The Philadelphia Eagles have fired game-day employee Dan Leone for the egregious crime of venting his feelings about the team’s recent decision to part ways with long-time safety Brian Dawkins. According to Mr. Leone, the team terminated him without offering him a chance to explain himself, and gave him the news during a short, rather terse phone conversation conducted by a low-paid lackey, who refused to acknowledge Leone’s expressions of contrition. “I apologized for it,” Leone said. “I apologized 20 million times. I never bad-mouthed the organization before. I made one mistake and they terminate me? And they couldn’t even bring me into the office to talk to me? They had to do it over the phone? At least look me in the eye. To get done dirty like this, I can’t believe it. I’m devastated.”
Oh, I failed to mention one pertinent fact: Leone did his venting on his Facebook page, which is how he got busted.
This is how the world has changed: In the old days, if you were a fan/employee who was mad at the team, you went to your favorite watering hole, threw down a few brewskis and swore a lot. And no one remembered afterward and no one associated with the team ever found out. Now, people have this habit of putting their opinions out over the internet, where they easily fall into the hands of the wrong people, namely those who sign paychecks. In other words, Mr. Leone would’ve been better off ranting drunkenly and possibly urinating on himself than exposing himself via Facebook. I hope everyone has learned a lesson from this: Don’t post vitriolic, ill-considered words on the internet. Unless you’re just some unpaid jerk of a blogger who enjoys calling people names and has nothing to lose by it. Then it’s okay.
Tags: brian dawkins, dan leone, facebook, philadelphia eagles
