Coaches, Media, and the Art of Making a Few Extra Shekels

Tennessee’s coaching staff allowed some members of the media to attend Saturday’s scrimmage if they paid $50 to attend a coaches clinic put on by the Volunteer coaching staff. The rest of the media was not allowed to attend and only a couple of major outlets were even informed of the option.

Haven’t gotten official word on this particular situation yet, but more often than not coaches pocket what they make from clinics as part of their annual salaries.

To our knowledge, only one local media outlet of note put their ethical standards in their purses long enough to attend the clinic and scrimmage.

The rest of us in both mainstream and new media in this town (and those of us that find the line between the two to be an antiquated idea) did what we consider the principled thing and waited until after the scrimmage to get our information from the coaching staff and players.

We’ve got no beef with coaches closing scrimmages to the media. This staff could probably have done themselves a favor by allowing fans to see first hand how tough of a rebuilding job they’ve inherited, but that’s their funeral.

To open scrimmages to media members willing to help make the coaches an extra buck or two is another issue altogether and the entire thing stinks like Terrence Cody’s dirty spandex.

While it would be easy to take shots at the coaching staff (after all, we are told that the entire thing was their idea, not that of the university), it’s the obligation of the media to behave ethically, not that of the coaching staff to make sure that we have no opportunity to behave like unprincipled sheep.

The media members that chose to pay for information are what they are: without scruples.

The coaching staff that gave this as the lone opportunity to see a scrimmage is what it is: greedy.

Nevertheless, the staff here has no obligation to the public beyond their football and academic duties.

Those of us in the media have a duty to you, the fan, and our profession as a whole. Unfortunately, like a tabloid paying the Octomom six-figures for the inside scoop, some us decided to take a shortcut in order to get an exclusive.