Let us, for a minute, consider the circumstances that caused Oklahoma State University football coach Mike Gundy’s exceptional tirade against sports media a few days ago. I’m aware that most of the readers of this site aren’t college football fans, so you might be in the dark as to the incident I am referring to in this post, so here’s a bit of context for you all.
This past Saturday, Jenni Carlson ran an article in The Oklahoman that accused quarterback Bobby Reid of being coddled, soft, and of not having the right kind of winning attitude in order to lead the football team. She claimed that while Reid was still technically the better quarterback on the team, OSU had decided to start sophomore Zac Robinson instead of Reid not because of his talent, but because Reid didn’t have the right attitude to win.
While the Cowboys did go on to beat Texas Tech on Saturday with Robinson at the helm, the only thing on coach Mike Gundy’s mind was Carlson’s article published earlier that day. Instead of talking about the win, Gundy went on a tirade against the sports media, most of which is captured on this video below:
I fear that Gundy’s outburst may have escalated the situation to a public level when it could have been dealt with in a much more subtle and effective way, but I do feel that this is a good time to comment on sports media and student athletics, and the role each of these bodies have to play in concert with each other. As much as I think that Gundy’s histrionics were excessive, I also believe that Carlson (and other members of the media who are not immune to this error) was out of line in her comments.
Columnists are opinionated people
I’ll be the first person to argue that the job of a sports columnist is to have an opinion. Anyone can attend a game and report on what happened: the reason that we value certain sports writers over regular beat reporters is because they have an opinion — an opinion shaped from either experience, research, or insight — that shapes their perspectives, which they then share with us, the spectators and readers.
Whether they are writing about the National Football League, the College Bowl Championship Series, high school Friday night games, or lunchtime pick-up games on the elementary school yard, reporters need to express this opinion in order to make their story unique, engaging, and worth printing. The question of whether or not we agree with that opinion is irrelevant; as long as the insight is expressed, the story is valuable. Sports writers offer a perspective that game statistics alone can never convey.
In that light, you can’t fault Jenni Carlson for speaking her mind: she had an opinion about Bobby Reid, and she conveyed that opinion in her article. Coach Gundy’s assertion that he doesn’t read newspapers because the media has become too critical of athletics is ludicrous. This kind of criticism is the fuel that athletic programs require in order to maintain their prominence in the public sphere: before you get people talking about you, you need to give them something to talk about. If it weren’t for the media speculation — the reporters, the columnists, the fantasy leagues, the analysts — the entire BCS wouldn’t exist, and Gundy would be unemployed.
Gundys’ claim that Reid is “not a professional athlete” might be true, but is completely irrelevant to this argument. Much like a professional athlete, who deserves to be criticized by the people paying his salary, Reid is a scholarship athlete at a state school — his education is being funded by taxpayers and therefore needs to be accountable. While I’m not claiming that all student athletes need to be treated like pros, I do feel that they need to be cognizant of the fact that they are representatives of their academic institutions and athletics programs, and this will involve media speculation and criticism.
Reid may understand this, and has remained mum throughout the whole affair, but his coach must be deluded to think that just because his player is barely old enough to drink alcohol legally, he is immune to public scrutiny. Mike Gundy’s postgame comments, when taken in this context, seem much more childish and immature than his own quarterback’s actions.
Coaches protect their players
Of course, I can still understand Gundy’s fury: Carlson was perhaps unnecessary vitriolic in her assessment of Reid. While I will uphold the journalist’s right to criticize the athletic-related actions of any athlete, I do not agree with making sarcastic and personal jabs at any individual that are completely unrelated to their on-field performance. Stooping to that level is not only unjust, but cruel, and I can therefore understand Gundy’s passion (but still not the content of his response) in his press conference reply. After all, a coach must protect his players against unwarranted personal attacks.
Carlson’s points about Reid’s nervousness and injuries were well-founded — drawing an seemingly unconnected link between his athletic performance and the fact that his mom was feeding him chicken, however, was inappropriate. Indeed, her line questioning Reid’s off-field character — “Or does he want to be coddled, babied, perhaps even fed chicken?” — based on an incident in a parking lot was the perfect example of bad journalism and can not be defended. I understand that Carlson may have been using technique to make her article more evocative, but certain kinds of embellishment — particularly those that lead to unnecessary defamation — have no place in sports reporting. Save that for the politicians and mudslingers.
Gundy’s accusation that many of Carlson’s claims were untrue is an important one. If Carlson was in fact lying, or even just fudging the truth, in order to sell more copies of the paper, the editor of the Oklahoman should be held accountable for publishing untruths. Journalistic integrity is primordial to the profession, and any kind of blemishes to this integrity needs to lead to serious consequences, not only for the writer, but for the entire staff of the publication.
