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Kate Ready is well-acquainted with the risks of online commenting. Avoiding and responding to firestorms is part of her job as the Detroit Tigers' social media and marketing coordinator since mid-2012.
So it's surprising to see her stumble with this lightning-rod personal tweet poking at the rumored size of Jim Harbaugh's six-year UM contract:
Just tell me none of my tax dollars are going to pay this guy $48 million. #fixtheroads
— Kate Ready (@Kate_Ready) December 30, 2014
Reactions are swift and severe, although her profile notes: "Opinions 100% my own." Tweeters and a blogger note the irony of a tax subsidy crack by an employee of Tigers owner Mike Ilitch, who's building a hockey arena with state and city help.
These comments have echoes among the 21 replies posted by noon Tuesday:
@Kate_Ready Funny that you would complain about this, considering your employer took 284.5 million for the new arena
— Jordan Roman (@TheJRomeDopesho) December 30, 2014
This is rich: A Mike Ilitch employee complaining about the use of taxpayer dollars on Harbaugh's contract. https://t.co/f1um4aQ6Td
— Bill Bradley (@BillBradley3) December 30, 2014
Others focus on the fact that university teams aren't taxpayer-financed. "You know that know football pays for every other sport at UM, right? Their athletic dept is self-sufficient, it pays for itself," Greg Gaynor tweets Tuesday morning to Ready.
Kate Ready: "Opinions 100% my own." (Facebook photo)
Predictably, a few comments include sexist swipes that yank the discussion out of bounds.
A longer takedown is posted at Detroit Sports Rag blog by West Bloomfield blogger Jeff Moss, who casts himself as a "Detroit media flamethrower." An excerpt:
Being that U of M is a public university, the Tigers’ Propaganda Dominatrix somehow thought the taxpayers were going to foot the bill for Harbaugh to resurrect the Wolverines.
This obviously is not the case. Harbaugh is not going to cost the taxpayers of this state a plug nickel. The Michigan Athletic Department has a self-contained budget. . . .
How fucking dumb and tone deaf would you have to be to go on a social mefdia platfom and bitch about Harbaugh’s contract — which won’t come out of taxpayer’s pockets anyway — when you are employed by a company that has its hand out to the tune of $284.5 million?!
