[Husker] Coach vs. Media (was News Conference)

[David Strong]

**Warning...this post is kind of long and just my own opinion and probably
not worth reading.  All other opinions respected.**

I followed this for a while until it is now just worn out.  It seemed there
was plenty of blame to go around.  I thought the original article by Dirk
Chatelain was pretty chippy.  He took some shots and the whole tone of the
article was negative and condescending towards Pelini.  Even when he was
slamming TM, it seemed like it was just to get to Pelini.  The article
seemed to be written by a guy with an agenda.  OK, big deal, who cares?
Pelini's behavior in the presser was once again that of a petulant
6-year-old.  "What do you think?" "What do you think?"  "I'm done with
you."  "Maybe someone can ask a question worth answering".  I next expected
him to bust out with "I know you are but what am I"  All of this in front of
the national press on a national stage after the best win of his head
coaching career.  Just when I was starting to think his bumbling with the
press was somewhat endearing, I am reminded how immature he is.  It's not
endearing and it's not a positive.  Yeah, yeah, I know, he has his player's
back.  Negative newspaper articles have been around forever.  Now TM is
starting to act like BP in his pressers.  TM needs a better role model for
this.

It is interesting to watch the knee-jerk backlash against the press.  Like
they are an evil organization not to be trusted.  I love reading all the
articles, and listening to podcasts, listening to sports radio, and watching
"college football live" and "gameday". and all the other things that come
under the heading of press or media.  Some is good, some is bad, some I
agree with, some I don't.

It's also interesting to watch the knee-jerk backlash against anyone who
critiques the coach or players.  Look, we are fans and proud of it.  No need
to write the word fans with quotes around it like it's some kind of badge of
shame.  We praise the good things and criticize the bad things.  We agree
with some things, disagree with others.  This is sport, it is the nature of
sport.  It is ok to do so.  We are fans of the sport.  And if you criticize
a player's or coach's performance, you are not "attacking him", or "turning
on him" or "throwing him under the bus".  But there is a difference in
saying "TM has trouble holding onto the ball, is an erratic passer, has an
awkward throwing motion, and sometimes makes bad decisions"  compared to "TM
has stone hands, throws like a 5 year old girl, and is stupid."  A good
example is Rob Zatechka's latest blog post.  Here's the good, here's the
bad, here's what I like, here's what I don't.  It not personal, it's sport.

The OSU game?  I felt like everyone else.  I was pretty down when it was
27-6 and the team had shown exactly zero on both side of the ball.  It felt
bad, like we couldn't even represent here in our new conference, like our qb
wasn't very good, like we were exposed now that we played better
competition.  etc. etc.  (I wasn't readly to boo though.  I have never booed
a Nebraska player for anything.  Many groans though!)  Then when the game
turned around I was happy and excited and celebrated after a great win.  I
was happy and glad for Taylor to have led us to the win and cheered for
him.  Is there something wrong with all that?  I am a fan...maybe I should
put quotes around that word.

Whew!  Got that off my chest.  If you read this far, probably now thinking
that you can't get those few moments of your life back.  You were warned!

Wear red, be LOUD

Dave

Agreed.  I'd be much more interested to know what Lee thinks Bo needs to
> say.  Clearly the questions he gets don't seem to get to the nuts and bolts
> of the offense or defense, what worked, what didn't, etc.  But I'm not so
> "red-colored-glasses" here to think that Bo would actually answer any of
> those either.
>
> Its interesting that almost every media guy who's sat down with Bo and had
> a conversation with him seems to say that he's a great guy and a good
> communicator.  It seems the guys shouting questions at him after a game seem
> to have a problem.  Connection?  Someone commenting on Barfnecht's article
> mentioned that most have already written their piece and are just asking
> questions to get a suitable quote to attribute to the coach.  Bo doesn't
> oblige.
>
> I don't get the animosity between these two groups, I don't know what the
> media wants, I don't know why Bo is so obstinant about answering inane
> questions, and I don't know where anyone goes from here.  Calling Dr. Tom??
>
> Nick
> --
> "If a million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
> Anatole France
>
>