The lack of common sense within the department of external affairs never ceases to amaze me. 80% of this national backlash is 100% avoidable by simply having the press conference this morning and having KF and Chris Doyle attend. Perception is reality. Paul Fed should not have to answer to the state and national media, many of whom are starving for a college football story to write about this time. Yet another massive FAIL from external affairs. When are things going to change?

To whom do Ferentz and Doyle owe an explanation? The players and their families, and Barta. But not the media. Not the fans.

Not saying this presser wasn’t bad a bad idea, but I just think we feel we are entitled to more information than we really should be.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is THERE to HEAR it, does it make a sound…….just wondering?!?!

Chad

I agree. What was KF going to say? ” I don’t know” about ten times..” I can’t speak about that, due to Privacy Laws” about nine times! .. they don’t know how it happened. KF has spoken to the Families, which is his job! give him a break.

I marvel at how one can be so critical of a situation with so little information. It seems Hlas must think he is the spokesman for all sports fans, especially those of the Hawkeyes. I understand he has been acclaimed for reporting in the past and has received several awards for his journalism, but really – does he think he has the task of always criticizing anything that goes on with the sports arena? If you want to editorialize, then put it on the editorial page. His column on the 13 Hawkeye players hospitalized for a muscle disorder is ridiculous. He attended one news conference and now believes he is the voice of the people by calling out several individuals from the athletic director on down. Did you leave out the University President by mistake? Obviously what happened is extremely concerning. The health of the athletes should never be in jeopardy from a university supervised activity. But to call out all of the individuals in the column before knowing what happened, what the cause is, of what corrective action may be taken is unnecessary. It sounded to any of us who listened to or read the transcript of the press conference like the coaching staff including coach Ferentz were in contact with the parties involved including the parents. I don’t believe he owes Hlas or any other reporter an explanation until there is a determination of the cause. It is very important that the university get to the cause as soon as possible. Like I said earlier, I am amazed at how some can feel so self righteous and critical. Hlas may rhyme with class but he has none.

After reading many national news stories on this it does not surprise me one bit that what is published as journalism has really turned in to uneducated, opinionated rants on this story.

Matt Hayes at the Sporting News as well as the boys at CBSSports (Doyel and Dodd) apparently think that their commentary is the best way to break a story. It is the world we live in I guess where “just the facts” is hard to live by for these “reporters”. The unfortunate part? People read these articles and assume they are getting “real” news.

It is bittersweet that society has evolved to the point that outdoor “plumbing” is rare. If not… Hlas and his opinions could still be put to use.

If Ferentz and Barta had attended Hlas would write a similar column complaining that their responses weren’t helpful because we know they would have said they didn’t have all the details and weren’t experts on the subject. My question is if the board of regents asked for 90 days to figure this out, why then are you upset the staff who are not doctors don’t know for certain what happened after just a day or two. Relax and let them figure this out I’m sure it isn’t as bad as everyone is making it out to be.

Any person in the hospital is important and 13 kids at once is certainly cause to step back and evaluate, very carefully, exactly what happened and take steps to insure it doesn’t happen again. That’s important. Check. Constant communication with the families of the affected student athletes and all of the athletes taking part and their families. That’s important. Check. Conducting a press conference to the satisfaction of Mike Hlas, fans, non-fans, or anyone else? Whatever.
You have wrote a lot of good columns about the Hawks Mike and you don’t do it with black and gold glasses on which I think is good. This time however you almost seem happy that it’s happening to the Hawks and are jumping right on the bandwagon to bash the U of I and their head coach and AD. I have worked in a corporate environment for a long time and the first sign of a phony is that they never miss a PR moment and they act so caring and loyal especially in front of an audience when in fact they don’t care about anybody but themselves. By every account that I have ever read or heard of Kirk Ferentz he is certainly not phony and he is certainly not uncaring. I bet he was taking care of things as best he could and making decisions that he thought to be best and a news conference was probably not his idea of important. Sorry he didn’t call you to check on your opinion of what was best. You say we shouldn’t judge for lack of facts in one part of your story and then you judge in another part.
Another trait of the corporate phony is they think as if they are the center of pretty much everything. Kind of like the writer of this article. I don’t know you personally and I’m not saying you are a phony Mike. But this column sure makes it seem that way.

I’ve always believed readers should get the last word if they want it. So I’ll just say this, and turn it back over to you:

I did not, did not, DID NOT assign a speck of blame to anyone, and will strongly resent it and fight back if anyone suggests otherwise. We have no real idea if there even is blame to be assigned. We don’t know why this happened. I believe a multitude of possibilities exist including some none of us may have yet considered. Maybe we’ll get a reasonable explanation as time passes.

I accept the differences in opinion, appreciate and welcome them. I always wanted this blog to be more than just me talking at you like a newspaper column. The more smart and reasoned opinions from various sides, the better.

This is an emotional story, and emotions can lead people in different directions. I believe Barta and Ferentz should have been at whatever press conference the school held on the matter.I’ll stand by that. But I do not think there has been reason to infer anything sinister about anyone regarding this story.

I return the comments on this post to you. (Until I intrude again, anyway)