So a coach tried to bar me from covering football (official new thread title)

Re: So I've been barred from covering football

This smacks of a coach having run out of tricks with this bunch, so he digs down and pulls out the us-against-the-paper card.

 

Re: So I've been barred from covering football

So you HAVEN'T been barred from covering football?

 

Re: So I've been barred from covering football

Nov. 9: kingcreole (mean) disagrees with coach's tactics; production, playing time may be limited.

 

Re: So I've been barred from covering football

I got frozen out by a juco basketball coach about six years ago. Going to the AD wasn't going to get a result because he was a "good ol' boy" who was being rewarded with a nice title and salary before he retired. I just kept going without his quotes. I wasn't the only one he was either pissed at or had pissed at him. Even the conference commissioner had problems with shit he tried to pull.

I didn't have to worry about how to fix things for the next season because he quit after the school wouldn't promote him to AD after the "good ol' boy" retired.

 

Re: So I've been barred from covering football

I drove four hours once for a BracketBusters game, got there and was informed that all of a sudden everyone from the school I covered was told not to talk to anyone from our paper because of some bullshit spat over comments that appeared on a non-sports story relating to the school on our website. I was pissed, mostly because of the long-ass drive at 6 a.m., but I responded by asking five questions in the post-game press conference. Got a no comment to every question, leading every other paper that was there to wonder just what the hell was going on. One of the dumbest things I've ever had to deal with it. Made them look like idiots. The "embargo" lasted all of two days. Point being, I wasn't going to stop doing my job just because they told me to. Fuck that.

 

any update on how the game went...assuming it was this past weekend?

And yes, I echo the cover it as you would barrage. If this is a championship game, won't the coach be required to be at a press conference afterward at which you can lob as many questions as you like his way.

 

yeah, how did it go?

 

Game was pretty good. Championship won but blew a 17-point halftime lead. I talked to several players, Championship coach, etc. While I was interviewing a player near the Podunk locker room, the Podunk coach walked up to the SID, said something and disappeared into the locker room. So the coach knew I was there and talking to his players. I hung around the locker room door to talk to a couple more players. Got them, and waited for the coach. I heard there was a second locker room entrance, which was nowhere near the one I was at. After a few minutes, I decided to return to the pressbox to gather my stuff because they were about the close the pressbox. Got my stuff, and as I came back down, the buses and vans were leaving. I shrugged. I got what I needed from the players and Championship coach.

Two days later, Podunk texted me, asking if I could meet him in the afternoon regarding something he wanted announced. It wasn't a big deal, brief stuff, but he acted like nothing ever happened. Sat there and talked for about 20 minutes. I didn't bring anything up and neither did he.

People are strange.

 

Original thread title: "So I've been barred from covering football"
Actual scenario: "So a coach wouldn't talk to me after a football game"

 

I'd have been real tempted to tell him that he "doesn't give a fuck about Podunk Press," remember?

 

And then you realize it's not about you, and you take the information with a straight face.

 

Oh definitely. But I'd have been tempted.