Fans make the final decision
It is clear to see that both parties are in the wrong in this situation: Coach Gundy in his content but not his passion, and Jenni Carlson in her disregard for integrity and civility but not her right to have an opinion. In the end, it is the Oklahoma State University athletics fan that is the final arbiter — disregard Carlson’s journalistic authority or disregard Gundy’s athletic authority? — and will ultimately choose what side of the equation is the correct one.
Going forward, I think the editors of The Oklahoman need to look at what kind of content is being printed in their publication and ask themselves what kind of damage this incident has done to their credibility and act accordingly. I also think that coach Gundy needs to look at the ways he deals with conflict and stress and ask himself what kind of damage his outburst has done to his authority and act accordingly.
“Whether or not you’re being praised or being criticized, you really have to maintain an even-keel approach. Good or bad — it’s always going to be there.”
As I type this right now, we are eight games into this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament, and so far, all eight of the teams I called to win in my bracket have picked up their ever-important wins. For those of you who are interested, here are a few links to who I’ve picked through each round of the tournament, and a look at my final four: Midwest | East | South | West | Final Four
For those of you that are still a bit confused as to what is going on, every year I make my predictions on the NCAA March Madness Tournament based on a few factors:
Did I attend the school?
Have they been playing well in the regular season?
What conference do they play in?
Are they one of my regular schools I support? (Kentucky, UConn, Maryland)
Do I know anyone that went to the school?
What is their ranking?
Clearly, as you can tell from this list of factors, it isn’t surprising that I picked my former college, Georgetown, to win the tournament; luckily, this year, they’re actually one of the best teams in the NCAA so it isn’t such a long shot. For those of you who struggled to complete your brackets this year, I’d suggest coming up with a similar list of criteria and just go with it. For example, Matt Thomas’ list of criteria is pretty intriguing, and has led to a pretty exciting bracket.
As the tournament began, my brother made a very astute observation: the NHL and the NBA would be much more exciting if they followed a similar playoff strategy as NCAA Basketball. A short regular season would rank all the teams in the league going into the final playoffs, and each team in the league would have a chance to play in a do-or-die bracketed tournament to decide the league champion. Logistically, it may be hard to set up at first, and I’m sure the players’ union in each league would have a public outcry, but in the end, both those leagues would benefit greatly from the hype that comes from a bracketed tournament.
Surfing the web with brackets in mind, I found a book on Amazon called The Enlightened Bracketologist, which turns the art of having an opinion into a sport. Pretty interesting idea, if you ask me. In response to the book, Slate came out with some interesting interactive brackets to help you decide the best ad slogan of all time (Just do it), the greatest film deaths (Bambi’s mom shot by hunters), the most poignant ‘where were you when’ moment (9/11 attacks), and the most ridiculous marital argument (When are we going to get married?). Go and try them out and have some fun with them. And then go watch some NCAA basketball.
My apologies for that super mushy post yesterday, I don’t know what came over me. That being said, here’s another post for my ‘personal’ category. I’m pretty excited about it, so I hope you don’t mind.
A week ago today, one of my best friends from high school, Sai Krishna Satyanarayana, got married to his fiancée Natasha Chopra. Some of you might recognize Krishna as the extremely talented guy who created the Wordpress theme that I’m using here on Eloquation. Well, last Thursday, he got married in a Hindu wedding in Mississauga, and I was lucky enough to be able to attend and celebrate his special day with him and his family.
I don’t know how many of you have attended a Hindu wedding before, but this was my first one. And let me tell you…it was quite an event! What caught my eye most impressively was the sheer amount of color everywhere. And not only the decorations and the setting: even the clothes people were wearing were fantastically vibrant. Absolutely stunning.
Excuse me for the poorly worded title. In fact, I would have called this post, “Why Nintendo Should Be Paying Rannie for Spreading Wii Love All Around This City And Making Wii Converts Out of Even People Like Me Who Don’t Play Video Games,” but it just seemed like overkill. So we’ll stick to the silly alliteration.
I have fallen in love with the Nintendo Wii. In fact, I love the console so much so that I’m thinking of purchasing one myself. Just for context: the last video game console I bought for myself was the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Yup, the one with Duck Hunt. I’m that old school. The thing about the Wii is that — unlike most video game systems — you don’t need to have particularly agile thumbs to use it, and it is much more social and active than the typical console. Perfect for someone like me who happens to have fat thumbs and no hand-eye coordination, and tends to get fidgety really quickly. The Wii truly is a revolution in gaming technology.
Ever since purchasing his own Wii, Rannie has been going around the city and hosting Wii parties and introducing everyone in Toronto to the greatness that is the Nintendo Wii. And from what I’ve heard from everyone I’ve ever met that has been to a Wii party, the idea is a marketing success: everyone seems to want to buy one now. So what I’m saying here is that Nintendo should start paying Rannie for his efforts; or at least, give him a cover spot on the next issue of Nintendo Power.
I had the chance to go to a Wii party at the Whippersnapper gallery last week, where there were five Wii, several controllers, projection screens, and a slew of good food. And it was there I fell in love with the Wii. I’m thinking of buying myself a Wii as my own birthday gift to myself later this month, but I’m waiting to see how my immigration stuff clears up first.
