PG gives Morelli platform to bash HS coach?

PSU QB bashes former HS coach.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06349/746378-143.stm

Normally, I think the PG does an outstanding job, but I'm not crazy about this story.
Basically, it is Morelli, who I realize is a star in that neck of the woods, bashing a HS coach with no real ammo to back up his claims.
The PG did get a response from the coach, who took the high road and declined to counter the claims.

Something bothers me about this story, I just can't put my finger on it.

 

My thoughts:

No. 1 -- The kid landed at Penn State. It would be more of a story if he really wanted to go somewhere else or ended up Division I-AA because of the coach allegedly being negative.

No. 2 -- If the comments comparing the current QB to Morelli were on TV, they should have tried hard to confirm who had said them.

No. 3 -- If this kid is going around with an undeserved dumb tag, should have asked him what his GPA is or at least tried to get a current coach to comment on his quarterback smarts.

No. 4 -- A lot of his complaints sounded typical and whiny.

No. 5 -- Probably would have run with it anyway. At least the coach had the chance to defend himself.

 

What bothers me is just the continuation of the he-said, she-said current culture of sports journalism. And I'm not being holier-than-thou about this: I get just as excited when someone gives me something juicy that I have to run with it. Maybe it's because we don't get any real access? I don't know. It's good copy, but I think it brings down journalism, eventually, to the level of reality television.

 

True, but the relationship with coaches is a real issue for anyone who has played a sport or who has kids playing a sport, so people are interested in that.

People are interested in what any hot shot Penn State qb has to say, especially unfiltered.

So, the story could have been more solid, ideally, but we also have to serve the readers.

 

I agree Ace,
You had to run the story - because you know a dozen other reporters heard Morelli's comments and we going to do a story.

 

Orville, when you get a Penn State kid to say anything remotely close to honest and interesting, you're getting that baby printed. It only happens about 3 times per decade.

 

Nice quote from Morelli:

"I was watching the high school championship game, and he's saying this kid who is about 5-10 and can't really throw, and he's saying how far ahead he is from where I was," Morelli said. "He's just constantly bashing me.

I used to love this picture of Morelli from high school that ran in the PG where he had an awesome thin moustache.

 

As someone who lived in Penn Hills during (some of) the Morelli era, I'm not sure the "stupid tag" applies here. Like the dude said, PSU wouldn't have recruited him if reading defenses was an issue.

As a reader, this is what I want to see. Well, at least when it doesn't involve T.O. But I just fail to see what good this does Morelli, aside from getting some stuff off his chest. He comes off like a whiny little bitch in the story.

If so inclined to rip a coach, why not take a swing at old JoePa? Wasting Morelli's redshirt year in 2004 has the potential to do a hell of a lot more damage than some unsettled high school rift.

 

I agree that Morelli comes off worse than the coach he is trying to trash.

 

As for me, all I could think of when I read our Morelli piece was Craig T. Nelson in "All The Right Moves."

 

What a shock, everybody's favorite fatass fuckpig is right in the middle of this one.

 

fatass fuckpig could not be more appropos