1. Why Does College Basketball Media Hate Doug Gottlieb?
I’m surprised how negative the backlash has been to Green Bay hiring Doug Gottlieb. Is it a wild move to hire a guy with no basketball coaching experience who hasn’t been directly involved in the college game in 25 years? Of course! But it’s rare to hear college sports media say negative things about any coach or any media counterpart. Gottlieb is, and this is the punchline of the whole thing, both.
Why won’t college sports media folks criticize coaches? Access. In professional sports, relationships between franchises and media are mediated in part by the leagues. As Marshawn Lynch taught us well, players and coaches get fined if they don’t talk. In college, reporters are serfs. As Lincoln Riley taught us well, coaches can and will close off their practices. So, any criticism offered by those who engage in reporting comes off-hand, well beneath the headlines. Then, once a coach is a lame duck, the industry pounces. Outside of that, most college sports criticism comes from mainstream media—people who do takes on pro sports as well and aren’t reliant on relationships for their professional worth.
I don’t think media folks are worried about access when it comes to Gottlieb and Green Bay. For one thing, it’s the Horizon League. As much as you and I might love it, there isn’t a lucrative market for Horizon League intel. For another, Gottlieb doesn’t seem like the type to retaliate to criticism. But we’ll get to that.
Why won’t college sports media folks criticize one another? This is more puzzling. I think half of it comes from a desire to avoid burning bridges. There aren’t as many jobs in national college sports media as there are for the pros. Pick enough fights, and you’ll find yourself alienated pretty fast. The other half is also associated with that smallness: College sports media, as an industry, doesn’t have the luxury of infighting. Salaries are low, and both media and college sports are volatile industries right now. There’s a bit of a pack mentality, especially with college basketball, the following of which is tiny relative to college football or the Big Four.
This last part has its problems. If Seth Davis covered the NFL, his peers would have long ago bullied him or his bosses into adaptation. If Jeff Goodman was an NBA insider, he wouldn’t get away with his little pressure campaigns. Those with information wouldn’t tolerate it. They’d know that they held the power, and they’d act accordingly. Instead, legacy media employees treat Davis with undeserved reverence, and when Goodman gets caught for, say, the Divine Providence incident, coaches continue to play his games while he’s defended on Twitter by a host of bloggers whom he’s “mentored.” (Extraordinarily few of these guys have found full-time income in media themselves, despite being perfectly capable. This phenomenon is strikingly similar to what happens with pyramid schemes.)
College basketball media is a smarmy place. Gladhanding abounds, and chiropractors are in high demand as the industry persistently contorts in order to pat itself on the back.
Which is why the negativity of the Gottlieb reaction is weird. Sure, there’ve been congratulations from some of his longtime peers. But the general tenor has been one of explicit skepticism. That is unusual.
What makes Gottlieb different? The best explanation I can find is that a lot of his peers really, really don’t like him. And why don’t they like him? My best guess is a specific kind of fear.
The smarminess does itself stem from fear. People in this industry are worried about losing whatever station they’ve gained, and eager to grab any more crumbs they can. They’re equal parts scared of what established players can do to them and hopeful about what established players can do for them. They keep their opinions close to the mainstream and avoid treading on others’ toes.
Gottlieb, on the other hand, has always been paradoxically honest. For a guy who first made a name for himself as a thief, he’s been remarkably forthright in the years since, even as social media has poured gas on the groupthink fire. His takes are often aggressive, but he shares them without shame. He lives more in the Stephen A. Smith category of media than what’s normal in the world of college hoops. He doesn’t seem to take things personally. He doesn’t seem to play a lot of games. He’s a radio host, not a networker. People who play games get scared and frustrated by those who won’t play along.
Is Doug Gottlieb an asshole? Opinions differ on the extent, but yes. Doug Gottlieb is an asshole, and as someone who has often been out on Doug Gottlieb, I’m not here to say anyone should necessarily like him. The refreshing aspect of him, though, is that “asshole” is simply who he is. He’s not putting on some sort of act. He’s not trying to get something.
Doug Gottlieb doesn’t have an angle. He’s just an asshole.
The Astros? Cheating?
This is shocking, but shoutout to Ronel Blanco for getting caught with sticky stuff even as Major League Baseball has loosened up on its enforcement following the initial crackdown (spin rate’s ticked back up, folks). You can always count on the Astros.
Does the PGA Need a Championship?
The PGA Championship starts tomorrow, and the event was already a big step behind The Masters and the U.S. Open and the British Open, even before the PGA Tour/LIV spat broke out. Now, the PGA’s forfeited the last piece of its tour’s leverage, inviting the LIV guys to its own championship. That little piece of uniqueness is gone.
Golf does need a fourth major. This is important. We’ve talked about the Grand Slam too much and we’ve linked golf and tennis too strongly to let this sport only have three majors. But it needs a better fourth major than the PGA Championship. Maybe the answer is to call the Ryder Cup the fourth leg of the Grand Slam—to say to hold the Grand Slam, someone needs to win The Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the Ryder Cup. Maybe the answer is to start a new all-star tournament. Maybe the answer is to get France or Australia really into golf. Play it on clay, or in Melbourne.
Whatever we do, the PGA Championship isn’t cutting it. This is like making William Henry Harrison the fourth face on Mount Rushmore.
