Lawless Leaves Free Press, Joins TSN Full Time

[the watcher]

Lawless is the most connected journalist.....people trust him with info for a reason. Can't say I agreed with a lot of what he wrote but good on him. TSN sees a market with a team about to make noise.

The Bombers are about to turn it around?Cool!

[Tracker]

Lawless is the most connected journalist.....people trust him with info for a reason. Can't say I agreed with a lot of what he wrote but good on him. TSN sees a market with a team about to make noise.

If the team noise you mean is gagging and retching, then, yes.

[bearpants]

 

Lawless is the most connected journalist.....people trust him with info for a reason. Can't say I agreed with a lot of what he wrote but good on him. TSN sees a market with a team about to make noise.

If the team noise you mean is gagging and retching, then, yes.

 

 

I'm guessing he was referring to the Jets...

[Tracker]

 

 

Lawless is the most connected journalist.....people trust him with info for a reason. Can't say I agreed with a lot of what he wrote but good on him. TSN sees a market with a team about to make noise.

If the team noise you mean is gagging and retching, then, yes.

 

 

I'm guessing he was referring to the Jets...

 

I assumed that but since this is a Bomber forum...

[SPuDS]

Lawless is the most connected journalist.....people trust him with info for a reason. Can't say I agreed with a lot of what he wrote but good on him. TSN sees a market with a team about to make noise.

If the team noise you mean is gagging and retching, then, yes.

I'm guessing he was referring to the Jets...

yup me too.. thought it was obvious seeing as its ducky lol

[wbbfan]

I hope they move Turner back to being lead sports columnist and not Wicek.  

 

Or maybe now that Ed T has a couple years making NHL contacts to go with his football cred they will feel he's ready to take the big byline.  I'd love to see that.  He has that rare ability to criticize the home team without enraging the fan base.  But then again I guess enraging the fan base is at least a little bit a part of the job.   

 

good call  on tait. 

[SPuDS]

I loved how the bombers advertising people kept the freep ad that said lawless was their sporte guy lol.

[Zontar]

He's so good looking. He was born for TV.

[Super Duper Negatron]

I just read Wiecek's column today, in which his main argument essentially amounted to "the Bombers shouldn't try to sign Muamba because...they already have someone worse than Muamba".

 

I miss Lawless already.

[JuranBoldenRules]

Wiecek is an idiot.  I happened to catch him on 1290 on my way to work a few days ago and forgot to turn it off.  He said that illegal formation shouldn't even be called if the receiver is out wide and it's a QB sneak.  Idiot.  Obviously the official botched the call on Friday, but formations are legal or illegal regardless of where the play goes.  Why have rules at all?

 

The Free Press and 1290 should really do themselves a favour and get someone who actually wants the job on the Bomber/CFL beat.  I can't recall ever hearing/reading someone so disinterested and outright contemptuous towards what they are covering in the media ever.

[iso_55]

As I can't read the Freep newsfeed here I don't care if Lawless left or not.

[Brandon]

Wiecek never has anything when he's on the radio. I assume he literally just reads twitter and writes his crap using that as his source.

[gbill2004]

I loved how the bombers advertising people kept the freep ad that said lawless was their sporte guy lol.

Lawless still works for the Free Press. I believe he has another week or so to go.

[SPuDS]

I loved how the bombers advertising people kept the freep ad that said lawless was their sporte guy lol.

Lawless still works for the Free Press. I believe he has another week or so to go.

I guess thats correct but I mean everyone and their dog knows hes TSN property now.. Just funny that the freep wouldnt pull the promo.

*shrug*

[gbill2004]

I loved how the bombers advertising people kept the freep ad that said lawless was their sporte guy lol.

Lawless still works for the Free Press. I believe he has another week or so to go.

I guess thats correct but I mean everyone and their dog knows hes TSN property now.. Just funny that the freep wouldnt pull the promo.

*shrug*

Lawless wrote an article for the Free Press today, published in today's paper.

[Noeller]

and it's not like he's jumping to the Sun. It's not direct competition...

[The Unknown Poster]

Final FREEP column


I’m often asked how Winnipeg has changed since the Jets came back. The truth is, we’re not so different. Our image has improved, but the things that make this city and its people great, they remain a constant.

Winnipeg got a little lost in "the national conversation" during its 15 years outside of the NHL, sadly looking in. But Winnipeggers didn’t forget who they were. They just didn’t have as many opportunities to show the world their spirit of community, their warmth and their drive.

Winnipeg was labelled a second-tier city during those 15 years, and now visitors marvel at how the city has "come back." I find that notion more than a bit hollow. The spotlight was turned off but people here didn’t stop living full and rich lives. Sure, the 40 or so nights of hockey are great. But they’re not all-defining.

Maybe there was a temporary funk after the Jets left, but by the time I arrived here in the summer of 1999 it had begun to lift.

