Kealy Watson

[-�on-]

(music in the background) I've been feeling fine lately...lets get it on...(music keeps playing) She is Pretty Fine She can Have my number... She is also around my age.

[X-Plosive]

cphilip I think you have the wrong idea there. I wasn't making fun of you. You and hitmanng are always the first ones to share your true oppinions and are not afraid to give us a piece of your mind when you see something you don't like. You don't always follow the mainstream and thats why I look forward to reading your posts. Ohh I forgot about Army, he's also very good about this.

[klm5]

I should've known from the text of the interview that it was all a big joke. I'm quick to get fired up when I feel someone is giving our sport a bad name. In this case probably a little too quick. About 7 months ago here in Baltimore some kids were riding around in a pickup shooting pedestrians with a marker. Eventually they got caught but not until after several people got hurt. One of the people they shot was an elderly woman. I could just see our state legislature proposing a ban on private ownership of paintball guns. That's why I'm defensive about the image paintballers present to the public.

[Thordic]

manike, regardless of the fact he is a joker or not, as a prominant star of the sport, he represents the sport. The people who don't know him would make up the majority of those who DON'T play. Paintball has enough trouble as it is. What do you think lawmakers and concerned parents would say if they saw one of the higher members of the sport giving an interview like that?

He should have more common sense than to put do an interview like that. Forget about how it makes him look, it makes the SPORT look bad at a time when we are striving for legitimate recognition. I think thats the major problem here.

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CamoSplashed MiniMag
S/N MM12913
14" SP
Lots of stuff coming...

[randomboy]

I have to agree its not exactly the image you want a representative of the paintball community portraying. *in response to the article, I just read it*

[X-Plosive]

manike I guess your right but many of us weren't including me weren't able to tell. I don't know, I didn't find I funny. Why would he pull a joke like that in a serious interview?

[Thordic]

By the way, having "game" means nothing. He could destroy me all day, and at the end of the day, if he had an attitude like that, I'd still have no respect for him.

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CamoSplashed MiniMag
S/N MM12913
14" SP
Lots of stuff coming...

[Ninja B0Y]

Amry: sorry for that. I just got a bit frustrated when people out there think that Pros are somehow supposed to act like Angels when it comes to representing this sport. I dont think it's fair for them to say how he should act and how he shouldnt. It's not like he was degrading the image of the sport in anyway, at least not from my point of view. The guy was just being himself, the way I see it and if he is pro does that mean he's supposed to change because other people don't approve of his behavior?

And it was a joke, it was stated by one of his team mates a while back on the message board.

[manike]

Originally posted by Thordic:
manike, regardless of the fact he is a joker or not, as a prominant star of the sport, he represents the sport. The people who don't know him would make up the majority of those who DON'T play.

I agree he represents the sport but I seriously doubt people that don't play would ever read that joke article? Maybe they would.

Originally posted by Thordic:
What do you think lawmakers and concerned parents would say if they saw one of the higher members of the sport giving an interview like that?

I agree it's bad, I wish many more people would think about their actions on and off the field and conduct themselves better. I think swearing on the field should be a warning and then elimination offence. I think there should be harsher penalties for cheats. Bad sportsmanship should be penalised.

I'm just saying that all is not as it appears and that before you judge someone on the basis of a joke interview you should meet them. I agree 100% that it's not the correct image for paintball, but I also disagree 100% with those who were quick to charachter assasinate him on the basis of that single article.

Originally posted by Thordic:
He should have more common sense than to put do an interview like that. Forget about how it makes him look, it makes the SPORT look bad at a time when we are striving for legitimate recognition. I think thats the major problem here.

He should but he's young... you know what youngsters are like lol. I agree it doesn't help our sport and I am with you 100% on that and the problem. Look at some of the older people on 'Push' who should know better, I think their actions are worse...

But we as 'ballers see many things differently. We see many things in Push that we feel are bad for the image of the sport... everyone I have shown it to who doesn't play just sees a great fun thing and wants to get invloved!

They don't see the cheating or gun throwing or foul language or bad comments, they see something that is a rush and they want to try it. So even though we may think there is something bad there, the very people we are trying to protect actually see it as a good thing... strange but true. And it helps promote our sport to new people... maybe not in the ideal way, but if the only people that are bothered about it are people that play paintball, then maybe it's not as bad a thing as we first thought...

Originally posted by X-Plosive:
manike I guess your right but many of us weren't including me weren't able to tell. I don't know, I didn't find I funny. Why would he pull a joke like that in a serious interview?

