Per John Keim Twitter: Larry Michael Retiring

[Peregrine]

The biggest reason I disliked Larry was because he lied to me literally every time I saw him.......on TV.  I dont like being lied to, so it makes it really hard to see someone who does that and reconcile with "they're a good person".  Stretching the truth isnt great, but it was basically bad used car salesman level.

[goskins10]

38 minutes ago, Peregrine said:

The biggest reason I disliked Larry was because he lied to me literally every time I saw him.......on TV.  I dont like being lied to, so it makes it really hard to see someone who does that and reconcile with "they're a good person".  Stretching the truth isnt great, but it was basically bad used car salesman level.

 

He was not "lying" to you. That word is so overused in today's society. He had an honest love and was overly optimistic about this team. He believed at least most of what he said. He was truly like a kid with undying belief. Nothing wrong with that. 

 

I was fortunate enough to meet him by chance in the hallway before a game. We were lucky enough to get a few suite tickets. He clearly needed to go but he still stopped long enough to say hello and tell me and my buddy he hoped we enjoyed the game. 

 

I had to listen to a lot of games since i live in NC for 12 yrs and now in Atl for 3 and refused to pay the cumulative $2000/yr to watch the games unless they are national. Yea he was a homer - but so what. The others in the booth always chided him a bit and kept it more realistic. Over time I grew to enjoy his optimism even if mine was being ground into a pulp. And i really liked the one on one interviews he did with new Redskins. Always did a good job researching them and got them to open up. 

 

I get the homer thing and that annoys some people more than others. Not me (at least over time) but I get that. But the personal attacks on the man are way off base from everything I have seen and heard and what i know from my very short time meeting him. 

 

I wish him all the best in what ever he wants to do. 

[Peregrine]

3 minutes ago, goskins10 said:

 

He was not "lying" to you. That word is so overused in today's society. He had an honest love and was overly optimistic about this team. He believed at least most of what he said. He was truly like a kid with undying belief. Nothing wrong with that. 

 

 

Thats absolutely lying.  Hes telling me things that he knows are false.  I can 100% deal with someone being overly optimistic and instead of focusing on the negatives, focusing on positive about say, the future of the team, how certain players played, focusing on optimistic aspects of the game.

 

But telling me they are better than the Patriots is lying to my face and millions of others, and ignoring whats right in front of you doesnt then become okay because he was nice in person to somebody.  Focusing on the rookie who played well after a drubbing is okay, telling me they played well losing 42-7 shows a lack of honesty.  The only alternative is he was the worlds biggest most willing idiot for a paycheck, and thats not any better.

[hail2skins]

Larry was either lying as part of the job or was delusional. I saw a post on another site from a former contributor here and he indicated that even during a semi-private conversation that Larry wasn't able to be remotely critical of the team.

 

As far as not wanting to be on the bad side of players, the Junkies would always have Cooley on when he played and they would tell him that they thought the team would lose, and he would not take it personally.

 

That's why I'm curious about the circumstances that led to Herzog's firing. During a lot of his stint with the Skins he was the sports anchor at Channel 7, so looking at things with a critical eye as a reporter was ingrained in him. Not so, apparently, with Larry.

[Vanguard]

Even more change. 🙁

[Est.1974]

10 hours ago, Idaho fan said:

Very nice man

that is something we are about to find out, Larry along with a few others by the looks of it.

[celticsalmon]

Professionally speaking, Larry was not very good and he never improved over the years.  He wasn't able to describe the game for radio listenters.  It was more like he was describing what he watched on the TV monitor.  The all time greats were radio men first. In the Herzog days, the motto was turn off the tv sound and tune in the radio cast.  Given the delays in radio to tv, tht was never an option with Larry Michael.

[LightningBuggs]

37 minutes ago, celticsalmon said:

Professionally speaking, Larry was not very good and he never improved over the years.  He wasn't able to describe the game for radio listenters.  It was more like he was describing what he watched on the TV monitor.  The all time greats were radio men first. In the Herzog days, the motto was turn off the tv sound and tune in the radio cast.  Given the delays in radio to tv, tht was never an option with Larry Michael.

