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Learning from a coach’s public rant
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By Marc Isenberg/Various other opinions
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
Sportswriter Jenni Carlson’s September 22 column in The Daily Oklahoman speculated about why Bobby Reid was replaced as Oklahoma State University’s starting quarterback. Carlson questioned coach Mike Gundy’s explanation that Zac Robinson had a better week of practice. She looked instead into Reid’s character and history. After making an allegorical reference to Reid’s mother feeding him chicken after a game, Carlson claims, without attribution, that Reid “considered transferring a couple different times” and that his “nerves have also been an issue.”
At Gundy’s postgame news conference, he chose not to discuss his team’s 49-45 victory over Texas Tech. Instead, he delivered a three-minute tirade (viewed more than one million times on YouTube) against Carlson’s column. Gundy characterized her column as “three quarters untrue.” He said Reid had not been benched because he wanted to transfer nor because he was scared. Gundy said it was unfair to attack an “amateur athlete,” “a kid,” for off-the-field behavior, particularly on game day, particularly when he is down.
And the winner is? Probably only those in the college sports community and the media who can learn something from this episode.
It’s impossible here to go into every issue raised by the column and Gundy’s rant. The media have included opinions on amateurism vs. professionalism, coddling, expectations, double standards, journalistic integrity, mothering, gender, sexism, racism and civility. I will stick to the question of the relationship between college athletics and the media.
To reporters and editors, less reliance on non-attributed allegations would go a long way.
To players, coaches and administrators who are tempted to “go off” on the media, beware the consequences. Absent Gundy’s tirade, Carlson’s column would have been like a thousand similar ones: here today, gone tomorrow — or gone after a day or two of letters to the editor.
What about coach Gundy’s assertion that college athletes are “kids” whose character should not be critiqued by the media, particularly those athletes who “do everything right”?
College athletes are fully grown young men and women, blessed with great bodies and minds and privileged to attend college on scholarships. They are expected to do many things, from the basic (attend class, stay out of jail, graduate) to the extraordinary (balance a grueling schedule of school and sports). To the fans and the money behind college athletics (TV ad buyers and boosters), it’s not a kid’s game.
No sense sugar-coating it by attempting to insulate athletes or intimidate sportswriters. While many of us would prefer more decorum and restraint, that’s not reality. The new norm is that college athletes are fair game in the often vicious world of fandom, sportstalk radio and the Internet. (Of course, racist or sexist comments must never be tolerated.)
Most athletes and coaches understand this scrutiny comes with the territory. Gundy had every right to defend one of his players, although his lack of professionalism and civility only brought more attention to Carlson’s allegations.
While we’d like college coaches to have lofty ideals such as molding young men and women in big-time revenue-producing sports, coaches are hired and retained to win games. The more college athletics programs mimic professional teams (comparable coaching salaries, tricked-out practice facilities and locker rooms, national TV), the more expectation there is to win.
Dealing with the media
Big-time college football and basketball players live in “bizarre world.” They are part student, part rock star. College athletes know the bargain (those who don’t should be taught it immediately): When they are winning, people heap praise upon them. When teams lose or individual players disappoint, they get criticized. Most athletes and coaches I know are savvy enough to realize that boos and bad press come with the territory.
Dealing with the media is an important component of my latest book. A number of sports journalists, athletes, coaches and managers contributed their advice. Here are three of them:
Connie Mack, Philadelphia A’s manager (1901-1950): “When I entered the game, (sports) received only a few lines as news. These few lines extended into columns and pages. In ratio the crowds in our ball parks grew and grew. News, like advertising, is a powerful momentum behind any enterprise. The professional sporting world was created and is being kept alive by the services extended by the press.” (The same principles apply to college sports.)
Art Spander, Oakland Tribune, Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee: “Understand that as athletes do their jobs, the media needs to do its job.... Everyone wants good press, naturally. But there are times when the reporting is critical because it has to be. Will Clark, the former San Francisco Giants first baseman, told me once, ‘My college coach told me to be positive, and you’re always negative.’ My response was that we have different obligations. If you’re 0-for-40, you’re only supposed to think about getting a hit the next at-bat. I, on the other hand, am supposed to write that you’re 0-for-40 and ask you why.” (Full disclosure: Art is my father-in-law)
Fred Claire, former Los Angeles Dodgers general manager: “One time there was something written about our team which I thought was completely unfair. My first reaction was to respond immediately in order to set the record straight. But Walter (O’Malley, then owner of the Dodgers) told me, ‘Don’t argue with people who buy ink by the barrel.’ Ultimately, you’ll be judged by your accomplishments or lack of accomplishments.”
