by Joe Gandolfo- jgand@pcfootball.net
08-21-02

My friends it is my sad duty to report the death of our mutual friend, JoeRam.

BlyGilmore stabbed Joe in the back this afternoon when he wasn't looking; death was immediate. 

That being said, I’m surprised that this didn’t happen sooner. More than that, I’m surprised that it didn’t happen as a result of my column on David Branda’s administrative skills, or lack thereof. 

I’m surprised that it took a disagreement over a fictional football team to get me banished from that board. 

Yeah, for those of you who don’t know I was JoeRam over at the MaddenMania boards. When Bret started this site I wanted a name and persona that would live up to Bret’s free-speech motto and BigDaddyCool was it. 

BigDaddyCool was a nickname used by Kevin Nash to apply to his Diesel character the first time he was in the WWF. I adapted it when I registered on PTCSucks.com for my handle when I joined the fight against the PTC. When I went to Soapbox-tech.com I brought the character out of mothballs, and brought him here when this site started. 

I liked JoeRam. He was passionate about his love for the old L.A. Rams that he grew up with when he was a kid. He was equally passionate in his disdain for the Rams current owner Georgiaenthal Frontiere. Hey anybody who whacks their husband two days after he announces he is going to change his will deserves that title. On that, JoeRam and I agreed. 

We also agreed that David Branda, AKA Lord Darth Gilmore, was using his administrative power at MaddenMania to settle personal grudges that he had with people. He was using his power to silence people who were advertising this site, and he banned people who disagreed with his decisions or dared to stand up to him or anyone else who tried to bully them on his boards. 

The tale of JoeRam’s murder goes something like this: 

JoeRam was surfing the MM boards one day when he came across the thread “Team MaddenMania is Back!!!” in the Gameplay discussion section for the PC. Curious, he took a look to see who was signing up for the team this time, and one post in particular took him aback. It was a post made by Darth Gilmore that said that as soon as the Maniacs were filled up that he would be starting work on the Instigators, the team created by Bret and GM’ed by JoeRam. 

This understandably disturbed JoeRam, so he decided to take some action. He wanted to continue to run the team as he saw fit, and he also wanted to re-connect with the original team members so that they could update him on the physical attributes they wanted for their characters. JoeRam then attempted to contact all of the original Instigators that he could find by finding their profiles and then e-mailing them. The only one he couldn’t contact in that manner was Badger, who did not receive e-mails through those boards. 

JoeRam knew that he would be taking a risk in sending Badger a Private Message because he knew that Darth Gilmore regularly read the private messages that his members exchanged with one another. But he had to get in contact with Badger and he felt that it might be worth the risk. Besides, the decision had already been made to rename the team the PC Football Instigators and to drop the TotalMadden name altogether. A change in colors and logos had also been decided on, and he wanted to let everyone know about the changes.

After a few days he had no response from anybody, so he decided to make his intentions public. He started a thread where he announced that he was accepting signups for the 2003 edition of the Instigators. He gave the details on who was already signed up for the team, and that he was looking for more people to sign up if they so wished. 

A couple of days later he received an e-mail from Darth Gilmore. It was an e-mail that he knew that he should respond to, but he wanted some advice on how to proceed. He asked someone he trusted, respected, and someone who he knew would give it to him straight on what his next move should be. 

He asked Bret for advice. 

I’m happy to say that he took it, and I know that he didn’t regret taking it. 

I received a very interesting e-mail that morning: 

From :             "BlyGilmore" <blygilmore@maddenmania.com>

To :      joe_gandolfo@hotmail.com

Subject :          Instigators ...

Date : 18 Aug 2002 18:43:31 -0000  

This is a message from BlyGilmore at MaddenMania Forums (http://www.maddenmania.com/forums/index.php ). The MaddenMania Forums owners cannot accept any responsibility for the contents of the email. 

To email BlyGilmore, you can use this online form:

http://www.maddenmania.com/forums/member.php?action=mailform&userid=2 

OR, by email:

mailto:blygilmore@maddenmania.com 

This is the message: 

Please don't post looking for Instigator recruits. Thanks for helping out, but MaddenMania will retain the team, name and do the work for the created team. 

Thanks.

So here’s the response that JoeRam gave to Darth Gilmore’s e-mail in the same sign-up thread that he had started just days earlier on August 20, 2002 at 9:30am: 

Excuse me, what? 

You will retain the team and the name? 

On what planet?!? 

I don't think so. No. Sorry. Nuh-uh. 

First of all, let me clarify a few points: 

1. The TotalMadden Instigators were the brainchild of one Bret Bednarz, otherwise known as XFLBret. He created the team as a counterpart to the MaddenMania Maniacs to give people on these forums a chance to play on a team if they had not been able to sign up for the Maniacs. 

2. As the GM of the Instigators the final decision to move the team over to Bret's site was mine because it made the most sense. As TotalMadden no longer exists it was redundant to keep the name when there was another viable site out there willing to give us a home rather than have to borrow space here. 

3. The Instigator name is not yours exclusively. Did you register the name for the website? Did you pay money out of your own pocket for the registration as well as the monthly fee for having the site hosted? Did you put in hundreds of hours of work on the site to make it something that people could come to day and night for their own pleasure? No, you did not. I was the one who put in all of that work, and I do not appreciate you coming in and saying "thanks but we'll take it from here". 

4. I posted this thread because there are still members of this board who are also members of the Instigators. I had attempted to e-mail them to give them updates on the situation and to get other attributes from them for the creation of the team in Madden 2003. As I am also on Bret's site I have contact with some of the team members over there, but not all. I see nothing wrong with asking the original members who are still on this board for information pertaining to the Instigators. It does not harm you or this site in any way. 

