Shank Goes Into a Full-on Backpedal About His Texans Column

Houston Media Watch – After writing a blistering article about the Texans , Dan Shaughnessy joined the J&R Show on Sports Radio 610 to basically say, I don’t know football. I will reserve all smack talk until after the game but I can tell you one thing. This guy has a job waiting on him in Houston, Texas. What’s the qualification these days? Not knowing football and crushing the local team… [The clip] is a little mix of Dan telling Rich Lord and Seth Payne how much he don’t know about football and very sympathetic sounding.

Sigh.  I write this reluctantly. Dave already put Shank in his place after Arian Foster used his article as an avatar.  We know Shank was trolling  when he wrote it.  You know he was trolling.  Even the Curly Haired Boyfriend knows it.  Writing over-the-top, inflammatory claptrap and hoping it gets attention is the only club he has left in his bag.  It’s how he stays- I use the term loosely- relevant.  The only reason I bring it up is what I’ve been saying for years: How does anyone still mistake him for the Voice of Boston?  This uniformed, out of touch anachronism belongs in a museum of 1980s sports journalism, not going on Houston radio pretending he speaks for us.  A buddy of mine heard these sound cuts this morning on Toucher & Rich and actually thought Shank was being funny and clever the way he handled these questions.  He wasn’t being ironic; he was being honest.  He doesn’t know much about football.  He has been following the Patriots for “10 or 11 years.”  Do any of us honestly think he’s watched a down of Texans football since they played the Pats a month ago?  So he goes on the air and can’t respond to their points so he just admits he’s a pig-igorant know-nothing disguised as a sportswriter.  Which is fine.  I don’t care.  If Houston radio wants to take the cheese and invite him on for an argument, that’s fine by me.  My only beef is the world has to stop thinking he speaks for us or that the rest of New England is as clueless as he is.

PS.  Like I told Toucher & Rich a few weeks ago when they had bloggers on to respond to Shank ripping us, I just wish Patrick Chung could go into a backpedal this fast.  @JerryThornton1