Even More Answers!
This segment is brought to you by the agents who swarm USC's underclassmen but only when they are not within sight of assistant coach Pat Ruel.
Q: Did you and the other local media notice the new Impala Reggie Bush started driving when he was still in school?
A: Yes. And I also noticed the even better cars some of his teammates drove.
Q: Is President Sample happy with the 2.36 team GPA ? Did you see the Portsmith FA win a couple of weeks ago ? Man, that was a close call for Portsmith
A: I haven't asked Sample what he thinks but I'm sure he'd give a canned answer about wanting better grades for all athletes in general. No, I didn't see Portsmouth's FA Cup match but I did see them lose to Sunderland last weekend. All hail Sunderland!
Q: Scott, do you ENJOY covering USC football? Or is it more difficult since you are a USC alum? It seems to many readers that you bend over backward to find negative news or negative slants on news. For instance, when Carroll's name surfaced with the Falcons, you posted and posted and posted rumors about it in the blog. When he didn't pursue the job and remained at USC, you didn't make that big of a deal about it. Another for instance: You reported that two USC players were academically ineligible and that was a headline story in the newspaper; a day or two later, when it was discovered that you were wrong, the follow-up correction was reported as just a note with a subhead in another story. That seems terribly unfair to these guys (whom I don't personally know, but would hate to be) - put yourself in their position and see if you think it was a fair handling of the situation. My take on this is that you dislike covering USC or feel like you need to report negatively about your school since it has dominated college football over the past 5-6 years. I may be reading the situation wrong here, but I know some of your readers would like a few sentences in reply about this question, and not just a flip one-sentence reply. I appreciate your time and response.
A: Yes, I enjoy covering USC football. But I'm not here to write what people want to hear. I wrote two stories (last Saturday, Tuesday) that said Pete Carroll was not going to take the Falcons job. I'm not sure what more you would want to do about that. Perhaps if Carroll would say ``I'm not interested in the Falcons job'' there would be more stories about his not being interested instead of saying, ``no comment.'' And I did not report rumors, I wrote stories where sources told me discussions took place. For the record, Carroll's never denied to me that discussions took place.
As for the players being academically ineligible, when the fall semester ended, Alfred Rowe was listed by the university as ineligible. I wrote that on Monday, when we found he was able to change his fall academic status and regain university eligibility. I wrote that story immediately, but the main story that day was Pete Carroll finally returning to USC since he talked to the Falcons. So the Rowe item was part of that story. Unfortunately, I don't determine the news. If the USC coach did not speak to the Falcons, maybe we wouldn't have to worry about it and would be writing more about USC issues.
If anyone really disliked covering USC, any normal person would not want to do it on a regular basis.
Scott,
I was in the sports journalism field for 10 years of my life after graduating from SC. You've got to be a different breed to be able to criticize your school - especially SC - the way you do. I think you really enjoy it.
Brent
Wolfie enjoys his abrasive, non-comformist journalistic style. Undoubtedly he is aiming for a columnist's job one day in the style of TJ Simers, who long ago decided it was better to piss off the entire world than report objectively and earn people's respect. Unfortunately, Wolfie (and Simers) go off the deep end way too often. If I wanted to read Entertainment Tonight Sensational blogging, with little informative value but plenty of unsubstantiated rumor and worthless information, I would click on Greg Hernandez's blog every day, but I don't. I'd rather watch "Soup" on the E!-Entertainment Network to reinforce my thoughts that most liberal TV-motion picture-recording artists have lives that nobody would wish on their children (are you listening, Tom Cruise?). Instead, I will now pay my monthly dues and enjoy a few minutes every day reading constructive and informing posts from nationwide contributors on www.rivals.com. Wolfie's got a chip on his shoulder because of how either Carroll or Garrett or one of his USC instructors or an athletic administrator treated him and it is evident in his reporting and video posts. Scottie, remember to be a journalist first and you'll be much better off for it. Be a reporter and treat people fairly in your stories - to be as irresponsible as you are is alarming to say the least.