Monthly Archives: September 2007
Coach Flips Out On Media
Oklahoma State University defeated Texas Tech last Saturday 49-45, but you wouldn’t guess that based on Cowboy coach Mike Gundy’s post-game press conference. Gundy took the media to task (at least the Oklahoman) for an article critical of the attitude of quarterback Bobby Reid.
Here’s the rant.
Not knowing the machinations of the Oklahome State football operation and their recent history of selecting quarterbacks, at first blush the article does seem to stake it’s claims on innuendo:
If you believe the rumors and the rumblings, Reid has been pushing coaches that way for quite some time.
I really take umbridge when reporters run with an article based on “rumors and rumblings”. It is usually a recipe for ridicule.
Oklahoma State fans, was the article fair? Did the Oklahoman go too far? Share your thought with us.
The Press v. Belichick
My goal for this blog has always been not to dwell on things, to keep the information fresh. But I have to add two short examples as to how the press does have a bias against Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
The first occurred last Saturday. There was an article in one of the Boston area papers by a columnist taking Belichick to task for not showing enough remorse over his fine and loss of a first round draft pick. It outraged me that they expected so much from the coach after he issued a written apology to the team and the fans.
I wrote the columnist (unnamed because it is not important) the following e-mail:
I enjoy your columns but I must take you to task on your Saturday column looking for Bill Belichick to say he was sorry for Video-Gate.
He issued a written apology? What more do you guys in the media want Blood? You want to hear it from his lips. OK. But if he doesn’t say
it, does it mean he was not apologetic?
One of the definitions of apology is the following (from dictionary.com):1. a written or spoken expression of one’s regret, remorse, or sorrow for having insulted, failed, injured, or wronged another:
Stop with this vendetta against the coach because he doesn’t give you
guys all the answers you want. He is arrogant. He did a ridiculously
stupid thing. He’s been punished. His reputation will always be
tarnished (falsely so in my opinion). You guys know how he deals with
the press. It’s not going to change. Let it go.
Thanks for reading. I enjoy the dialogue.
Here is his response…as I received it:
Yes, Keith, it DOES mean he’s not apologetic. And it also means he IS
arrogant.
No bitterness there.
The second example came from today’s New York Post. It was a very subtle gesture by the paper in the NFL standings section of the sports page:
Classy. Any questions?
(Photo courtesy Sports By Broooks)
The Press Disappoints Again, and AGAIN!
I’m throwing the flag right now on the media for piling on when it comes to the Patriots and the “video-gate” controversy.
First, full disclosure. I live in New England and I am a Patriots fan. What the Patriots did was wrong. The were punished appropriately. Let’s move on. Apparently that’s not what the media wants to do.
Let’s look at the facts. The Patriots were fined $750,000 and their first round draft pick was taken away (I think it’s safe to assume at this time the Pats will make the playoffs) for violating the following rule:
“no video recording devices of any kind are permitted to be in use in the coaches’ booth, on the field, or in the locker room during the game.”
To summarize, they were caught with having an unauthorized video camera on the sideline. Period. Think about that for a minute. Then think about the punishment. Given Commissioner Roger Goodell’s “get-tough” stance on violations, this punishment more than fits the crime. Yet many in the media feel the punishment was not severe enough.
The press continues to represent the false perception that the Patriots “cheated” by attempting to steal the defensive signals of the New York Jets. Yes, the Patriots did try to steal the Jets’ signals. But what seems to be lost in the media’s portayal of this story is that the Jets were also trying to steal the Patriots’s defensive signals. They just didn’t use a camera to do it. Look for all 32 teams to do the same this weekend, as they have been doing for decades! More stories have been coming out about how teams steal signals, but the media feels the Patriots for some reason are more felonious than the rest of the league.
Some in the press have gone so far as to acknowledge that all teams steal signals, but because the Patriots used a camera, they have an unfair advantage because they can replay the footage over and over where coaches on the sidelines or in the press box spying with binoculars are not afforded that luxury. That doesn’t hold water with me. Each team has coaches whose sole job is to decipher the signals. They see the same signals dozens of time a game. They know what to look for. I don’t beleive having a camera to record these signals gives a team as much of an advantage as the media thinks.
