View From the Phlipside - Arkansas football flap

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, Radio, the Movies and more.  I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View From the Phlipside.

I’m climbing out on a limb this week because I’m delving into a realm about which I don’t know much.  Sure it’s still a story about the media but there’s an influencing factor here that is a major part of the story about which I just don’t have much expertise.  That’s college football.  I generally watch a single college game a year, the Army Navy game (Go Navy, beat Army!).  So maybe I just don’t get something here.

You’ve probably heard the story about Arkansas sports broadcaster Renee Gork who was fired by her all sport station for wearing a University of Florida hat to a press conference with the University of Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino.  The station is heavily invested in their relationship with the Arkansas Razorbacks and said that the incident compromised Gork’s ability to continue reporting on the program.

Seriously?  A hat?  Seem’s Renee owns the hat for a good reason, she’s an alumna of Florida.  She wore it because it was raining that day and it was the first hat at hand.  The university let her into the press room with it on and Petrino even called on her the hat in plain view.  If it’s that big a deal why didn’t somebody tell her to either take it off or get out?  I

Now to be the good reporter myself I must note that Miss Gork did not have a perfect record as an employee.  She apparently tweeted and posted to Facebook comments complaining about how early she had to get up to cover practice while noting it wouldn’t have been a problem if it had been a Florida practice.  That’s just dumb.  Gork offered to apologize to the coach and the school.  Apparently this was an unforgivable sin however.  

That’s the part I don’t get is why ANY of this would rise to the level of firing her.  Yes her online postings were stupid and not in the best interests of her relationship with her employer.  Reprimand her, suspend her, demote her. I’m just astounded that so many college fans see this as such an important issue.  College football, at least in Arkansas, is apparently so delicate that wearing the wrong hat is a capital offense.  Life or death.

To me that’s just crazy.  It’s a game.  You play for 4 years and you walk away.  You want serious consequences?  Talk with the Army and Navy players.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.
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