Thursday, March 6, 2008

Bob Knight is being hypocritical by taking ESPN job

There is no question that college basketball coach Bobby Knight knows a lot about his sport. Additionally, when he was coaching, he always ran a clean program, and his team had good graduation rates.

As most know, Knight has a lot of negative traits, most of which I will not re-hash now. However, I have to take him to task for his recent acceptance of a job with ESPN as a commentator/consultant. For years, he has been critical of the media, but only weeks after quitting at Texas Tech, he has accepted this cushy gig.

Of course, we see this all the time. Athletes and coaches are quick to tell the media that they don't know what they are doing, yet they accept jobs with them once their playing/coaching days are over.

Howard Cosell used to refer to this influx of athletes into the media as the "jockocracy." Many times, these folks have no experience and qualifications to have these high paying jobs. Most turn out to mediocre at best.

However, there are exceptions. During his prime, Pat Summerall was one of the best play-by-play announcers in the business. Also, even though he tends to be over the top, John Madden is still a good analyst.

As for Knight, he has sold out. He thinks most in the media don't know what they are doing, but money talks, I guess.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Knight has a split personality. When he is good he is very good, but when he is bad he is very bad.