 

^^^ This ^^^

 

Just joined this thread to say the same.  I'll look past the homerism as that's human nature and he was being paid to do it.  But as a PBP guy, he was just really bad at his job.  The #1 job of a sports radio PBP person is to paint a picture for the listener.  In the DC area, there are 2 guys who are great at this, John Walton (Caps) and Charlie Slowes (Nats).  Hockey is a fast-paced sport and so I admire John a bit more as he makes listening to the game easy.  And even though I'm not a Nats fan by any stretch, I'll still listen to Charlie on a summer night driving around.

 

I can't remember how many times Larry would say something like, "Skins 1st and 10 from the 30.  There goes Peterson (insert any RB) out to the 38!"  I'm thinking great, it's 2nd and 2.  Easy money here.  Next play Skins line up, Larry "Skins 2nd and 5 from the 35".  What????  I thought he got to the 38.  He did crap like this all the time.

 

And that's not to mention the fact that on big plays he'd just start yelling as a fan excitedly without telling the listener what was happening.  I'd get mad and yell at the radio, "Well, what exactly is going on???!!!"

[kost203]

14 hours ago, TK said:

Larry was bigger friend to ES then 99% of you will ever know. 

 

And I understand the hate for "TV Larry". It's a shame you didnt get to see/know "Actual Larry" like @NewCliche21 @KDawg & some others here did.

As a Greek american sadden day, nice guy with a big heart. True Hellenic personality through and through.

[tshile]

I’ve seen how Larry treated his staff when the focus wasn’t on him first hand

 

the experiences left me with the impression he’s a terrible person. 
 

because only terrible people talk to other people in a professional environment the way he does, mostly because they’re ego tripping on their “power” over their staffers. 
 

i remember being quite disgusted one time at the season ticket holder meeting with him and Bruce a few years back

[Playaction2Sanders]

I never met Larry Michael, to me he just never fit.. But this crazy overhaul, from the logo, maybe ownership, to voice.. I mean is something like this in our future???? Is it true dark have been my dreams of late?

 

 

[Heisenberg]

2 hours ago, tshile said:

I’ve seen how Larry treated his staff when the focus wasn’t on him first hand

 

the experiences left me with the impression he’s a terrible person. 
 

because only terrible people talk to other people in a professional environment the way he does, mostly because they’re ego tripping on their “power” over their staffers. 
 

i remember being quite disgusted one time at the season ticket holder meeting with him and Bruce a few years back

 

Can you provide any more details on this?

[method man]

This guy was an absolute clown as a professional. Good riddance! 

[tshile]

30 minutes ago, Heisenberg said:

 

Can you provide any more details on this?

im conflicted because I don’t want to make that big of a deal out of it because there are people in the thread (that I trust) that have more experiences and the opposite opinion. but I know what I saw. 
 

it was one of the STH meetings. There were multiple speakers. Think it was about the new stadium ideas. He was the mc essentially. 
 

when he wasn’t up front a the time. When he wasn’t he was wandering the perimeter berating young staff. And in a very nasty way. It was one of those things where once you notice it happen once you look for it the rest of the time and catch them all. It essentially distracted me from the meeting a bit

 

and you could see the reactions of the people he did it too. And then their reactions with each other. 
 

in my experience ‘good’ people don’t behave like that, and people who behave like that tend to do so often.  
 

im going to leave it at that and reiterate it’s just my experiences and there are people in the thread that have more experiences and the opposite opinion and I personally trust most of those posters in the general sense. 

[88Comrade2000]

The  truth about Larry will be revealed.  If he's really as bad as some say he is, his misdeeds will come to light.

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

3 minutes ago, tshile said:

im going to leave it at that and reiterate it’s just my experiences and there are people in the thread that have more experiences and the opposite opinion and I personally trust most of those posters in the general sense. 

What you saw could totally be who he really is.  Let's be real, Larry is a schmoozer - it's how he got the job he has.  It's not uncommon for folks to be really good at glad handing and treating people in a positive manner when it benefits them and yet be a total jagoff to people they feel superiority over that have nothing to offer.

 

I say that not to have an opinion one way or another as I don't know the guy.  It's just possible that a guy can be really nice to folks they feel obligated to be nice to for reasons that help themselves and just be a total prick to everyone else.  Politics/power 101 type stuff.

[NoVaSkins21]

Never was a fan of Larry Michael.  Seemed like a guy who was put in by Snyder to force out Frank Herzog whose shoes he never filled.  Maybe he is good guy, but not the one you want calling football games for this team.

[@DCGoldPants]

LOL

 

 

 

there have been rumors about Larry pre-joining the franchise that were ugly from a business ethics POV. But, that's how the Skins roll. So, lasting 16 years and that being true would scan.

