09.28.07
You tell ‘em coach
Since most of you kids are still in school and not yet considered professionals, this might be an interesting thing to think about. I’m sure that you folks aren’t tuned into sports like I am, so I’m going to link to a video here and comment on it after the break. After you watch it, take a moment to form an opinion, and we’ll have a one-sided discussion!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5VytIZZzee0
Just a bit of advice — all videos of this press conference are kind of quiet, but don’t turn it up too loudly because it crescendos sharply at certain points.
(If you want to read the article he’s referring to, here’s a link [NewsOK.com]. It’s not essential, and honestly, quite boring, so it’s entirely optional)
Journalistic integrity and athletics aside, what did you think about his rant? Do you agree that amateur [people] should be exempt from being “downgraded” in the media? Yous guys haven’t known me long enough to know my position on college athletics, so I’ll give you a quick sum of my thoughts. “Student athletes” are [oxy]morons. 99% of them wouldn’t be where they are if they weren’t cogs in the lucrative money-making machine. Graduation rates are so low among college football and basketball players that it’s a lie to even defend the system by saying that the ones who don’t go pro are better off for having received a college education. I frankly don’t care much for college athletics, but I have to agree with coach Gundy.
It’s not that all college athletes should be beyond reproach! I myself could go on and on with my disdain for them! However, I would reserve my venom for the 6 UT football players who were arrested dating back to June of this year or for those kids at OU two years ago who took free money from boosters under the pretense of jobs that they never had to show up for. I would have no qualms criticising all the pathetic human beings who are responsible for making college athletics the joke institution that it is. Character issues notwithstanding, I could even tolerate people being critical of the athletes’ performances. But, to make personal attacks and disparage a person’s sense of worth in a highly circulated newspaper is base and beyond bad journalism. Write it on your goddamn blog or write him a scathing email, but whatever you do, keep it out of the newspaper! For the record, The Daily Oklahoman is the largest newspaper in Oklahoma (a place where you might suffer manual castration for wearing the wrong team’s merch), so it’s not like this is some dime-store rag where standards are superceded by sensationlism. Actually, wait. This is the same newspaper that was once named one of the worst newspapers in the U.S., so I guess this is par for the course!
Anyway, I was listening to the Mike Tirico show this afternoon (it just started broadcasting this monday in the old D-Pizzle Shizzle timeslot on ESPN radio) when I heard an interesting point brought up by one of the only journalists in the business whom I have nothing but respect for. Michael Wilbon, who writes for the Washington Post, was talking about how blogging is starting to erode the standards of print media. The problem with blogging is that it’s not subject to much (if any) editorial oversight. He’s a veteran at the newspaper, and he has to deal with a lot of new writers who simply take things too far in writing articles. We like strong opinions these days, but newsprint isn’t what I would call the ideal medium for expressing them. Wilbon went on to mention how, when he was still new to the industry, he once compared an amateur athlete’s mistakes on the field to the mistakes that a pro made the next day. The kid’s mother wrote in the next day asking him why he had made fun of her son in the newspaper. From that day forward, he realized that he had certain responsibilities and expectations that he had to keep in line with. Unfortunately, the writer from The Daily Oklahoman didn’t receive a call from a distraught mother to snap her back to reality. Instead, she went on national TV and wrote a followup on the front page of the newspaper to “defend” herself (sidestepping the entire point of his tirade and busting out a straw man fallacy for good measure). Why didn’t you just apologise to the kid and disappear like a good journalist? No one would begrudge you for that, but you can be sure that you’ve ruffled some feathers with your behaviour.
I can’t believe I turned this into a rant on journalism! Going back to the video, I agree with what the coach said. I think Ms. Carlson (the person responsible for the article) was really out of bounds in suggesting that the quarterback wanted to be “babied” or accusing him of sitting down rather than ”gutting it out” when receiving minor injuries. She brings up such things as him being fed by his mother in public like it’s some sign of weakness. The whole thing amounts to an attack on the guy’s “manliness” and how he lost his job because he wasn’t tough enough. In hindsight, she probably could have just talked about how his performance wasn’t good or how he’d messed up a play when it counted. Instead, she chose to write an article on how the guy isn’t cut out to play. Frankly, I find that vindictive. If your performance is bad and your boss fires you, which explanation would you rather receive? On the one hand, he tells you that you didn’t do a good job. On the other hand, he tells you that you are an incompetent person. No one would use the second explanation unless they were trying to hurt your feelings. In this case, it really does appear that Ms. Carlson was making a personal attack, whether she meant to or not. In any case, this should never have hit the presses.
Anyway, I think it’s okay to criticise the work and moral failings of amateur athletes, musicians, journalists, etc. Personally, I wouldn’t do it just because I think it’s not nice or necessary in any way, but I can tolerate that kind of criticism. What I think is going over the line is when a journalist makes indictments on these kids’ character in the newspaper. In fact, I don’t think that the attacking of a person’s character belongs in the paper at all – regardless of whom they are.
Oh, and I gotta say that I’m impressed by the rant. People say he’s ranting like a madman, but you’ll notice that he doesn’t use a single curse word. I think he was more controlled than people are giving him credit for.