John Tomase Spared Any More Online Ridicule For Now

After last Friday's awkwardly (if not sincere) apologizing to readers of the Boston Herald, Patriot fans, Patriot front office, Bill Belichick, Pat Patriot and anyone else who's ever been remotely affiliated with the team, Rams walkthrough bumbler John Tomase did receive a little bit of grace from the editors of his blog, The Point After: they turned commenting privileges off.

After last Friday's onslaught of negativity and calls for his head, it was apparent to the editors of the Herald that the reporter's online stories were just going to be forums for bile-spewing Tomase bashers for a long, long time. Even the most harmless of posts, like yesterday's " Supporting The Green", which talked about Pats' players at the Celtics' game, was mercifully turned off.

From now on, those still fuming over the story will need to type their invective and John Popper comparisons to his Herald email address, many of which will most likely be quickly deleted once the subject line suggests an overwhelmingly negative and cruel approach.

Tomase does have one supporter, in Red Sox fanatic and author Seth Mnookin, who carefully breaks down the reporting sequence to, in some way, defuse some of the hatred for his friend.

It'll be interesting to see how long this Tomase-bashing actually lasts. I get the sense that it'll be a very, very long time before most Herald readers and Patriots' zealots ever let him off the hook.

In Defense of John Tomase [SethMnookin] Pats' Beat Writer Attempts To Keep Fans From Yelling At Him The Rest Of His Life [Deadspin]