Wait Until Dark

HOW SOPHISTICATED IS THE MLS SPIN MACHINE?

So like many of you, I've been wondering when MLS will release the results of its in-depth investigation into the Nowak/RSL incident. Now, it has occured to me that they may have already finished it, and are merely waiting for the proper time to release their findings.

Consider that DC United let the media know of its plans to release three players late on Friday afternoon. As any part-time media observer or TV viewer of The West Wing in season 2 can tell you, the late Friday time period is the perfect time to let unhappy news go out. You get the happy advantage of having the story be covered on a Saturday, the story is not covered in the Sunday papers, and by Monday is old news. That's the theory, as I understand it.

Steve Goff himself notes: "The 28-man rosters must be submitted to the league by Wednesday." So there was more time to make these cuts, but they wanted to get it out of the way now. Now, admittedly, I'm pretty sure that DC United wasn't playing this deep a game in timing the information they release. But I'm also pretty sure that MLS would definately do such a thing. Which means, I think that the Nowak situation will be addressed no earlier than March 3rd, the next opportunity for MLS to take advantage of this situation. However, given that DC United will be in Spain at the time, the league might even not make a move until March 10, in order to allow for Kevin Payne to put his imprint on the issue as needed.

Of course, you have to believe that MLS would really run its media relations in that manner. And this should definately be filed under the realm of baseless speculation. In short, the perfect blog post.