Free: Contests & Raffles.
This will be a question for the mods......Now that a guilty plea has been entered I think there is no doubt about guilty/not guilty of the charges. I've seen one sponsor go away for less than professional behavior and this far exceeds that.Has his sponsorship been removed? Is a ban in order for this? If you think about it, for a what....$25 dollar fee to be a sponsor....you can reach around 14,000 possible clients on here. That's a lot of opportunity to sell your poaching dvds.
I know that the pressure to get footage can be very intense. Every sponsor expects you to deliver. That is what they paid for. Outdoor shows can run up to $100,000 per quarter to air. I have dipped my toe in the outdoor film industry and I understand the overwhelming demand that can be placed on you from sponsors. It's funny when people have money involved they seem to forget that it is still hunting and nothing is a guarantee. All that seems to be forgotten and it comes to the point where your dreams are going to die if you do not produce. What Matt did was wrong. Dead wrong. He negated every positive message that was ever passed on through his show. Though he may not remember me I have met Matt a few times and my impressions of him were that he is bit of a narcissist. Fame and success can do that to just about anybody. The ideal personality would remain humble and make every effort to not let it go to their head. Unfortunately, most people are not able to do that. When everybody you meet tells you how amazing you are at some point you will start to believe that yourself. For all of you who feel like that would never be you..... it's easy to say that when your not in the one with the fame.I have worked with some of the biggest names in the waterfowling industry and I have met some great guys and some guys who I detest, Chad Belding, is a prime example of a person who more than believes his own ledged. It can happen to anybody, fame brings out different parts of everybody, sometimes they are not the good parts.I cant help but to feel that we as the audience are not part of the problem as well. We elevate these people to unrealistic levels. We treat them as hunting gods and forget that often times it really has more to do with a person having a large bank roll than skill. Anybody could kill 400 inch bulls and 165 inch whitetails if they had the right amount of money. That is what guides are for. This is no secret. This is a general statement as Matt does have skill, don't take that away from him. He just made poor choices and hopefully learned a lesson in ethics, morality, and humility. The point is that if we the viewers were happy watching "ACTUAL" hunting in which sometimes the hunter is unsuccessful the pressure would not be as high. The demand for constant success from both viewers and sponsors can quickly become overwhelming and lead to hosts making poor choices like Matt has done. There are some VERY good hosts out there who have remained humble and who use the fact that they are famous to hold themselves to a "HIGHER" standard and that is they way it should be. As a host, if you want to believe the ledged of greatness that people create for you, you must live and hunt the way they believe you do.