It was August when I drove in from Thunder Bay. The Pan Am Games were in full swing and Winnipeggers were draped in those awful salmon-coloured volunteer jackets. The world had arrived for an international sporting event. Athletes were the stars, but Winnipeg triumphed. The city was vibrant. It had gusto. And a lively rhythm. I fell in love almost instantly.

A run of bad fortune and bad press had outsiders expecting to find the city had rolled up its sidewalks. The departure of the Jets, a national focus on Winnipeg’s crime rate and a tough economy had dinged up the city’s reputation.

But for new arrivals that summer, me included, Winnipeg offered surprises.

The Free Press newsroom was humming. So were the restaurants and sporting venues. To be honest, that first week, I was a little awestruck. To me, Winnipeg had it all.

In the ensuing years, the province unveiled to me its remarkable way of life. Cottage country steeped in Canadiana, a historic but ever-refreshing music scene and multiculturalism that is celebrated rather than stifled. My Winnipeg is so colourful — Jewish and African and Asian and indigenous and Irish and French-Canadian.

The Pan Am Games revealed a city that had soul, pulse and relevance. That feeling faded a bit after the athletes and international media left town, but it was my original impression of Winnipeg and it proved lasting. It was also a preview of where this city was headed.

My first job at the Free Press was on the copy desk, working nights, writing headlines and trying not to mess up stories written by reporters I’d admired from afar.

When an opening in the sports department came up, I leapt. Over the next decade and a bit, I moved in and out of the hockey, football and baseball beats. I’ve been a columnist the last few years.

It’s been an education, an endless stream of thrills, early morning flights, laughs and deadlines. I have absolutely loved it. My office walls are covered with framed stories from my time at the Free Press. A Mike Keane tribute, a John Ferguson column and a series of stories from the Olympics.

This will be my last column for this newspaper. I’ve accepted a position with TSN to write and talk about sports. A colleague once said to me, "This is the best job there is. You get to see the world and sporting events all on someone else’s dime." For me, truer words were never spoken.

I’m excited for the next challenge, saddened to be departing the Freep, but comforted knowing I’m not leaving my home.

That’s what Winnipeg is to me: home. It’s where I met my wife and where our daughter was born. It’s where my neighbours, friends and colleagues are, and for me, it’s the only place to live.

It’s funny, we Winnipeggers like to knock ourselves. And God knows the rest of the country likes to take its shots.

But for me, Winnipeg has always been this incredible place. It has never seemed too big or too small and it’s never seemed remote.

In my 16 years here, Winnipeg has opened a new downtown ballpark, built a new rink and a new football stadium. And yes, the Jets came back, too.

The Jets, with their consistently packed houses and caffeinated fans, have become the cover of the sports book in Manitoba. The images of the NHL franchise leaving and then finally returning have been shared worldwide. The story of loss and redemption the Jets represent is the one people outside Manitoba know.

But for me, after living in this province for 16 years, other stories resonate with equal strength.

Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes, Ace Walker and Rick Forney, Milt Stegall and Charles Roberts, Jonathan Toews and Jocelyne Larocque, Jennifer Jones and Jeff Stoughton.

We’re not just the Jets and the NHL didn’t save Winnipeg. Quite the opposite. Our hockey fans and our corporate community gave the NHL a soft landing when the Thrashers cratered in Atlanta. We took them in. They needed us as much as we needed them. We shouldn’t forget that.

Earlier this summer, watching the Bombers play a game before a less-than-capacity crowd, I was awed by the oomph of the fans. There may have been only 25,000 in the stands and the news all week had been grim. Fans were grumbling about another losing season.

But when the game started, the fans came to life, loud and on cue. Times were tough and many had talked about abandoning the Bombers — but there they were, roaring in full throat. It strikes me that this is what sports in Winnipeg is about, as much as the big lights at the MTS Centre.

The spirit and devotion isn’t just for show, to be trotted out when Hockey Night in Canada comes to town. There’s durability here. Heartache, and the ability to overcome it, is more a part of Winnipeg’s fibre than any new-found attention.

The Free Press indulged me and allowed me to write this piece, with the stipulation that it not be a list of thank yous. That list, of course, would be long and wouldn’t fit into a single column.

It can, however, be wrapped up in three simple words for a city where I found myself, in more ways than one: Thank you, Winnipeg.

[Mike]

Well done, Lawless.

[MOBomberFan]

Classy and appreciative without pandering. A very nice final column.

[Geebrr]

Glad Gary is sticking around!

[Noeller]

Great stuff...well done. I don't always love that city, but by God, do I love that province....

[Mr Dee]

Finally, Gary has come around to our way of thinking...

But really, a nice way to go out. Congrats!

[Goalie]

I liked reading that one. Very well done for sure. One of his best?

[holoman]

Deleted

[FrostyWinnipeg]

Nice article but totally disagree. When the Jets left it was a miniature ice-age. Winter was brutal. Cold and dark. No one talked about the Moose the next day.