The Patriots did a stupid thing by continuing to deploy a camera on the sideline in defiance of a league directive against it. There is a Nixonian aspect to having the best coach in the business stoop to such a level of irresponsibility. Stupidity and irresponsibility does not necessarily warrant this blatant, all out assault against the organization. Is the press being biased? I’ll answer that question with another…If Tony Dungy had been the coach in question, would the press treat him with the same level of angst as Belichick? Somehow I think Saint Tony would get a free pass.
As I said in my last post, the press wants to use this to get back at Belichick and the Patriots for not being as forthcoming with the information they desire. Is the coach and organization arrogant? Probably. Would the lack of information coming from the team get on my nerves if the Pats were my beat? You bet. But unlike many in the media, I would accept it and attempt to get my information from other sources.
The press needs to get off it’s high horse and stop taking these things personally. You guys are not the story. Keep your prejudices in check. It’s not your job to bring those into your stories. Take a big swallow of your pride and do your job. Report.
The Press Disappoints Again
You guys in the sports media never fail to amaze me.
Why do you feel that because you work for the fourth estate you should be given all the information you seek, regardless of, well, anything?
The latest black eye within the industry has been the coverage of New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and the controversy surrounding allegations that the team used a video camera to tape defensive signals from the New York Jets sideline during last week’s game at Giants Stadium.
The press is using this episode as the latest volley in its vendetta against the coach and his propensity to keep team information close to the vest. During Wednesday’s team press conference to discuss the team’s preparation for it’s game against the Chargers, reporters pressed Belichick incessantly on his view of the controversy, even after the coach said his written statement released earlier in the day would be his only comment on the issue.
Reporters covering the Patriots have long complained about the lack of information eminating out of Gillette Stadium. But because there has been so much talk of the video taping saga (named Video-Gate by some), at least one member of the press used it as an opportunity to stick it to the coach. Take a look at this tidbit from an article in Thursday’s Boston Herald:
“One smiling, beat reporter sat with his laptop open with a picture of Richard Nixon in the background facing toward the podium where Belichick was speaking, according to a locker room spy.”
Real classy. You really bolstered your credibility with that move.
Listen, I understand you guys are only doing your job, but when does no mean no?
Coaches like Belichick are required to meet with the press, but they are not required to answer every reporters’ question to his or her ultimate satisfaction. Why can’t the press ever accept that?
I know this isn’t new. It happens everyday to reporters across the country. And every time I see it makes me quiver.
One word of advice going forward. Ask any question you want. But once you get an answer, accept it. OK?
On Press Row- Deutsche Bank Championship
You would think covering a professional golf tournament would be a challenge. It’s virtually impossible to follow all the action because so much of it is spread out across acres of land with dozens of golfers on the course at the same time.
The PGA makes that challenge more surmountable through their elaborate press centers at tour events. I was given access to the media area at the Deutsche Bank Championship held at the TPC of Boston over Labor Day weekend. The Deutsche Bank Championship is the second tournament on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoff series.
At the Deutsche Bank all media activity was housed in a two floor structure constructed just off the 18th green. This temporary edifice was climate controlled with plenty of working space for the press. It also came complete with all the technological resources the PGA has to offer.
The first floor of the media center consisted of an interview room, a working area for photographers, and a cafeteria. The second floor housed the main work area for the press and any anyone else associated with the tournament. There were a total of 90 spaces for print reporters, organized in such a way that two reporters shared a work area.
Also on the second floor were three small, and somewhat private, radio broadcast booths, used over the course of the week for talk shows and any other radio reports from the tournament.
Because this was part of the PGA’s FedEX Cup series, the number of media requests for the tournament was higher than in years past. Over 280 credentials were awarded to the press this year.