For those of you that haven’t had the chance to play the Wii yet, make every effort to do so. You will be wowed.
Okay, apart from the fact that the New York Jets are doing better than anyone (other than me, of course) expected this season, there have been many highlights from the NFL season this year. And most of them are not actually game-related.
The first important thing that the NFL has done is introduce flexible scheduling. So instead of being stuck with a game that nobody wants to watch (anything involving the Raiders, Browns, Texans, Lions, Cardinals, and Buccaneers), we all get to enjoy a Sunday night game that has some significance in the grand scheme of things. Of course, nobody knew that McNabb would have been injured before the Colts decimated the Eagles, so we can forgive the NFL for making that mistake.
What’s more exciting is that ESPN has brought Tony Kornheiser on board for their Monday Night Football broadcast. For those of you that don’t know yet, Tony Kornheiser is the funniest man in America. There is no arguing with that claim: have you seen his penguin dance? I’ve always enjoyed watching Tony on Pardon the Interruption (some people say I look like Michael Wilbon, and heck, Tony Reali might be the best stat boy on the planet) so having him on Monday Night Football is just an added bonus.
On a related note, have you heard Stephen A. Smith’srant last week about the Giants’ breakdown against the Titans? Doesn’t get much better than that. ESPN Podcenter has been getting better and better as the season goes on, so that’s definitely one of the other football-related highlights of the year.
The final major highlight of my football season has been realizing that I’m not the only person that is a huge fan of Ed Hochuli. I mean, I think I may be a bigger fan of Ed Hochuli than I am of most NFL players. That man is a monster. If you don’t believe me, the guys behind WWEHD have compiled a great list of little-known facts about Ed Hochuli. Here’s a sample:
Ed Hochuli knows exactly how to dance about architecture.
In 2012 Ed Hochuli will be carved into Mount Rushmore, just over to the left.
Ed Hochuli completed the Tour De France in three days.
In Greece, Ed Hochuli is a unit of measurement.
Ed Hochuli has been to Mars. His assessment? No biggie.
There’s more goodness there, do check out the wonderful list. And then start cheering for Hochuli like all cool kinds do.
And of course, here’s my prediction: the Jets are going to the Super Bowl.
A little while ago on vidTO, Jerrold featured a video by Torontonian Alex Chung: actor, martial artist, stuntperson, fight choreographer. To be honest, I was intrigued. The rapid rise in popularity of parkour and tricking in mainstream culture — and especially here in Toronto — has always been fascinating to me, so I decided to go out and find Alex Chung and find out what really makes him tick. And kick.
How did you get started with martial arts and stunts?
For quite a few of us (including myself, Steve Clarke, and Joseph Jamili) martial arts was something introduced to us at a very early age (picture small eight year olds doing karate kicks). Eventually it grew into a passion. A lot of the stunt crew members are trickers, so martial arts was definitely a great influence on many of us. Myself and DL MacDonald treaded into stunt work when we started making our own short martial art films in 2001. The formation of the stunt team in July 2006 marked our coming together to do stunts as a unit and to support one another.
What kind of training and practice goes into the work you do?
Since we have a lot of time devoted to school and work, we aren’t able to train as often as we’d like to, but we do train consistently. A few of us do weight training on our own time, but we also meet up as a team to work on tricking and stunts at a gym. Two gyms we visit most often are the ones at Scarborough Gym Elites Gymnastics and Steeles West Gymnastics (with Team Ryouko). Their facilities are excellent for us to work on dynamic kicking, acrobatics, break falls, creative stunts, etc. Our training will consist mostly of the flips, falls, and kicks that you see in our vids. For “screen fighting” in general (reactions, timing, speed, the acting itself) we gain through experience in making action scenes.
Is there a large community of people who do this kind of stuff in Toronto?
Yes. Both parkour and tricking have become very popular especially in Toronto. One of the most well known trickers, Joe Eigo, lives here in Toronto. Also, Team Ryouko is possibly the most popular group featuring XMA (Extreme Martial Arts) around. Members of our team often meet up with members of Ryouko, Joe Eigo, or anyone else interested in martial arts and tricking. People with varying ages and skill levels get together all the time to engage in the dangerous but exciting sport of tricking. More and more people have been trying out martial arts and stunt work to expand their horizons and to see what they have to offer in the entertainment industry.
How has the popularity of sites like YouTube — where people can see your work — effected the amount and type of stunt and martial art work you do?
Sites like YouTube have given us great exposure. We’ve been getting a lot of appreciation for our work and it also gives us a chance to see others. It pushes you and makes you work harder in order to improve and to outdo what you’ve done before. We try very hard to raise the standard in action film-making. Each time we take on a project there’s the task of coming up with fresh and innovative choreography as well as exciting new stunts. Thanks to sites like YouTube, we are able to get feedback and find ways to reach other people out there who love doing what we do.
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