From the new MMQB

[Tiger16]

Release the hounds

7. I think in the interest of full disclosure, I want to report that my daughter, Mary Beth King, has taken a PR internship with the Seattle Seahawks for the season. It's going to sound hollow to say I had nothing to do with it, but I didn't. She applied without telling me. New family rule: Mary Beth does not share conversations with Matt Hasselbeck or Mike Holmgren with her father.

 

[Cousin Jeffrey]

Not a big deal. Not like he needs his daughter, a PR intern, to get scoops or an in. The guy's more connected (especially in an organization run by Mike Holmgren) than anyone. There are a lot of big-name editors and writers whose kids work for teams and leagues. Most don't disclose it.

 

[Tiger16]

I agree it's not a big deal. It's laughable for him to try to portray like he had nothing to do with her getting the gig, however.

 

[Appgrad05]

I would believe he didn't make a call or anything. But the PR head of the Seahawks is likely to see a Mary Beth King from New Jersey and put two and two together. Now, if she was in something random - marketing or ticket sales - I would believe no one had a clue who she was.

 

[Baltimoreguy]

Along with the conflict of interest/nepotism issues, here's another issue about how jobs in sports media get filled -- you have to be rich to get your foot in the door. Forget for a second that she's Peter King's daughter. How does a kid from New Jersey who just graduated from college in New York have the financial wherewithal to pursue an unpaid, or extremely low-paying, internship on the other side of the country in one of the nation's more expensive cities?

Because her parents are rich. The same goes for kids trying to get their foot in the door with a summer internship at a newspaper. Not only do you have to be able to forego income during the summer, in most cases your parents have to be able to set up to live in a city for 12 weeks. I just wish that gaining a foothold at so many highly competitive jobs weren't the exclusive province of young people who can afford it.

 

[mediaguy]

She might be in Seattle just to send Dad massive amounts of coffee. You can never trust the local baristas ...

 

[henryhenry]

Along with the conflict of interest/nepotism issues, here's another issue about how jobs in sports media get filled -- you have to be rich to get your foot in the door. Forget for a second that she's Peter King's daughter. How does a kid from New Jersey who just graduated from college in New York have the financial wherewithal to pursue an unpaid, or extremely low-paying, internship on the other side of the country in one of the nation's more expensive cities?

Because her parents are rich. The same goes for kids trying to get their foot in the door with a summer internship at a newspaper. Not only do you have to be able to forego income during the summer, in most cases your parents have to be able to set up to live in a city for 12 weeks. I just wish that gaining a foothold at so many highly competitive jobs weren't the exclusive province of young people who can afford it.

you have to be rich to:
1) get an unpaid internship
2) get decent seats
3) buy food at the concession stands
4) park your car

 

[Baltimoreguy]

Hard-hitting MMQB piece by King on his daughter's new boss today:

, Mike Holmgren, who, if it is possible in today's massively over-covered National Football League, remains an underrated figure. Holmgren announced in the off-season he would coach out the final year of his two-year contract extension in 2008, then part ways with the Seahawks. Seattle named secondary coach Jim Mora the coach for 2009 and beyond.

When I say underrated, consider these numbers before I get back to the Holmgren 2008 story.

• Bill Parcells averaged 9.63 wins per NFL season. Holmgren's average: 10.63.

• Holmgren's 16 teams have won 170 games. Joe Gibbs' 16 teams won 171.

• Holmgren is 170-110 as an NFL head coach. Paul Brown was 170-108-6 in the NFL

 

[Alma]

I missed the bullet that said "Mike Holmgren spent much of his time coaching in two piece of shirt divisions."

When you fatten up on Detroit, Arizona and pre-Dungy Bucs, hey, it has to be mentioned...

Rarely has a guy been luckier in his coaching reign. Coach the Pack right up until Minnesota got good. Coached Seattle right after Denver lost Elway. Moved to the NFC West just as Kurt Warner lost his mojo. Win three divisional titles in Seattle with a 9-7 record.

He was great in Green Bay. So-so in Seattle.

 

[Barsuk]

Yeah, I'm sure all those columns PK wrote in which he name-dropped Mary Beth had absolutely nothing to do with her getting this job. Right.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

I would believe he didn't make a call or anything. But the PR head of the Seahawks is likely to see a Mary Beth King from New Jersey and put two and two together. Now, if she was in something random - marketing or ticket sales - I would believe no one had a clue who she was.

Not sure someone would need to be able to put two-and-two together with his embarrassing chronicles of her field hockey exploits.

No complaints about her getting the internship, of course. It really is about who you know, making connections, etc.

 

[Joe Williams]

Along with the conflict of interest/nepotism issues, here's another issue about how jobs in sports media get filled -- you have to be rich to get your foot in the door. Forget for a second that she's Peter King's daughter. How does a kid from New Jersey who just graduated from college in New York have the financial wherewithal to pursue an unpaid, or extremely low-paying, internship on the other side of the country in one of the nation's more expensive cities?

Because her parents are rich. The same goes for kids trying to get their foot in the door with a summer internship at a newspaper. Not only do you have to be able to forego income during the summer, in most cases your parents have to be able to set up to live in a city for 12 weeks. I just wish that gaining a foothold at so many highly competitive jobs weren't the exclusive province of young people who can afford it.

you have to be rich to:
1) get an unpaid internship
2) get decent seats
3) buy food at the concession stands
4) park your car

5) put gas in your car to drive you to the game.

I've never been a big fan of the internships/foot-in-the-door approach, only because -- yeah, I'll admit, it's a personal bias -- I couldn't afford to give up a decent-paying summer job. Without that, I wouldn't have been able to attend college. So there is something to this pre-selecting that goes on, and for it to happen in a business that will then be paying people pretty crappy wages anyway, I think it stinks.

When Mommy and/or Daddy don't bankroll you to tuition and room & board, they sure as heck aren't going to bankroll you to travel to a distant city and live, virtually without income, through a summer or a semester where you ought to be earning some college money.

Papers I'm familiar with seem to use these intern programs to get cheap, cheap labor in the summer for when the regulars are taking vacation, and to boost their diversity profiles (one place I worked bent over backwards to have no more than 1 out of 9 interns be a white male. Summer after summer after summer.) They're welcome to that agenda, I suppose. But it always reminded me that I wouldn't have had a glimmer of a sliver of a chance, if that's what it took to get a decent post-graduation job, and it would have had absolutely nothing to do with my skills or clips or attitude or aptitude.