Passionate sports fans and media mouths tend to forget that players are always evolving, especially in college.
In their pursuit of the latest viral take, quote or video, sports personalities are free to criticize young athletes and often do so with no understanding of the great demands that come with being a student athlete in the limelight.
The Media Hurts Growth Of College Players
One coach claims the media plays a huge role in hindering the growth and development of some college players and coaches.
Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz scolded the media, specifically ESPN, after he declared that some of their analysts were “coach killers” and “player killers.”
“It’s a little tougher today,” Ferentz said in his weekly media availability session on Monday. “And with all the ESPN coverage and all that, in fact, I was making a comment to a couple of guys on the staff this morning. I was looking through there and saw three faces on that little thing on the left of your ESPN site, where they’ve got the videos. Three guys that are basically coach killers or player killers, you know, that are just like, all they’re trying to do is just stir up controversy. So that’s kind of what’s out there now for people to take in. You wonder why there’s so much negativity.”
What’s Kirk Ferentz’s Beef With ESPN?
Ferentz’s issue with these ESPN analysts is that they’re not giving coaches and players enough time to find their footing. When a player has a bad string of games at the college or amateur level, analysts are quick to question how well they’ll be able to perform at the professional level.
The media monster is a 24-hour a day business now so players and coaches get nitpicked on a daily basis more than ever. Even in those sports, where a sample size of performance is needed before making a definitive statement about a player’s character, ability or potential.
When a team has a bad season, analysts are also quick to call for a coach’s dismissal or discredit their performance.
Ferentz claims that the objective for these analysts is to “stir up controversy,” and in the process, they’re breeding negativity about coaches and players. ESPN creates narratives for a lot of players and coaches as well with their hot takes and debates.
Is ESPN A Coach and Player Killer?
Though he never named any of the analysts that he perceived as “coach and player killers,” ESPN does plant their main faces on the screens consistently and the basis of their performance is praising or criticizing players and issues surrounding sports.
Their opinions hold major weight with the average sports fan and tends to set the narrative for the sports culture of the moment.
The final complaint Ferentz has about ESPN concerns the hyperbole that many analysts use when discussing players, which leads to false expectations from fans who often expect instant success from players that need time to develop.
The players’ stock can take a hit if they don’t produce instant results.
Players Need Time To Develop Without The Media Hype
Ferentz has personally seen players on Iowa teams that started from the bottom and still landed in the NFL, which is why he won’t stand for sports’ biggest media outlet creating the narrative for coaches and players.
“I coached three guys … that started for us in the ’80s that all ended up being NFL players that didn’t start till their fifth year,” Ferentz said.
Ferentz was referring to Chris Campbell, Bruce Kittle, and Brett Miller, who didn’t immediately start in college but still landed in the NFL.
With the transfer portal becoming very popular, there’s more opportunities for student athletes to prove themselves and boost their draft stocks.
ESPN remains the most influential sports entity in media, and, right or wrong, when one of the network’s prognosticators speaks about a player it’s definitely going to contribute to how the casual fan perceives that player.