great NSFL braintrust in gen chat seemed to think so or not. But, I seem to be in the wrong a lot these days.

It's completely possible that the perception many of us have of steel and Chicago is wrong, others have also said positive things about steel. Perhaps it's a lesson in PR given how much the league has grown recently. Even if you're nice in private, if all you do in public is go around starting fights and being negative, people aren't going to want to play for your team.