Maybe one day positive media will catch on. I doubt it. But those who show contempt for the media miss the opportunity to promote the game and its values.
Marc Isenberg is the author of “Money Players: A Guide to Success in Sports, Business & Life for Current and Future Pro Athletes.” He is a listed presenter in the NCAA’s Speakers Grant Program and delivers presentations on media relations, the transition to professional sports and gambling. He can be contacted at marc.isenberg@gmail.com.
University of Oklahoma
Tulsa World
“I’m not speaking about anyone in particular. I just think (in the media) there is more sarcasm and belittling or who can be funnier and embarrassing or putting someone down. I find it hard to read the sarcasm and those types of articles. I think Mike (Gundy’s) point is...regardless of what anyone wants to say, they are student-athletes and they are not professional players and sometimes I think the ridicule, the way some people are writing articles or the way they talk about these kids, they don’t realize that some of them are 18, 19, 20 years old....
“Sometimes I think the (sarcasm) and the belittling isn’t called for.”
Javarris James, football student-athlete
University of Miami (Florida)
Miami Herald
“When we’re doing good, the media say good things. When we’re doing bad, the media say bad things. It’s part of life. It’s happened since high school; it’s going to continue to happen, from college to the pros.”
Mack Brown, head football coach
University of Texas at Austin
Tulsa World
“We tell our players, if it bothers you, don’t read it, and especially the Internet, because there are so many rumors and so many things on the Internet that are not true....
“Especially at a place like the University of Texas, you are going to be visible. Not everything is always going to be fair and you’ve got to deal with it. That’s life, and it will really help you when you learn to handle criticism, fair or unfair, when you get out in your real life.”
Ralph Friedgen, head football coach
University of Maryland, College Park
Baltimore Sun
“I never like to see our athletes criticized. They’re trying to do the best they can. But it’s big-time football and...you’ve got to have a thick skin if you’re going to play.”
Jim Grobe, head football coach
Wake Forest University
Baltimore Sun
“I think most people are pretty reasonable about what they say about kids in the paper. My only problem would be if somebody tried to embarrass the kid intentionally.”
Mike Bellotti, head football coach
University of Oregon
Tacoma News Tribune
“We have a range from 17-25 (years of age), so some of those kids are young men. Others are really naive young men. Most are not prepared for the media scrutiny they get.”
Gary Pinkel, head football coach
University of Missouri, Columbia
Tulsa World
“I don’t really look at it as a divide (between coaches and media). I just look at it as reality....
“With my players, it’s education — educating what has happened and how it has happened...and the credibility of the criticism.”
At Gundy’s postgame news conference, he chose not to discuss his team’s 49-45 victory over Texas Tech. Instead, he delivered a three-minute tirade (viewed more than one million times on YouTube) against Carlson’s column. Gundy characterized her column as “three quarters untrue.” He said Reid had not been benched because he wanted to transfer nor because he was scared. Gundy said it was unfair to attack an “amateur athlete,” “a kid,” for off-the-field behavior, particularly on game day, particularly when he is down.
And the winner is? Probably only those in the college sports community and the media who can learn something from this episode.
It’s impossible here to go into every issue raised by the column and Gundy’s rant. The media have included opinions on amateurism vs. professionalism, coddling, expectations, double standards, journalistic integrity, mothering, gender, sexism, racism and civility. I will stick to the question of the relationship between college athletics and the media.
To reporters and editors, less reliance on non-attributed allegations would go a long way.
To players, coaches and administrators who are tempted to “go off” on the media, beware the consequences. Absent Gundy’s tirade, Carlson’s column would have been like a thousand similar ones: here today, gone tomorrow — or gone after a day or two of letters to the editor.
What about coach Gundy’s assertion that college athletes are “kids” whose character should not be critiqued by the media, particularly those athletes who “do everything right”?
College athletes are fully grown young men and women, blessed with great bodies and minds and privileged to attend college on scholarships. They are expected to do many things, from the basic (attend class, stay out of jail, graduate) to the extraordinary (balance a grueling schedule of school and sports). To the fans and the money behind college athletics (TV ad buyers and boosters), it’s not a kid’s game.
No sense sugar-coating it by attempting to insulate athletes or intimidate sportswriters. While many of us would prefer more decorum and restraint, that’s not reality. The new norm is that college athletes are fair game in the often vicious world of fandom, sportstalk radio and the Internet. (Of course, racist or sexist comments must never be tolerated.)
Most athletes and coaches understand this scrutiny comes with the territory. Gundy had every right to defend one of his players, although his lack of professionalism and civility only brought more attention to Carlson’s allegations.
