Troy Dog
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I’m fired up this week for many reasons. I realize life could be a lot worse for me right now. Everyone is healthy in my family and nothing is too dire. I’m also not staring down possibly one of the most destructive hurricanes of all-time…so I get it. I’m thankful.
However. nothing in this past week has gone right for me, so I’m on edge.
I need to complain about the ‘industry’ today. This entire rant is stemming from Ryan Hughes’ Instagram post last night, but it’s been brewing in my mind for quite a while.
First off, when I saw that Instagram post last night that Ryan Hughes posted about his lunch with Austin Forkner and wishing him well as he moves to the East with Triumph, I knew it wouldn’t last long.
I knew it would get deleted and soon enough…it did. That’s the way we do things in this sport. Sure, teams have to wait for legal reasons in order to announce rider deals, but at the same time…Ryno can post whatever he wants and he did. So, in no way am I going after him in this aggravation. It was honestly refreshing to see him post what he did.
For months we hear about how so-and-so is going somewhere, so you often forget that the news hasn’t officially been announced yet. This is one of those deals. I first read the post thinking, ‘Oh, that’s cool…I’m glad that Forkner still wants to race after everything he’s been through in his career’. Or even, ‘Did I miss the announcement?’
I don’t believe that Ryno took this down on his own, nor do I think that Forkner told him to take it down. These teams want the control over the announcements usually, which I also understand. Yet, Ryno, you didn’t have to delete the entire post, you could have just edited the words. Now I have my own post about this topic, without context.
This sport needs to bend and flex a little bit, especially on something like this. If it’s legal reasons, okay…but Ryno saying that shouldn’t put anyone in a legal bind. It says he’s moving to Triumph…it doesn’t say when…and hey, aren’t most contracts over on September 30th? The deal could not be completely finished as well. That’s what I’m holding onto. Maybe the ink isn’t completely dry. However, the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki Team appears to be full for the 2025 season, so Forkner does need a home.
I also can’t stand when people comment on these posts saying, “We’ve known this for months.”
Who is ‘WE’?
Just because Steve Matthes reported it doesn’t mean that you heard from your sources about him going there. You heard from Matthes. So, if you’ve known this for months…how do you know it? What ‘insider told you?
When I hear something from Matthes I attribute that to him. Sure, I’m in tune with the industry, but a lot of times I hear news from him first whether from his feeds or from him directly. That’s a pet peeve of mine, when I see people around our industry, and especially you fans out there, that ‘heard the news long ago’. Where did you hear it from? Just tell us in your comment, please and thank you.
Also, one more thing to add as my coffee is peaking and this week keeps getting worse and worse…
When I took the job as Editor-in-Chief of this site back in January, I noticed a shift in some people who I had been cool with for a very long time. I haven’t changed anything about myself or done anything wrong that I’m aware of. Some of my fellow media members, who I’ve considered myself very cool with have treated me totally different than they have in years past. As in, some don’t even say hello in passing.
I think that’s totally unacceptable and weird. Some people in the media only seem to be worried about social media success and taking photos in the pits with people. That’s great, but like Matthes says (and this isn’t about him by the way. I understand his success and understand why people want to take pictures with him, Weege, and JT), but he doesn’t understand why people want to take photos with him anyway.
I know media members who don’t even have the fraction of his following that search for people to recognize them in the pits and it’s weird and cringey. We need to be better about this moving forward guys…c’mon. We’re at the races to promote the sport, report the news we find out, and do our job. I get that you can take a photo with someone, that’s fine…but weekly occurrences where you make it a big deal is a bad look.
Anyway, like I said, I’m in a bad spot this week for many reasons. I needed to get that off my chest. Media people need to be better and Ryno needs to keep his post up. I’m all over the place…help.
P.S: Ryno, please don’t hit me next time you see me…maybe we can just get a photo instead…
Main Image: Octopi Media
