Steve Spurrier's banning of reporter serve only to protect his ego, not his players

For decades, former Indiana Hoosier and Texas Tech head coach Bobby Knight waged a one man war against the sportswriters of the country.  Knight’s disdain for the media was apparent as he called their profession “one or two steps above prostitution”.   Despite the outbursts and the profanity, Knight and the sportswriters were codependent on each other.  Knight always needed something to rail against and the sportswriters knew that he was always good for a good soundbite.  Despite the profanities and anger, Knights rants come across as relatively harmless in retrospect:

While Knight was adored by the Hoosier faithful and even the media for his soundbites, Kentucky’s Billy Gillispie was pretty much crucified for his own soundbites with Jeanine Edwards.  Bobby Knight would have been applauded for telling a reporter they asked a dumb question.  For Gillispie, it was one of the many nails in his Big Blue coffin:

In recent years, coaches have taken to the media for what they percvieve as unfair stories about their players.  It’s more noble to protect the players from undue criticism and frankly part of the coaches duty.  Mike Gundy of Oklahoma State get personal and goes after an individual reporter whose article he did not agree with:

Comedic value aside, Gundy makes a valid point.  He takes the target off his kids back and puts it squarely on his own.  As psycho as Gundy seems, I’d rather have a coach that protects his kids from the media rather than a coach like Knight, whose purpose was to get attention and become the soundbite.

While UK’s coaches have been relatively calm lately, the UKAA has taken steps as well to proect their kids.  DeWayne Peevy, Kentucky’s SID has taken particular steps to protect his team from the media.  A month or so ago, Peevy pulled access the Kentucky Kernel’s access to a press event for contacting walkon players on their cell phones without getting permission from the UKAA.  And more recently, the UKAA is blocking the Lexington Herald Leader’s access to Michael Kidd- Gilchrist for their sloppy and awkward handling of a recent interview.

As much as Gundy and Peevy were vilified for their actions, I have to say that I understand and support them.  Their jobs are to protect the kids and they are doing it the best way they see fit, whether it be an outburst or blocking access.

What gets me is when coaches make the scene just to even a grudge with a reporter or to promote their own agenda. Such is the case with South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, who created headlines for “disassociating” himself from Ron Morris:

Spurrier was upset about a story Morris wrote in the spring in which he said Spurrier “poached” Bruce Ellington from the basketball team.  Mind you, the story was not negative to Ellington, but he questioned Spurrier’s tactics.  And for that, Spurrier has banned Morris from covering the team.  I can see a coach or athletic association taking this kind of action to protect a player from undue criticism, but to ban a reporter for a negative story on the coach is just petty.  Spurrier makes millions to coach the Gamecocks and part of that responsibility should be in having a thick skin.

Some say that Spurrier’s actions were to partly deflect the attention off QB Stephen Garcia being kicked off the team, and if it was, that was noble.  Somehow I think that “noble” is not in Spurrier’s vocabulary and his rant was pure selfishness over his damaged ego.

But it makes you wonder what is next from the coaches if a coach is allowed to ban reporters simply because of a personal jab.  Could coaches that are on “the hot seat” be justified in banning reporters who are extremely negative of play calling?  Or who suggest that he should be fired?  What’s next?  Kentucky banning every reporter who suggests that John Calipari is shady?  That’s not going to happen, although it would make room on press row for my WBN writers.

The ongoing war between coaches and reporters is nothing new … it’s been going on for decades.  But Spurriers actions have moved the battlefield from “protecting the players” to simply protecting his ego.

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