While we’d like college coaches to have lofty ideals such as molding young men and women in big-time revenue-producing sports, coaches are hired and retained to win games. The more college athletics programs mimic professional teams (comparable coaching salaries, tricked-out practice facilities and locker rooms, national TV), the more expectation there is to win.
Dealing with the media
Big-time college football and basketball players live in “bizarre world.” They are part student, part rock star. College athletes know the bargain (those who don’t should be taught it immediately): When they are winning, people heap praise upon them. When teams lose or individual players disappoint, they get criticized. Most athletes and coaches I know are savvy enough to realize that boos and bad press come with the territory.
Dealing with the media is an important component of my latest book. A number of sports journalists, athletes, coaches and managers contributed their advice. Here are three of them:
Connie Mack, Philadelphia A’s manager (1901-1950): “When I entered the game, (sports) received only a few lines as news. These few lines extended into columns and pages. In ratio the crowds in our ball parks grew and grew. News, like advertising, is a powerful momentum behind any enterprise. The professional sporting world was created and is being kept alive by the services extended by the press.” (The same principles apply to college sports.)
Art Spander, Oakland Tribune, Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee: “Understand that as athletes do their jobs, the media needs to do its job.... Everyone wants good press, naturally. But there are times when the reporting is critical because it has to be. Will Clark, the former San Francisco Giants first baseman, told me once, ‘My college coach told me to be positive, and you’re always negative.’ My response was that we have different obligations. If you’re 0-for-40, you’re only supposed to think about getting a hit the next at-bat. I, on the other hand, am supposed to write that you’re 0-for-40 and ask you why.” (Full disclosure: Art is my father-in-law)
Fred Claire, former Los Angeles Dodgers general manager: “One time there was something written about our team which I thought was completely unfair. My first reaction was to respond immediately in order to set the record straight. But Walter (O’Malley, then owner of the Dodgers) told me, ‘Don’t argue with people who buy ink by the barrel.’ Ultimately, you’ll be judged by your accomplishments or lack of accomplishments.”
Maybe one day positive media will catch on. I doubt it. But those who show contempt for the media miss the opportunity to promote the game and its values.
Marc Isenberg is the author of “Money Players: A Guide to Success in Sports, Business & Life for Current and Future Pro Athletes.” He is a listed presenter in the NCAA’s Speakers Grant Program and delivers presentations on media relations, the transition to professional sports and gambling. He can be contacted at marc.isenberg@gmail.com.
In the trenches: The view from inside
Bob Stoops, head football coachUniversity of Oklahoma
Tulsa World
“I’m not speaking about anyone in particular. I just think (in the media) there is more sarcasm and belittling or who can be funnier and embarrassing or putting someone down. I find it hard to read the sarcasm and those types of articles. I think Mike (Gundy’s) point is...regardless of what anyone wants to say, they are student-athletes and they are not professional players and sometimes I think the ridicule, the way some people are writing articles or the way they talk about these kids, they don’t realize that some of them are 18, 19, 20 years old....
“Sometimes I think the (sarcasm) and the belittling isn’t called for.”
Javarris James, football student-athlete
University of Miami (Florida)
Miami Herald
“When we’re doing good, the media say good things. When we’re doing bad, the media say bad things. It’s part of life. It’s happened since high school; it’s going to continue to happen, from college to the pros.”
Mack Brown, head football coach
University of Texas at Austin
Tulsa World
“We tell our players, if it bothers you, don’t read it, and especially the Internet, because there are so many rumors and so many things on the Internet that are not true....
“Especially at a place like the University of Texas, you are going to be visible. Not everything is always going to be fair and you’ve got to deal with it. That’s life, and it will really help you when you learn to handle criticism, fair or unfair, when you get out in your real life.”
Ralph Friedgen, head football coach
University of Maryland, College Park
Baltimore Sun
“I never like to see our athletes criticized. They’re trying to do the best they can. But it’s big-time football and...you’ve got to have a thick skin if you’re going to play.”
Jim Grobe, head football coach
Wake Forest University
Baltimore Sun
“I think most people are pretty reasonable about what they say about kids in the paper. My only problem would be if somebody tried to embarrass the kid intentionally.”
Mike Bellotti, head football coach
University of Oregon
Tacoma News Tribune
“We have a range from 17-25 (years of age), so some of those kids are young men. Others are really naive young men. Most are not prepared for the media scrutiny they get.”
Gary Pinkel, head football coach
University of Missouri, Columbia
Tulsa World
“I don’t really look at it as a divide (between coaches and media). I just look at it as reality....
“With my players, it’s education — educating what has happened and how it has happened...and the credibility of the criticism.”
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