The PGA hires a public relations firm to run its media center. At the Deutsche Bank, the media center fell under the purview of Brener Zwikel & Associates (BZA), a PR firm with offices on both coasts. BZA had four full time individuals working in the media center, handling interview requests, coordinating media credentials, and writing press releases on behalf of the tournament.
The PGA also had a presence in the media center. Their role was to handle special requests by the press during the tournament. These included requests by photographers and reporters to be allowed “inside the ropes” and in front of spectators.
The tournament also relies heavily on volunteers to help handle the needs of the media center. There were close to two dozen volunteers on hand to help the media with credential check-in and the distribution of parking and meal passes.
Because the Tour’s top players were in attendance at the tournament, security was of the utmost priority. As a precaution, a Massachusetts State Police K-9 detail scoured the media center each morning and afternoon.
There’s so much information available to the press at a PGA Tour event that you really never have to leave the media center to cover the action. The most interactive of this material is the PGA Tour’s Shotlink statistical software program. This program provides any possible statistical information you would need about any golfer and the strength of the field during a given round. It provides detailed information of each shot made by a golfer, from length of the shot, the distance left to the hole, and approximate position of said shot on the fairway. There was a Shotlink terminal available for approximately every four print reporters stationed in the media center. I really don’t know how reporters survived without it.
If you’re a lover of traditional print information, you weren’t disappointed at the Deutsche Bank. Daily material included a packet of press clippings culled from local newspapers covering the event as well as the previous round’s statistical analysis taken from Shotlink. Each press interview done with a golfer or anyone else associated with the tournament is transcribed verbatim and available minutes after its completion. A tournament program is always available as are ample supplies of the day’s pairings. There’s also a bevy of historical information, covering the PGA Tour season in general and the Deutsche Bank Championship in particular.
Even though the modern day PGA Tour stresses the use of technology, there are still old fashioned elements that stand the test of time. At the front of the second floor press area is the traditional hand written scoreboard, meticulously maintained to display each golfer’s hole-by-hole score as well as a summary page sorting players based on their score of the day. If you’ve ever attended a Tour event you’ve seen a similar scoreboard on the course. The attention to detail by these artisans is amazing. After the second round the board operator in the media center included the image of a pair a scissors indicating the score which represented the cut line for that week’s tournament. Ingenious. Adjacent to the manual scoreboard was an electronic one depicting scores of the tournament leaders.
The media center was equipped with wireless Internet access. The press also had the use of telephones, printers, and fax machines. There were two wide screen televisions in the press room, showing the televised portion of the tournament and other sporting events when the Golf Channel or NBC were off the air.
Speaking of the television coverage, I didn’t see many people from the Golf Channel or NBC make it to the media center. They each received information from their own production facilities located elsewhere on the course.
Forget your notebook? Not to worry. The tournament also provided reporter’s notebooks complete with a course layout, tournament fact sheets, and information on local hotels and restaurants. Kudos to the tournament organizers and the local chambers of commerce for their attention to detail. There were also specially designed sheets available where a reporter could take notes on an individual player’s hole-by-hole performance.
Along with the print press and electronic media, the web also plays a big role at a PGA event. PGA Tour Productions had its own area on press row where reporters and technicians were always busy working on a number of interviews and highlight packages for the Tour’s website. Deutsche Bank also had its share of media professionals on hand working on material for the tournament website.
Food at the tournament also exceeded the norm. Because golf tournaments are a daylong affair, there was a hot breakfast and hot lunch served each day of the tournament. There was also a dedicated bathroom facility for the press located just outside the media center, separate from the portable accommodations available to the general public.
Player interviews were determined by BZA based on the flow of the tournament on a given day. The high profile golfers were interviewed every day. Besides the media center interview room, there was also space available to speak with golfers near the scoring trailers off the 18th and 9th greens. Arrangements were also made for members of the press to talk with golfers who may not be at the top of the leader board but hold significance to their readers or viewers back home.
The press at a PGA Tour event should have no complaints about the resources available to them throughout the course of a tournament. It’s another example where today’s media really has it made.