I doubt he thought it was a serious interview. I'd never heard of that website before? I'm not sure he ever thinks anything is serious... why would he do what he did when being filmed for push? because he's a comedian...

manike

[Thordic]

The first two times I read that line, I read it as "because he's a canadian"

For some reason, it made much more sense that way

(For all those Canadians who wish to bash me, half my family is living there, my grandmother was born in Ste. Eduard du Frampton, etc, etc. I have enough canuck in me to get away with stuff like this. :-)

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CamoSplashed MiniMag
S/N MM12913
14" SP
Lots of stuff coming...

[cphilip]

Ok, we all agree that is it was a Joke and it is typical youngster high jinks. So I forgive him for that. I too was guilty of saying things I wish I could take back, mostly in my younger days. But still do sometimes. And I have been taken out of context by the press too. So I know how that can be. But it was said none the less so he will live with that fact if someone like me, who doesn't know him better, reads it. That's all. And if he is a great guy then lots of folks will never give him the chance to prove it if they see that. I just don't like to see a kid put any unnecessary burden on himself for a momentary laugh. That's the shame of it.

[Rooster]

I was fairly disgusted with that interview, joke or not. Anyone know about a interview done with a guy named John Rocker? Now I'm sure all John's friends were saying, hey, it was a joke, or he was just a little mad at the Mets cuase they threw batteries at him. But guess what the general public's perception of him is, that he's a racist. Thats what my perception is, and that what Rocker did was inexcuseable.

There are a few flaws in my comparison i know. A small paintball publication does not have the readership of Sports illustrated, and professional paintballers are alot more tangiable to the up and coming and recreation players of their sport. I understand the concept of an inside joke, and I know all about cracking wise and being sarcastic.

An interview being read by the public (paintball playing or otherwise) isn't the place for any of that, especially not to the degree he did it. I know all sports have their "bad boy" type players. However, regardless of their talent, they are only know for their off-field escapades. Is thats what this guy is shooting for (no pun intended)?

Paintball doesn't need that image. It doesn't need another black eye. Most paintball players are fairly ordinary people (lets face it, if any paintball player could make it in a major league sport, i doubt any of them would have given it up for paintball.) Thats what I like about the game, its sort of like NASCAR, ordinary people playing the game. But good or bad, higher level players have become well respected people. The major league players of our sport. What they say will now and as long as paintball remains as big as it is now and/or grows, will be carefully scrutinised, at times praised, and at times torn apart. That is the price of fame, even if its being the star of a lesser know sport.

I now have no respect for this guy, met him or not. I don't have respect for people who can not think far enough ahead to put their sport's, their fans, and their future ahead of saying whatever they feel the need to say. I don't care that he could most likely run circles around me, and shoot me up one side and down the other before i got my safety off. You earn respect, you don't win it on a field, you don't get it by shooting rookies, you don't get it by cracking wise.

In my opinion this guy owes the paintball community a serious appology. We wouldn't accept that kind of thing from a star of a major sport, why should we accept it from a star of our sport? Shouldn't we even expect better from our own?

Rooster

[corey#1]

HEY FEELTHERT I WAS THE 1 THAT SAID I WAS TODD MARTINEZ AWHILE AGO THEN I WAS WARNED TO CHANGE MY NAME BECAUSE I WAS TELLING PEOPLE I WAS JOINING THE AGD FACTORY TEAM SORRY AGD I ONLY MEANT IT AS A PRACTICAL JOKE!

[Lord Vader]

Not that Todd is a jerk or anything (may be a nice guy or not...I dunno because I never met him), but why do girls always go for bad boys? I mean, at college, al the girls are with guys that go out, party, and get em knocked up. Meanwhile, I don't smoke, drink, etc., and am serious when it somes to my studies (but can have fun as well, i.e., paintball, bass guitar, etc.), and I can't get a date to save my life. Oh well, guess I am too boring for most women.

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[RoadDawg]

Lord Vadar I know exactly what your saying. I don't drink or smoke and well I am just me. I would rather sit home and watch wrestling then go out to a party full of stuff like that. Some girls find that boring but you know I don't care. I am not gonna change just for a girl. As for the Todd thing. I don't know him so I can't really judge him. From that article serious or not it made me want to dislike him. Since I don't know him at all I can't allow myself to judge him. As for the girl. Wow she is cute but I wouldn't go after her. That and I already got a gf. One is enough for me. By the way it took me 17 years to find this one girl. I'm not gonna lose her over a girl there is no way I could get.

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I must shoot my enemy before he shoots me.

A lie will never become the truth, Only the truth can be the truth.

Freedom is a state of mind.