Does the public care?

This kinda goes along with the White Sox press box thread...

Does the public care why coaches don't cooperate with the media? The writer bashes Nick Saban for not making coaches or players available to the media. On one hand, the fans LOVE them some Nick Saban -- leading them to the promised land before the team ever plays an official down. On the other hand, they want to read all they can on the team and get pissed off at the papers when coverage becomes thin. They don't equate less Saban access means less coverage; they wants to read them some Bama and Saban isn't helping.
But does this column? I like the column, because I hate Nick Satan and all the prick stands for. But will it do any good. Does the public understand they get less for more money?
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COMMENTARY: Saban's stingy media policies only hurting fans

By Josh Moon
Montgomery Advertiser


The hypocrisy of Nick Saban is astonishing. So far this spring, the University of Alabama head coach has blown off the media several times.

He's prevented reporters from speaking to players and assistant coaches most of the time. On Friday, after the Crimson Tide's first scrimmage of the spring, Saban refused to make players available to the media and opened the scrimmage up for only the first six minutes.

This from a guy who owes most of his financial success to the very media he's now giving the shaft.

Let's be real here, Nick Saban's reputation is mostly hype.

He was overrated at Michigan State, overrated at LSU and rated about right in Miami. He's an average coach who, through mostly media attention, has garnered this reputation of being a great coach.

In truth, he's not as successful as Auburn's Tommy Tuberville. The two have roughly the same coaching records and Tuberville has a better record in head-to-head meetings.

There's not an Alabama fan alive who believes Tuberville is anything other than an average coach. And maybe he is. But that leaves a serious question: If Tuberville is considered average, how has Saban managed to achieve his big reputation?

The answer is simple -- the media.

When he needed the press for his personal advancement, we were great guys to have around.

He played up the hype every chance he got early in his career, managed to get his name mentioned in a variety of different coaching searches and was just good enough to avoid an incredibly bad season that would've hurt his reputation.

Now, when he's at his pinnacle and doesn't really need the personal help, he's managed to make it seem as though the media is out to damage him and the university he works for.

The truth is we've done nothing but aid both.

For the University of Alabama, media coverage means millions of dollars every year. The exposure from football draws students from all over the country. That's more money.

The TV networks will plop down another wad of cash for the right to broadcast the Crimson Tide's games. That's more money. All of those newspaper stories generate more interest and involvement from fans, meaning ticket sales, memorabilia sales and concession sales go up. That's more money.

And all of that extra money means UA can fork over $4 million a year to the guy who's now thumbing his nose at the people who have done a whole lot to make him the highest paid college coach in the country.

Without the media, Nick Saban would probably still be churning out .500 seasons at Michigan State.

With us, he's Alabama's version of Oprah.

Had he not received the exposure from the various media outlets that have covered him and his teams over the years, no one would care about this guy. No one would be chasing after him, checkbook in hand.

The worst part of it is Saban's unjustified sense of self-importance, as if he somehow isn't just a football coach. Oh, he can spin that and say he's molding young people, shaping youth or whatever. But the bottom line is that he's not saving the world out there on a football field. He's coaching a game.

It's so comical to me to hear this guy justify blowing off media interviews, as if the 30 minutes he'd spend answering questions each day might just undermine all the great and meaningful work he's doing for society.

And by the way, you realize that we're only talking about 30 minutes or so each day, right? That's all any of the reporters ask for. They grab a handful of players and coaches as they come off the practice field, fire a few questions (mostly insignificant questions about how practice went) and are all wrapped up in about a half hour.

That's where your daily coverage of Alabama football comes from. And don't tell me you don't like that.

The irony, of course, is that none of this hurts the media. The fact that those Alabama beat reporters don't have to stand on a field watching a practice isn't exactly bamboo shoots under the fingernails. And let me assure you, not being forced to sit through a Saban press conference is far more reward than punishment.

The people losing out in this are the fans. Like it or not, all of you rely on the various media outlets across the state to provide you with information on Alabama football. And a lot of great reporters across this state have worked pretty hard to try and meet your expectations.

So don't blame us if that's no longer the case. Instead, call up your head coach and see if he has the time to give all of you individual reports on the team.

 

The answer to all your questions, slapster, is no.

That said, I think it needs to be said. Not sure why Josh Moon -- whom I don't believe is on that beat, or has for a number of years -- feel the need to opine about it. But that is another rant for another day.

rb

 

Saban blowing off the media??

Shocking, truly shocking.



And no, the public doesn't care. They'll continue to suck his dick until he loses a game or two, then look out.

Just like Weis at Notre Dame, Saban's pompous-arrogant prick schtick will set up an absolutely EXPLOSIVE backlash if and when he actually has a bad season. Of course most coaches are assholes of varying degrees, but there actually is a practical benefit to being slightly civil to people once in a while.

Every person you go out of your way to be a dick to, becomes a guy with a hand grenade in his hand when things start going into the toilet.

At every stop on his magical monetary tour, Saban adopts a couple of media guys as his personal towel-boys/salad-tossers/pom-pom shakers and personal hot-air flacks.

Spoon-fed banana cream pudding by The Man Himself, they invariably pepper their papers with regular stories and columns on the absolute incomparable football brilliance of the Sabanator, how he has obviously improved the team beyond all imagination (and usually beyond any tangible evidence), how anything and everything that may go wrong is undoubtedly the fault of the bunglers who preceded him, and how Our Team is damn lucky to have him, because believe you me there are plenty of other teams who would love to have him and would pay big bucks to get him, so when the time comes, we better ante up the cash barrel or risk losing this magnificent man, and if he gets away we'll rue the day we ever let this wizard out of our sights.

(This was the genesis during the Michigan State coaching search last fall of some shitheads first of all floating the name of Saban himself, then the same fucking morons urging that Saban's 'expert guidance' should be sought to help guide the job search. Of course, they did end up with a Saban disciple, Dantonio.)

Apparently Josh Moon won't be writing any of these articles.

 

Nobody in Alabama gives a damn about media access, only if they win their allotted 11-12 games per year.

And beat Auburn – AND the spread – in the process.

 

No, Saban could go 1-11, well with this schedule 4-8, and he gets a free pass as long as he hints at inherited problems

 

He may have ranted to save his beat guy the hassel or dealing with a Nick Saban directly pissed at the beat guy.

 

I wish they cared. But the fact is, they probably don't.

And we always write the same column (no offense intended, Josh): That by limiting access, they're only hurting the fans.

I'll say this: There's a bit more truth in it with regard to players at the college level. In the NFL, Saban could only keep people from his assistants, and while there might be something interesting there, it wasn't a huge deal.

But mostly, these columns are just us bitching -- having said all that, I don't know that I don't think we have that right from time to time, as long as it's not overdone.

 

Of course the public doesn't care. We're all biast [sic] against their teams. :

 

Well done.

 

So...it needed to be said, but only by someone you approve of? Or do you have to be on the Alabama beat to have an opinion about Saban?

 

not only that, but it needed to be said by someone who has never been caught surfing SportsJournalists.com in a press box by rockbottom.

 

Slappy, I had two people send me the link to that column today. Neither added any sort of comment, just sent the link.

Were they trying to tell me something?