The Sound of Silence

Bobby Petrino left Lousiville yesterday for the Atlanta Falcons. Last August he signed a ten year extension to coach the Cardinals, stating that Louisville is where he and his family wanted, and would always want, to be. Half a year later, adios. How does the media react? Well, I am listening to ESPN radio this morning and not much has been said. Last week, they spent the entire week calling Former Dolphin now Alabama head coach Nick Saban a snake, a liar and dishonorable. Cowherd agreed later in the day, and the guy filling in for Dan Patrick was perhaps the msot vitriolic.

Today so far, barely a peep.

So what is it the media is really mad at? Is it that Saban left in the middle of a contract? No, of course not. The media, specifically ESPN, has decided to create a story and villify a man specifically because he lied to them. ESPN and the rest could care less if a coach lies to a university (signing a TEN YEAR extension) because it doesn't make them look stupid, it makes the U look stupid. In the case of Saban, he played ESPN like a fiddle, drove up his contract with Alabama and bolted to a better, less stressful and more lucrative life. That deserved the hatred and spite of the mighty Sports Network. Petrino leaves, meh, it's a "good hire" as Cowherd just said.

Yet another case of ESPN creating news, overtly influencing public opinion, and shaping the opinions of sports fans instead of reporting the news of the sporting world.

as for Mike Greenberg, who thinks Lights Out Needles Up Merrimen deserves to be Defensive player of the year but thinks McGuire and Bonds should be banned from baseball, this is just another in a long ling of hypocritical spineless stances.

Someone, somewhere, please give ESPN some competition, and give the nation a choice.