Media Darlings

I like to think of myself as a sports journalist, but I think of things more often than not a different way. You will hear me rail on the "sports media" The usual sheep think of sports journalists who bandwagon everything and refuse to see the obvious. I'll give you some example starting with the hated Pittsburh Steelers, a team that the media loves and wants to do well. Why? Maybe they are afraid of the granite jawed Bill Cowher (I'll touch on the coach media darlings later) maybe its the rep. I dunno. I just know that On all the major football networks all have a former Steelers (NBC, Jerome Bettis, Fox Terry Bradshaw, ESPN Merrill Hoge) or Pittsburgh guys (CBS Dan Marino who grew up in Pittsburgh and went to Pitt) and all seem to genuflect at the Steelers altar. The Steelers can do no wrong and its just a matter of time before they roll thru everyone to the another Super Bowl. The Steelers up until last year had only been to one Super Bowl since their 4 in 6 year run in the 70's and had lost in the AFC title game to 4 different teams. (Denver, San Diego, Miami, New England) Yes they did...and they came a dropped hail mary from losing to 5 different teams. But to listen to everyone, the Steelers are the AFC preeminent team and should be treated as such. I'm sorry, the Steelers took advantage of a few too many lucky breaks to win the Super Bowl (Kimo von Awfulhoffen dive into Carson Palmer's knee, Mike Vanderchoke missing a very makeable FG, Jake Plummer returning to form and the refs missing one call after another) and everyone is crowning them as the greatest team of all time. I think that there is a team in Foxboro, MA that might disagree, but I digress. Despite a 2-5 record, the same as the Raid-uhs the Steeler apologists are in full force.
Oh I'm on a roll now. Lets talk about another media darling that should apologize. Notre Dame. The Irish are a top ten team...why? Because they have their own network and don't want to be in a conference? The Irish are in the Big East for everything but football, because no sport there matters at that school, except the football team. The only reason that Notre Dame is as visible is because they are on NBC every week and they get the hype when they win and the teams that beat them are pooh-poohed as cheaters. Remember the USC game last year? The Irish grew their field to jungle length and still lost on a last second sneak. They then whined that Reggie Bush pushed Matt Lineart. During this whole Reggie Bush housing flap, Notre Damers were braying that the win that USC had should be forfeited and that the Irish should have 11 wins and a higher ranking puh-leese. Maybe its Regis Philbin's (did he ever go there?) constant harping about them that annoys me. I dunno, but the media wants the Irish to be a contender. I want to puke when I hear the lisping criminal Lou Holtz go on about the Irish. He says that they should not only have a BCS shot, but should still be in the national title picture. How is that? The Irish got smoked by Michigan, needed a miracle to beat a bad Michigan State team and beat a Penn State team that was nowhere near as polished as they seem to be now. The Irish load up on a cupcake schedule. Throw a couple good teams in that they get beat by and then act like they are a national power and the media still desiring a fabled Irish squad, toot their horn all the time. You can imagine my shock and surprise when MSNBC, cousin to Notre Dame broadcasting and shill NBC named Irish coach Charlie Weis as its whiner of the week. Weis lambasted the polls for dropping his Irish from 10th to 11th after their last minute win over an unranked UCLA at home. The column quoted Weis saying an idle Florida “...were home eating cheeseburgers and they end up jumping us. That befuddles me,” Hold up, Florida is in the rugged SEC and isn't playing. You struggle with a cupcake UCLA team that hasn't won jack in years. And you whine about respect, the Irish are a joke but they will still get to BCS game where they will be exposed as the frauds that they are. Whereas a rightfully deserving teams like a Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers or Boise State or any number of SEC teams will get shutout on bowl selection day. The column called the Irish overrated and that in itself was a shock. I have to say bully to MSNBC for a righteous and courageous stand though the Irish boosters may have a fit that their beloved saint Charlie was taken to task.
Face it there are certain teams that despite being good, never get the pub that they deserve. Example, the Carolina Panthers are a contending team every year, but are rarely on national TV, last weekends blowout loss to the Cowboys notwithstanding. But the media pumps the Pokes up like they are just around the corner from being a dominant team. The media would love to have a Cowboys-Steelers Super Bowl every year and with Bill Parcells (another media darling) coaching it would be a media wet dream. I personally think Parcells is overrated. He was a good coach when he was with the Giants but he won a Super Bowl with them 16 years two coaching stops ago. Yeah, I know he's vastly improved every team he has been with getting the Pats to Super Bowl 31 and the Jets to the '98 AFC Title game, but he hasn't had a playoff win since beating Jacksonville in the '98 divisional round. That's right he has less playoff wins than Chan Gailey. What's my point you ask...I do have one that the sports media should be in the business of covering the games and reporting who won and how they did it and less of the speculating on the largesse of these teams and how that they are poised for dominance when the facts don't come close to supporting them. Parties guilty of this include the aforementioned analysts (including Merrill Hoge who said to Cincinnati sports radio talk show host Lance McCallister that the Steelers were still the team to beat in the AFC North), Jim Rome and the FSN Sports night reporters. Stop being a shill for certain teams and give the good teams their due!