Archive for August, 2009

A very ugly situation got even uglier Wednesday when Rick Pitino, head basketball coach at the University of Louisville, held a press conference to, essentially, chastise the media for its heavy coverage of the bizarre extortion case involving him that the FBI is currently investigating. The case involves an alleged $10 million black mail attempt by the wife of the team’s equipment manager. The investigation revealed that in 2003 Pitino, a married man and father of five, had sex with another woman on a restaurant table after closing time. The woman got pregnant as a result and Pitino gave her $3,000 [...]

Over the last few years, many great and well-respected Major League Baseball players have been humiliated and have suffered tremendous embarrassment after it was revealed they had, at some point in their careers, used steroids or some type of performance enhancing drug. One by one, important names in baseball were being “outed” and their status as heroes to kids and legends to baseball fans either crumbled completely or were severely tainted. MLB’s most valuable commodity, its players, have been left unprotected and exposed, causing a continuing slow and deep tear of the game’s image and once wholesome American brand. So [...]

Regardless of one’s stance or personal feelings regarding the Michael Vick situation, the notorious quarterback has officially returned to the NFL with the approval and support of the league and its commissioner. As a result, a full-court press of a public relations plan has been activated and it will be fascinating to watch as the NFL, commissioner Roger Goodell and the Philadelphia Eagles try to take a man as popular as Charles Manson and assimilate him back into the American sports culture. When Roger Goodell took over as NFL Commissioner in August 2006, his top priority was to get a handle on [...]

It seems like it’s getting rarer and rarer these days for the world of sports media to find a positive and relevant story and make it a big deal in the day’s news cycle. Which is why it was great to see, this week, the tremendous press coverage and collective (and much deserved) respect from the sports media industry for Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Following her passing on Tuesday at the age of 88, Ms. Shriver was memorialized by virtually every media source, including most sports outlets – but not because she was a member of the famous Kennedy Family and [...]