Vital mistake by Vitale?

[Hammer Pants]

It would appear Dicky V. is trying to cover his ass after letting it slip on a Knoxville radio station that Billy D. thinks what anyone with a brain does, that Horford is a better NBA prospect than Noah. I have no idea who to believe, but regardless, Dicky probably shouldn't be running his mouth like that in a public place, even if he didn't know he was on the air.

Good stuff. Link has audio, too.

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/govols/article/0,1406,KNS_294_5379473,00.html

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Awesome, baby, with a capital A.

 

[Hammer Pants]

Vitale quickly added that he would still take Horford about 17th after Oden, Durant, Wright and then all 13 of Duke's scholarship players.

 

[John]

His big mistake was doing Hooters commercials. Frightening.

 

[ShelbyFoote]

Wonder if he'll be suspended from covering the Super Bowl for leaking an off-the-record conversation.

 

[thebiglead]

This will be an interesting Tuesday. Bloggers will have a field day with this. That's the great thing about blogs. Five years ago and this happens ... I imagine there's little or no fallout except around Gainsville.

How will ESPN handle it? Will they touch it?

If you're Dickie V, how do you handle this? By saying nothing? Imagine that. The man who ALWAYS has something to say will be rendered speechless.

 

[Hammer Pants]

This will be an interesting Tuesday. Bloggers will have a field day with this. That's the great thing about blogs. Five years ago and this happens ... I imagine there's little or no fallout except around Gainsville.

How will ESPN handle it? Will they touch it?

If you're Dickie V, how do you handle this? By saying nothing? Imagine that. The man who ALWAYS has something to say will be rendered speechless.

I bet he'll try to explain it on the air. I bet ESPN wishes he wouldn't.

 

[thebiglead]

Sounds about right ... but backing up the 'if ESPN doesn't talk about it, it didn't happen' credo, he may just leave it alone.

It's probably selfish of me, but can someone change the title of this to make it more interesting?

Perhaps: Vitale slams Noah, Gators in radio interview (and he didn't even know it)

 

[D-3 Fan]

Oh snap! Busted on air. I wonder what he really says about Duke in "confidential?"

 

[Freelance Hack]

My guess is he won't do another Florida game this season, which shouldn't be a big deal because I don't think Sunday's UK-Florida game is on ESPN.

Then, if he's elected to the Hall of Fame, he'll either announce his retirement from color commentary duties or scale back on the amount of games he covers for the next couple years -- in essence, becoming the basketball version of Keith Jackson.

 

[MileHigh]

I suspect he'll be on the Tennessee-Florida broadcast on Tuesday. And this is the second goof-up of something like this for ABC/ESPN. Brent Musburger got into some hot water during football season by revealing some confidential stuff with the USC quarterback and their signals.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

The Musburger flap was overblown. Unless assistant coaches are watching him on TV instead of paying attention to whats on the field.

 

[spnited]

Talk about overblown .. this is as big a non-story as I've ever heard of. Vitale is in no trouble whatsoever here.

 

[dooley_womack1]

This will be an interesting Tuesday. Bloggers will have a field day with this. That's the great thing about blogs. Five years ago and this happens ... I imagine there's little or no fallout except around Gainsville.

Now, it gets blown out of proportion. Not so sure we've progressed.

 

[Hammer Pants]

Talk about overblown .. this is as big a non-story as I've ever heard of. Vitale is in no trouble whatsoever here.

I don't really think it's a story, either. Just thought it was funny and interesting.

I think the only serious stories are ones about fantasy sports, you mean old ******* ;D

 

[spnited]

No Hammer, the only serious stories are the ones about YOUR fantasy teams. The rest of it is bull****.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Gee, a flap in Gainesville.
Anything to break the torpor, I guess.

 

[Hammer Pants]

No Hammer, the only serious stories are the ones about YOUR fantasy teams. The rest of it is bull****.

Correct.

Did we just have a break through?

 

[Flying Headbutt]

DTGDTN!!!

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

There is the potential for this to be a pretty big deal.

I don't mean for this to sound condescending in any way, but because many of you are in print, you don't understand what these "off-the-record" broadcast conversations are about. In the NHL, it is mandated that each team's coach spend 15 minutes with the rightsholders, if requested.

Those conversations are very useful. In one recent instance, a coach declined to reveal his choice of goaltender in a media scrum. I asked about it in private, knowing the game wasn't for another 36 hours. He looked at me and I said, "It won't be public until we go on the air." He then told me, adding it was a sensitive manner.

We kept it quiet, but I knew that there was trouble if it got out.

Coaches tend to let their guards down with guys like Vitale. Obviously, I don't know the specifics of his conversation with Donovan. There is a big difference between media saying Horford has better pro potential than Noah and Donovan making saying it. If that was supposed to be a personal, off-the-record comment -- it is a big deal. I've seen what happens when those trusts are violated. It's not pretty.