Spurrier slams Columbia writer

Ron Morris went to UNC-Charlotte. Not that it matters, but that's where he went.

And yes, the Gamecock fans are siding with Spurrier and only journalists are coming down against him. So? If I were Ron, I'd rather my colleagues behind me than knee-jerk fans.

 

Maybe Spurrier was trying to draw attention away from rumors his QB was shaving points?

http://pregame.com/sports/stories/b/news/archive/2011/10/12/south-carolina-qb-stephen-garcia-point-shaving-fixing-rumors-examined-181617.aspx

Vegas doubts it:

http://www.covers.com/articles/columns/articles.aspx?theArt=249668

 

You're definitely correct on UNCC. I think Ron told me that once, but that was years ago.

Of course, you want your colleagues to support you. But that doesn't pay the bills. This isn't Spurrier jumping all over all the print media. This isn't Spurrier jumping all over The State. He went after the one guy who has consistently written negative things about South Carolina athletics. Freedom of speech works both ways.

Do I think it was foolish to do it in a press conference? Of course. But he didn't attack the media. He attacked one guy. Hell, I imagine he probably spent more time with the media yesterday doing one-on-one interviews and side interviews with print reporters than he normally would have done during a typical Tuesday.

What it boils down to is this: Morris can write whatever he wants. Spurrier can talk to whoever he wants. He's apparently decided he doesn't want to talk to a columnist who is consistently negative. That's his call. He chose the wrong forum to announce that call, but it's his call nonetheless.

 

Ron Morris is no more negative than the average columnist who likes to push buttons. And he's pretty easy on the A.D. and basketball coach at South Carolina, for some reason. It's just that Gamecock fans have a pretty thin skin and the media environment around Columbia is such that there aren't many outlets providing truly independent coverage.

 

I agree with everything you just said except that Ron Morris is no more negative than the average columnist who likes to push buttons. He's been incredibly negative toward South Carolina athletics. That's fine. That's his schtick. His role -- as a columnist at The State -- is to be controversial. This is the same newspaper that took away a sports column from, without a doubt, their best writer because he "wasn't opinionated enough." A few months later, he won first place in the South Carolina Press Association contest for sports columns. Ron Morris is the same guy who wrote a diatribe where he said FSU fans were racist for doing the tomahawk chop and painting their faces with war symbols before FSU played South Carolina. He stokes the fan bases. I get that it's his thing. I love T.J. Simers for the same reason. But if somebody said he wasn't going to ever talk to T.J. Simers again because he's negative (and they have, including some of his co-workers), then that would be fine with me, too.

 

Ron Morris' schtick was fine with Spurrier for the first six years he was there. In fact Morris would often get Spurrier on the phone when no other media did. And the two go back to Spurrier's Duke days, when Morris worked in the Triangle.

No, Spurrier hasn't decided to take a stand against a writer who's been negative for years. He's frustrated over something that has been festering for six months.

 

Exactly. Spurrier and Morris had a love affair in the early days.

 

So this isn't about a coach and a member of the media? This is about two pals who have had a falling out?

 

Same way with Guest and Spurrier. I guess Steve is a bad ex.

 

Denard Robinson stay away.

 

http://www.scpress.org/NewsStory1.html#hyman

South Carolina's athletic director refuses to speak to journalism students until the S.C. Press executive director left the room. It's unclear, but I think the USC AD was under the impression the meeting was not open to the public. The silliness continues.

 

Much depends on the accuracy of the story. If the writer just exposed something Spurrier didn't like, then the coach is in the wrong. If the story was reaching for truth, then Spurrier may have a point — although wouldn't it be better to hold the writer after the presser and talk to him face-to-face? Even during his rant, Spurrier could barely look in the direction of the writer he was challenging.