5. You have placed the Instigator web address into your swear filter. What reason would you have for that other than to keep people form this board from going over there to see the results that I have posted both there and on this site? People on this board have gone to my site to see how their characters are doing. To block access to my site only harms them unless they have already bookmarked my site. And if your argument is that not that many people look at the site anyway, then how is it I have over 1,000 hits on my site since I launched it in late April? 

I know that you believe that you have the right to do whatever you wish with the Instigator name and team. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you don't. As GM of the team, webmaster of the official Instigator site, and co-owner of the team as well as its colors and logos along with Bret, that right belongs to me.  Any team you hope to put together will be nothing but a watered-down imposter. Besides, the only reason you put your version together in the first place was because you asked for my permission to do so to begin with. I have not given you my permission to do so this time. Given your actions regarding the team and the site I am not likely to now. 

David, you and I both know that the only way you will be able to get me out of the way is to ban me from this site. If that is the way you want to play it, then fine. But if you do then you have to realize that you will lose even more face than you have already lost, and that you and this site may become the punch line of a very sad joke. 

At no time on this site have I ever taken a personal shot at anyone. I have never engaged anyone in a flame war, nor have I attempted to spam anyone. I have never posted anything that could be construed as racist, sexist, or pornographic. I have stayed within the rules of the site at all times. You know this, and so does everybody else on this board. 

I have said all that there is to say on this subject. The ball's in your court now. 

Well JoeRam waited. And waited. And waited. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand waited. 

He fully expected to be banned for his insolence, and was surprised that it didn’t happen right away. So was I. 

Finally I got the word when I got back from lunch today. 

JoeRam was dead. Darth Gilmore had banned him with a knife in his back that was found twisted into his spine. From what I have been told death was immediate. My friend did not suffer, and he felt very little if any pain. 

This reminds me of another situation that occurred a few years ago in another Entertainment Company. 

Bret Hart was one of the finest professional wrestlers in the world. He had a long-standing relationship with the owner of the WWF Vince McMahon. Over time the WWF was being pounded into ratings submission by WCW; run at that time by Eric Bischoff. Vince found that he was not going to be able to afford to keep Bret on and said he would release him to take a deal with Bischoff in a cost-cutting move. 

But before he left, Bret would have to give up the World Title. 

Bret had a clause in his WWF contract that allowed him creative control over the last 30 days of that contract. Bret would give up the title under two conditions: he would not lose in his home country Canada, and he would not lose to Shawn Michaels, whom he despised. 

The timing could not have been worse, because the last PPV Bret was scheduled to take part in before leaving for WCW was the main event of the Survivor Series, in Montreal, against Shawn Michaels. 

Cue the ominous music. 

Bret thought he had hammered out a deal with Vince at the 11^th hour where the result would be a double DQ for both men, and then Bret would come and drop the belt the next night on RAW. Friends backstage warned him of a double-cross, but deep down Bret couldn't believe Vince would do that to him after 20 years of service. He was, of course, dead wrong. What happened was the most famous, debated-about, talked-about, argued-about, analyzed, re-analyzed and memorable finish of the modern era forever to be known as “The Montreal Screwjob”. Shawn Michaels put Bret Hart in his own Sharpshooter after a ref bump, and Vince McMahon, taking a rare seat at ringside, ordered the timekeeper to ring the bell, thus screwing Bret over in spectacular fashion and shocking the world. 

Substitute the name BlyGilmore for Vince McMahon and JoeRam for Bret Hart and you see where this is going. 

Well David you must be very proud of yourself right about now. I know I would be if I were in your position. You have managed to eliminate every single poster who has ever said a bad thing about you on your boards. You must feel really powerful right about now. Congratulations on being the Internet equivalent of Communist China. Take a bow David. 

And if you think about it that is what MaddenMania is like right about now. Think about it, China runs roughshod over the human rights of their citizens, just like Bly runs roughshod over posters who disagree with him. If any one stands up to him he shoots them down as easily as a student in Tiananmen Square. For those of you out there who were at Tiananmen Square or who knew someone who was let me just say that I am trying to make a point here by making an analogy. I am not trying to be disrespectful of anyone, save David Branda. 

David you may think you have eliminated a disease by banning me, but you haven’t. You merely eliminated a symptom, but the disease goes merrily on. It is a disease called being able to think for one’s self, instead of not taking the name of thy Lord Darth Gilmore in vain.

David you have a great site there my friend, but by your actions you are destroying its reputation and making the site as a whole the subject for scorn and ridicule. The site as a whole does not deserve that reputation, but unfortunately it has earned it with its association with you. Your actions have turned many people off and they don’t want to associate with you or your site. Why do you think that Andy has made overtures to Bret and to me about the possibility of establishing a relationship with this site? Why do you think Brian at football-gaming.com would rather work with us than with you? It’s because you have a reputation for screwing people and he wants no part of it that’s why! (Note to Brian: I don’t know if the above is true for sure, I’m just guessing) 

And another thing, the least you could have done was try to contact me after that last post to try to come to an agreement about this whole issue. But no, you decided that you were not enough of a man to try to open a dialogue with me. If you had said, “hey, I don’t want this to get ugly. Is there any possibility of discussion about this?” then I would have been open to it. I would have been willing to share the finished roster with you in exchange for a copy of the Maniac roster so people could run franchises on their own, now I’m not because you took a course of action that was cowardly, deceitful, and immature. 

David, you act like a petulant child. So I am going to give you an important piece of advice. It may be the most valuable thing anyone has ever said to you up to this point. If I were you I would take this advice to heart because it comes from mine. I have only two words to say to you David… 

Grow up! 

Until next time…