Wow. I have been mulling this over for a few days, now. While I have seldom agreed with Curt Schilling, until now I respected him for saying what he thought and taking whatever backlash came from it. He is now showing himself to be a liar and a coward. I cannot fathom how he could not have known that the $1.1M check to Rhode Island was a rubber one. I cannot fathom how he could allow his company to lie to his employees like that. I cannot fathom how he could think it was okay to ask taxpayers to bail him out when he touts the Republican rhetoric that he does. (Mind you, I would have been okay if he hadn't been so hypocritical about this situation.) I find it amusing that he was not at Fenway for the 100th Anniversary celebration and now we all know why. Oh, he had business obligations, alright. He was drowning and trying to remain afloat - at whatever cost... As many already knew - Curt Schilling was all about Curt Schilling. I thought he, at least, had some moral fortitude. I don't care what he spouts on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social site where he doesn't have to really face people. He used the print and television media to his boon whenever he could and now he owes it to everyone to face us all - and some tough questions instead of hiding behind his keyboard. I purchased Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and I'd like some answers.

Good article, Globe. Two observations: 1) Perhaps a baseball player, even a gutsy, gregarious winner of a baseball player, may not make a good CEO. Even if his heart is in the right place there is a huge amount of business experience that presumably he would not have. Also his talents might not align well with the needs of the business. 2) When a company is teetering it's likely there is desperate and panicked effort to find more investors or funding through any possible channel. That process is not likely to be smooth. Assuming that the effort was completely on the up-and-up what do you tell employees? You can't tell them nothing because there is too much anxiety and they might all leave, and, anyway, they have a right to know as much as possible. You can't tell them what the solution is because you don't have one yet. You try to provide whatever information you can that is fact and that is reassuring. That kind of environment is likely to make for lots of contradictions if viewed only from the employees perspective. (It would be good sometime later to have a follow up article that provided the experience from the CEO's point of view.)

Just another example of business execs who flaunt their power when they can get away with it but take us all for a ride quietly. Schilling was less quiet than most but still used his public persona to push his right-wing causes. The fact is, most execs will exploit public money anytime it's legal, sometimes in the form of defense contracts, sometimes in the form of business development grants. But this one stinks because Schilling was SO loud about his ideology while fleecing Rhode Island -- AND his own employees. This is why the Bain issues are starting to get so much play, not because Bain took development grants (sure, "private equity") but because Bain regularly entered struggling companies and took advantage of every single opportunity to offload responsibility to public accounts -- unemployment, retirement plan bailouts, etc. I saw this personally with an employer who was "helped" and the employees and stockholders both were ripped off, the taxpayers were burdened with extra cost, and Bain walked away with millions in fees. Schilling and Romney belong in the same hall of shame.

Sorry about the 400 people who lost their jobs. While the hotshot game designers should not have problems finding another gig, there were the office managers and assistants. And losing health insurance all of the sudden is not something one should experience either Not including in this article is something I read previously, also from The Boston Globe, that Mr Shilling repaid himself the loan he extended to his company soon after he obtained the RI money. Without wading into the murky politics of private equity style antics so dominated the national political discussion right now, why would RI trust a business partner who had so little skin in the game (no pun intended) Finally, sorry RI is on the hook. Perhaps this is a true lesson why not to race to the bottom

kennedylar wrote, "Just another example of business execs who flaunt their power when they can get away with it but take us all for a ride quietly." >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> You don't seem to understand even the basics of business and capitalism. When you have power you have a responsibility to use it (prudently and wisely). CEO's are people too and can have personal opinions and be open about them. Business is not a social welfare program.

Schilling has just proved that there are unethical businesspeople who MAKE it a social welfare program - just ask the people of Rhode Island. I've had a full career in business, including startups, and sadly see people like Schilling take advantage of others, and us. The sad part is that their puppet politicians rile up the troops ranting for "free market deregulation" while they continue to steal our public dollars.

WBH wrote, "...Finally, sorry RI is on the hook. Perhaps this is a true lesson why not to race to the bottom." >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> There are different ways to foster new businesses. It is fact that startups and small businesses mostly fail. Of the few that survive, some thrive and spawn others. So it is obvious that government support for startups has to be done in such a way as to take these facts into account. (You shouldn't be shocked if you walk outside in the Amazon rainforest and you get rained-on.) Did RI put all its startup eggs in the one basket of Studio38? Are there other ways that would encourgage video game startups without putting so much public money at risk in a single basket?

Perhaps a better way to go would be for RI to offer tax breaks to established successful video game companies that open an engineering branch in RI? That would be much less risky than what was done with Studio38 and encourage a diverse number of companies.

Schilling is just another Tea Part nut job HYPOCRITE. They all want much smaller government and no social programs but when it comes to Big Curt it's okay to take $75 million from said government and never repay it. May be he's we rely a liberal? Nut job athletes like Schilling and Thomas should just shut up when it comes to politics. Boy has his stock dropped since the bloody sock days. Pun intended.

This episode is a morality play with many layers. The guy who happened to be good at a kid's game, who made millions for a skill which at best distracts a bunch of bored folks for a few minutes, and offers nothing more of any substance to society. With a big splash he proclaims that he's going to make a major contribution in another kind of ballpark. Never mind whether he has skill one that would suggest that he could do that. Then there is the video game cult. Another iteration of useless distraction. This layer includes techie types playing with computer code, who are getting paid more than teachers, firefighters, and many health care professional for what the market would say is a more valuable contribution to society, which is twiddling computer code so a crowd of people can spend excessive amounts of money on a useless pastime which allows them to twiddle their thumbs and zone out from the real world. Now enter the worn out shenanigans of politics and knuckle-brain politicians who lose all perspective and give away public money in fits of poor judgment. How many lessons are there is this fiasco? Where's an excel spread sheet? It's getting complicated.

The only bright note is that we will be spared the spectacle of Mr Schilling stumping for Governor Romney.

$75 million of taxpayers money down the drain for "free enterprise"! What a waste!

"Business is not a social welfare program." Are you kidding?

This article appeared in the Boston Globe 7 years ago. http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/03/23/schillings_close_call/ I wonder if anyone in RI looked into Shilling past business investments to see how bad his judgement is in these matters. Probably not.