Does anyone know how this guy is a so called expert on football? Every time I read something from this guy I feel like he doesn't have a clue what he is talking about.
Who calls him an expert? He's a journalist, not an expert. I don't think he even calls himself an expert, or at least I have never seen him do so.
Omar is a crybaby who's position has gone to his head.... the only thing he has going for him is the fact that the guys from Universal Draft let him use their videos.
judging the face of the football team on twitter is ridiculous another outlet of course beats reading the paper
You don't have to like the source to use it for the information it brings you. Quit focusing on the sizzle and taste the steak. Butch up.
omar kelly...you mean the guy who thought Wake would not make the team last year. we'll see about his latest venture into player evaluation come sat..Was koa misi overdrafted?. Report the news and what you hear from the professionals , don't evaluate talent moron.
I like Omar! Dude seems well respected by most of the players. Give the guy a little slack, we can all get a little snobby on here from time to time. Not to be rude, but if your more of an expert why don't you write for the sentinel? Could you do his job better? I mean, he does write for an audience that reaches all of south fl, that audience isn't as well versed in dolphins current events as we on thephins.com are. Who would you rather hear from?
Omar has obviously never played a down in his life, but, for a journalist, he does a respectable job. Does he take his own opinion too seriously? Hells yeah. But it could be worse. Imagine having Armando as our only conduit. YIKES!!!
For all of Salguero's faults, he at least has real access. Some of his draft tweets implied that he was in the war room during the weekend.
Good point. But honestly, I could care less about "inside info". All I want to know is who is ballin' and who isn't. And neither Armando nor Omar seem capable of telling me anything I couldn't gleam from an episode of NFL Live, which is unfortunate. Salguero doesn't know the difference between a flanker and a split end. And Omar, I hear him talking about how Langford needs to do a better job of setting the edge . I'm not hating on them. They are journalists not analysts, and I understand that. But c'mon guys. If you're going to use football terms, at least know what you're talking about.
Did I say that I was an expert? I know why this guy got hired. It's pretty obvious. And it's not because he is a good writer. The guy can't even spell words properly. And to answer your other question, yes I could do his job better.
He really isn't that bad. Much better than anyone else who cover the Dolphins. Of course you'd like Mike Lombardi or Ron Jaworski as your beat writer, but this is the Miami Herald and Sun Sentinel we are talking about.
I thought Jeff Darlington was really good when he started out. But lately he's been obsessed with name dropping and generally trying to act like a celebrity. I think he's trying to work his way into television, which is cool, the man's got to advance his career however he sees fit, but it's the sort of JT-like quality that tends to turn me off a little. No biggie. My only problem with Omar in the past has been humility. He lacks it. When he gets frustrated that someone dares argue against him, he'll pull the "I'm always right and I have way more access than you so shut up" card. He can try and deny it, but he's done exactly that in the past to me and many others. And his opinions will actually change in the face of scrutiny. If his opinion is that a guy was sort of "ok" and then people start challenging him on that, he'll hyperbolize and argue until suddenly he was awful, terrible, not worth the air he breathes, etc. And Armando, whoa boy. He has great access. He writes well. He knows his football, knows how the NFL works, knows how the Dolphins work and honestly he's got the best feel of anyone on the beat. But he's just downright conniving IMO. He'll lie, cheat and steal to get by, he seems to have no problem with it. Mike Berardino is solid, seems like a nice guy, but of all the beats he's the guy most likely to misfire on a story or make some kind of mistake, run with some angle that turns out to be bogus, etc. That's just something I've noticed over the years. Ben Volin just recently came back to the scene and I'm waiting to see more. He seems pretty solid right now. But he said that Satchel's Pizza in Gainesville is overpriced and that Blue Highway is better. He is dead to me. Barry Jackson is practically a ghost in the machine, which I love. There's no personality or ego reflected in his writings, he's just all inside sources and quotes...and yet in his weekly notes he ends up with some of the most interesting information of any of them. I'm a big fan of Ethan Skolnick. Supremely ethical, willing to call out coaches and the establishment when it's called for, a good writer when you get right down to it, humble guy, friendly. Only problem? He's not a Dolphins beat writer, not really. He comments on the Dolphins only a little bit but he doesn't know them inside-out like he seems to know the Heat. My favorite overall might be Ken LaVicka. Entertaining, witty, not much ego, works as hard on the Dolphins as any of the other guys, seems to know his way around the football field a little bit, very accessible to fans on twitter, plays well with others, isn't likely to jump into a rant about how awesome he is or how much he knows and how he was right about this, this or this. Good people. But I've never actually seen him write anything. I've just heard his blogs, interviews, and twitter comments.
He takes himself too seriously but we are at fault too for taking his commentary too seriously. In many ways he is as passionate a Dolphin fan as the rest of us but he is not a scout or guru. The days of journalistic standards are long gone.We need to learn how to discriminate real news from opinion. On the plus side he works hard at his profession .This is not a guy that punches a clock or is waiting for a golden parachute.
BTW I agree that Mando has better contacts than the whole crew at the Sentinel despite his sometimes grating and self aggrandizing style. I also agree with CK about Barry Jackson.As a famous detective would say ¨¨Just the facts,mam¨¨ is his style and its refreshing.Hidden under that self effacing style there is a lot of real info which he gathers from real contacts.
Who do you guys like? I dont think i have ever heard anyone say who they think covers the Dolphins the best. Im just curious.
I think that Omar would take offense if you ever pointed out that he's not a scout or guru. I think he does consider himself to be a relative football expert. I say relative because the REAL football experts actually coach the game or scout the game, or at least they used to, but I think he considers himself to be about as good at evaluating the game and breaking down film as anyone outside of the actual profession.
CK I love the draft prospect breakdown spin you put on this .....once a draftnik, always one!!! I too am impressed with Ben Volin alot lately....where did he go??
I would prefer the opinion of our Gurus and some of our members as far as expertise goes but then again we have some very knowledgeable members . Most of Omar's readers are not knowledgeable and they want expert opinions so Omar tries to be one.
I think another thing to keep in mind is that for these guys, this is their profession. They have bosses they have to answer to. I don't doubt that a lot of people wouldn't do a better job giving us information from TC, but our group isn't necessarily reflective of the audience their bosses may be asking them to cater to. While I certainly appreciate what Universal Draft did before the draft, would that material generate more interest from a casual fan? Would a 15 year old kid, or 35 year old mother enjoy reading that? I have a good friend I went to college with, who writes for the Washington Post now. He writes about mostly high school sports. For as much as he knows about the actual game, you wouldn't be able to necessarily tell that from whats published. Basically, if you're going to the Miami Herald for sports information, you'll get Miami Herald quality information. Now thats not a knock against the Herald, but they're a local newspaper that caters to a wide audience. Thats why you have sites like this, and sites like Universal Draft. For people who want more in-depth information. But I'm fairly certain that if someone like CK or Boom or Con worked for the Miami Herald, they'd either have to dumb down their coverage, or their superiors wouldn't be too pleased. If you want more in depth coverage of the Dolphins, from people that actually are experts, you'll have to convince the organization to give access to the media channels that do provide that service.
