Which athletes/coaches do you think get a free pass from the press?

Obviously there are exceptions thanks to Pierce, Leahy, Sam Smith etc..., but I mean for the most part which athletes get a free pass from the media?

1. Lance Armstrong
2. Tiger Woods
3. Michael Jordan
4. Brett Favre
5. Tim Tebow
6. Joe Paterno
7. Coach K
8. Bobby Bowden
9. Steve Spurrier
10. Phil Jackson

Just off the top of my head.

 

Urban Meyer
Geno Auriemma

 

Two good ones. Auriemma gets away with murder and almost never gets called out. Meyer has had incredible success, but he's covered by one of the most fawning press corps out there, so that's hardly a surprise.

 

What do you mean by free pass?

 

Paterno and Coach K are two examples of guys who the beat writers can't stand, but the national media makes them out to be saints.

With Woods and Jordan, almost everybody is/was afraid to piss them off because they don't want to be shut out.

Lance Armstrong, he's such a great story that people overlook the obvious because they don't want it to be possible that this amazing athlete who has overcome so much, might have used steroids.

The local media like Bowden so much that he gets the benefit of the doubt most instances. To be fair, it is almost impossible not to like the guy.

With Tebow, he's covered by a bunch of writers who would probably suck his dick if he asked them to. The same is true for Spurrier.

 

The only problem I have is that I'm not sure what you could take Tebow to task for at this point even if you wanted to. The guy has pretty much been spotless on and off the field for three years.

 

I know guys who cover him who swear he's a product of UF's marketing machine and he's nothing close to being the guy who he's portrayed as being on TV.

To be fair, who is?

 

Everything I hear about Jordan is that he was a dick to teammates and opponents, and a womanizer, but generally decent to fans. Did I hear wrong?

 

The womanizing stories in Chicago are legendary. He had an affair with a porn star, who made a film about it. Believe it or not, it's called "Face Jam"

Jordan's people sued. He lost because the affair did take place.

There are court records to this.

How much made the paper? Not a word. I realize it's personal life, but when there are court records? C'mon...

I wonder how much of the Wizards stuff would have been reported if Leahy hadn't been on the Jordan beat.

If I'm not mistaken, details of the Steve Kerr fight came out years later even though several members of the Chicago media witnessed it.

 

Lance.. No. 1... drugs to get sick, drugs to get better.....and NO ONE, but the French, investigate. mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

 

He's the biggest without question. Nobody in this country has worked the story.

 

I think Favre's been fairly well vilified for being a diva in the press. Then again, that could simply be playing back a lot of fan comments.