I’m not bashing the guy because I actually like his reporting and unlike some in the local media around here he actually will tell you if things aren’t going in the right direction… But he sounds miserable all the time. I’m listening to him at SEC media days and it sounds like he is answering questions about children’s cancer research and not gator football… Why does he sound so unhappy? And that negativity has to seep into his perspective of the gator program. Do you think he’s just unhappy because the last 15 years have been weird and unproductive around here?
He's a writer and probably just nervous being on TV. Also, since this is a national audience, he may be overcompensating to not seem like a homer. Just the opinion of a former sportswriter.
He is frequently on with Shane during football season and he has a pretty good podcast SWAMP THINGS TALK and writes pretty well for the Sentinel sports.... and unlike some others he will respond if you write him
Maybe he is influenced by the anti-Gator newspaper he works for? He seems like he's always focused on the negative, rather than reporting on the true state of the broader program (whether something good is happening, or not). He's kind of in synch with the true state of journalism today.
I think he is simply reporting on the state of our team, btw he seems to have a good raport with Billy N
Yep, he's never seemed like a fair Gator sports writer. He's one of the reasons why I stopped buying the Slantinal. Bullet head is the other reason...
To be fair/ he was trepidatious not really doom and gloom… he just SOUNDS unhappy. Like, dude - you GET to cover the gators and GET to be at SEC media days and he just has the tone of someone who is deeply bothered about having to do this Love the podcast though
Writers and broadcasters, the talking heads, they're an interesting bunch. Some have no business being on camera, some/most, go with the flow and puppet what everyone else is saying. Some just kind of suck and you wonder how they're working in the first place. I wasn't a fan of Steve Russell early on, but over the years he's improved quite a bit. Now that everyone can be a podcaster things have changed. Actually, for the better. Hightop, On3, Peek, and a gazillion others. Perhaps the guy I dislike the most is Finenbaum. He just annoys me. Maybe if he had a mullet wig I'd like him more. Ha. It takes courage to be grounded in a committed opinion against the grain in sports. With so much data, statistics and all, it makes sense to go with the flow. But the Gators are our team and I choose to ignore logic and statistics. (well, yeah, to date, it hasn't worked that well) But look back at last year, we really should have beaten 3 more teams. Eventually I'll be right. I've been stockpiling my hopium and predicting a good year. 'Gators by a million!!' I'm thinking/hoping/praying this year is a segue from where we have recently been to where we want our future to be. Beat freaking Miami~! Go Gators.
Nice post Mal. I find it a bit disappointing that, in the "Gator Podcasters" competition with each other to "get that 10 second news cycle piece and make a show of it", that they would fly with unsubstantiated rumors prior to validating, especially rumors damaging to both the player and program. But hey, Walter Cronkite died long ago. It's all about, get my piece in, irregardless of content, get the subscribers and the likes and of course the ad revenue. Who cares whom it hurts. SMH The guy that started this crap about Cormani needs a little "dressing down" IMO and ya'll know whom I am referring to.
Most journalists now are not "journalists" by any measure. On a national level, they are political activists. In the sports world, they offer bogus, non-factually based opinions that confirm their biases. I ignore them.
...with all of this transfer stuff, NIL, recruiting, free agency, there is quite a bit to write/talk about these days. But here's the good news; we are closing in on the beginning of football season. WOO-HOO. And, suddenly, there are more people discussing the Gators, and that's a good thing and makes this dude happy. Go Gators
Edgar's Column Headline and a fw graphs UF’s Billy Napier and Gators ignore the noise at SEC Media Days DALLAS — Besides taking on college football’s toughest schedule, Florida faces one of the sport’s tallest orders: secure coach Billy Napier’s future with the Gators. SEC Media Days in the Lone Star State spotlighted the looming challenge and the third-year coach’s job security — a common theme back home. “When you’re on social media 24/7 … you see it,” quarterback Graham Mertz said. “You can’t help but not see it.” But Napier and the Gators are not listening to the nay-sayers following a 5-7 season that ended on a five-game skid leading to sweeping offseason changes to UF’s staff and roster. “Change doesn’t happen overnight,” Napier said. “When we took the job, what we inherited, the work that needed to be done … we’re on schedule.” Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com
That Napier quote makes me heave. Excuses excuses. A good experienced coach with a exp staff turns things around right away. We better (and should) kill Miami
All true. And, at the sports level, unqualified, untrained amateur "writers" are free to dispense low-quality, unedited nonsense across the internet. So much "news" out there in this area is just teenagers plagiarizing other sources and putting a childish spin on it. Remember when we were taught in school that the first paragraph of a professional news article should identify at a basic level who, what, where, why, and how something happened? Most clickbait articles don't include all of that anywhere in the article now.