[KingGibbs]

On 7/15/2020 at 4:15 PM, TK said:

Larry was bigger friend to ES then 99% of you will ever know. 

 

And I understand the hate for "TV Larry". It's a shame you didnt get to see/know "Actual Larry" like @NewCliche21 @KDawg & some others here did.

Yeah he's a real nice guy. I always said he was a douchebag of epic proportions and low and behold look what we have here. Good riddance Richard. He had many of you fooled.

[Csup]

5 minutes ago, KingGibbs said:

Yeah he's a real nice guy. I always said he was a douchebag of epic proportions and low and behold look what we have here. Good riddance Richard. He had many of you fooled.

My comment of him being awful was directed at his professional work.  But yeah, sounds like he is - if true - a douche in real life too.

 

Being a Washington football fan means you wake up each morning wondering if today is the low point of the franchise.  Yet under The Midget they ALWAYS manage to sink

lower.  

[SkinsGuy]

The local NBC affiliate here said his and other people leaving are tied to allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct.

 

Here is an article on it:

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxbusiness.com/sports/washington-redskins-executives-sexual-harassment-verbal-abuse-female-employees.amp

 

Damn good culture. 🙄

[hail2skins]

It begs the question.......from what I understand, due to the allegations, Santos/Mann were fired, while Larry "resigned."  True, there are instances where resignations are forced, but I think the team would look better if Larry had been officially fired as well.

[Renegade7]

@Mr. Sinister met him one time, but looks like i was wrong about him being good people's off one interaction, he didn't seem creepy then, its not like there was no women on the sideline when he was coming up to people taking selfies.

 

None of that matters now, Flood Gates going to open in this guy now, I feel bad for anyone that went so far as trying to defend him here.  Whatever you saw that one time, a lot of folks didnt see that episode, self included.  

 

But a lot of people saw worse and now we know what we dealing with, all in the same page now.

[Mr. Sinister]

1 minute ago, Renegade7 said:

@Mr. Sinister met him one time, but looks like i was wrong about him being good people's off one interaction, he didn't seem creepy then, its not like there was no women on the sideline when he was coming up to people taking selfies.

 

None of that matters now, Flood Gates going to open in this guy now, I feel bad for anyone that went so far as trying to defend him here.  Whatever you saw that one time, a lot of folks didnt see that episode, self included.  

 

But a lot of people saw worse and now we know what we dealing with, all in the same page now.

 

No worries. The only reason I mentioned the whole "I know that guy and he's fine, so you must have the wrong person" kind of basic attitude is you get things wrong, is because I've had that kind of life, seeing ugliness in the shadows.

 

And I am very good at knowing how it hides, how it manipulates, earns trust, etc so it can do its ****ty work behind all of it. And that's just regular people.

 

The more money and fame you have, the more you can build up that sort of moral immunity with people, and commit even worse acts.

 

I may like a person in real life, but it doesn't mean that I'm not observing almost everything about them, even when they think I'm not paying attention. People slip up a lot, that way. Its why I still remember that radio interview, how uneasy it made me feel, and how if he was brazen enough to do that over the air, then how must he be in other, quieter circumstances. 

[Renegade7]

31 minutes ago, Mr. Sinister said:

 

And I am very good at knowing how it hides, how it manipulates, earns trust, etc so it can do its ****ty work behind all of it. And that's just regular people.

 

There's a fine line between benefit of the doubt and not making assumptions.

 

You caught a piece of evidence others probably didn't, I know I didnt, and in this day in age, one has to be careful on jumping down folks throat in regards to sexual harassment allegations.

 

We are all worse then we appear when we think no one is looking, at minimum not in our best behavior. I felt bad for him getting blasted for his homer takes, the lesson I got is don't waste time defending folks for defensible acts when they are in the cusp of being accused of indefensible acts.  I did that for Niel Degrasse Tyson and was right, but I'm not doing that again.

 

The next voice of the Redskins may be a homer, too.  That's not a problem to me, being a f'n creep.  I want to believe a lot of folks were defending how he did his job trying to hype the team, not how he talked about women.  

 

We are here now, folks best choose their words wisely going forward that knew him better then most of us. I owned up to mine, i again revert to default position of waiting for more evidence before joining the pitchfork crew, it worked with Biden, didn't wait long enough here.