Deconstructing the Meyer outburst by Pat Dooley

[JvilleJohnny]

Urban Meyer isn't the first coach to dress down a reporter. We all can shut our eyes and see the "I'm a man! I'm 40!" rant and if you've been in this business for more than a few years you are bound to have fielded some shrapnel.


When the media gather around in a pub, it's often that we paraphrase that scene from Jaws when Quint and Hooper are comparing battle scars.

"See this? January, 1988. Hallway of the O'Connell Center. Norm Sloan after a loss to Auburn. Swore it was my fault."

So the Orlando Sentinel's Jeremy Fowler will have something to talk about at the next bowl hospitality room.

Meyer, seemingly relaxed and feeling better after his short leave of absence, went after Fowler after Florida's practice Wednesday. Just 24 hours earlier, he had been on my radio show talking about how much he was enjoying being back out there coaching. But that was before it came to his attention that one of his players was devastated by something that had been written.

I think I know Meyer as well as anyone in the media, and I can tell you this — he wasn't upset at what was written because he rarely cares about anything that is written or said in the media. But he was affected by the hurt his player was feeling. And he let his emotions spill over the same way he would in a huddle.

We all know what Deonte Thompson meant when he said Florida will have a "real quarterback" this season.

It will.

A real, conventional quarterback.

What it had before was a freak of nature with a very unconventional style. It's almost like Florida had a "real defensive end" when Alex Brown became the starter. He replaced Jevon Kearse, the original "Freak."

More at GatorSports.com....

 

[O-town Gator]

As I alluded to in my latest blog post, Coach Meyer was only "defending his house" and sticking up for Deonte Thompson - and he had every right to address a matter that was upsetting the harmony of that same "house".

Got this in an email from the guys at Gators and More:

-I was just going to to mention this story in my "notes" section, but as I got up this morning it became clear to me that this is much more than just a "note". If you haven't heard, Florida Coach Urban Meyer "released the Kraken" on Orlando Sentinel reporter Jeremy Fowler on Wednesday afternoon.

Fowler quoted Florida receiver Deonte Thompson in his blog on Monday, and while the quotes are complete and correct, the tone of the blog and Fowler's own comments insinuate that there is some underlying resentment of Tim Tebow by the receiver. Fowler's blog and the comments on it mushroomed across the country with media outlets reporting that Thompson had said Tebow was not a "real quarterback". That is the way I read it and obviously the way Urban Meyer read it. Meyer gave a verbal beating to Fowler after practice on Wednesday going as far as threatening to cut off all access to the Orlando Sentinel if it happens again.

This morning the views on what Urban did are mixed, at best. Of course the Sentinel staff has circled the wagons to protect one of their own and Urban Meyer is "cuckoo for cocoa puffs" (actual quote) (Mike Bianchi said that, in case nobody heard. ). I tend to take the opposite stance. I think what Urban did was brilliant. What the Sentinel fails to mention is that prior to Urban's outburst the members of the media that were present were advised that players would not be available for comment and it was because of the way things were being reported. The fact is, in an effort to "break the story" some journalists throw quotes and their opinions up on a blog and then send out a "Tweet" about the story. The problem is that there are much bigger news outlets following these guys on Twitter in an effort to get whatever dirt they can on Florida. That is when you get what you have going on now.

In my opinion what Urban Meyer did was brilliant. He took a situation where a kid who is not used to talking to the media had his words turned against him and he brought the spotlight on himself, shielding his team from scrutiny. What Urban did was galvanize his team by showing him that he will stand up for any of them if he feels they have been wronged. Had Urban not said anything the question would keep coming up to all of the receivers and could very easily cause a division on his team. That is not a sitaution you ever want, but especially not when you are in the middle of a quarterback transition. Judging from the comments Urban made this is not the first time he has had to "get after" the Sentinel, so I find it hard to feel sorry for Jeremy Fowler. The bottom line is that access to the team is not a right and journalists need to be a little more careful in how they present a story.

Spot-on comments here as well. If anything, Fowler and the "Slantinel" as a whole should have been left with egg on their faces, but naturally the media takes sides even when one of their own is called out for unscrupluous tactics. In the real world, misrepresentations of one kind or another can lead to lawsuits and other damages - if and when one of the mainstream media is ever sued over something like this remains to be seen, though, but I'd love to see it happen. Enough is enough.