Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Meet Bo Pelini, Control Freak

Bo Pelini is back in the news, just over a week after his cruise through several taverns in downtown Lincoln in search of players violating his ban on consumption of adult beverages.

A editorial that ran in Monday's Daily Nebraskan, the student newspaper, ripped the Nebraska coach for his handling of players who have run afoul of the law. Prominently mentioned in the editorial was Josh Williams, a defensive end recruit from Denton, Texas. Williams was arrested last week for assault and robbery after he allegedly punched a man in the face and robbed him of $900.

The editorial enraged Pelini. According to the Daily Nebraskan, "Pelini called our office and berated one of our board members so loudly that he was heard clearly from across the newsroom. There’s no real point in printing the choice phrases he used during that first phone call.

"But Pelini informed us the Daily Nebraskan’s relationship with the football program would be severed unless an exhaustive retraction was published on [Tuesday's] front page.

"Athletic Department personnel confirmed Pelini’s decision later in the day, and asked that our reporters and photographers not show up at Monday’s practice while politely asking the one writer who did to leave."

Late Monday, Pelini called the paper again, this time lifting the media ban.

The Daily Nebraskan, much to its credit, is dusting itself off and is ready for another round with Pelini.

"In the coming days, one of our football writers will publish an article examining Pelini’s doctrine on team discipline. We hope it’s able to provide an objective look at part of the inner workings of Husker Football, a realm reserved for a few fortunate and highly-talented young athletes."

Thanks to Sean.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The student paper did a hatchet job on Pelini. What exactly is he supposed to do to a recruit who's hundreds of miles away... suspend him??? You could pull his scholarship, but... I gotta think you wait to see if the kid even faces charges.

Anonymous said...

The thing I don't like about the column's written in the DN is their is no byline on them, so instead of attacking an individual writer, Pelini went at the whole paper. My guess is the sports writers at the DN had nothing do with this story.

Anonymous said...

At the beginning of the DN story it states the article is an editorial. It's the viewpoint of the newspaper staff or its editorial board, not a particular writer.

Anonymous said...

The "rag" had been recently banned by the Governor for a hack piece. The editorial staff must be taking lessons from the national enquirer.

Anonymous said...

Just another example that college football coaches are immature bullies at best, and raging control freaks at worst.

Anonymous said...

The Daily Nebraskan is a rag of a newspaper, and has been trying to "rile up" folks with out of wack editorials for weeks now. Par for the course for the DN.

With that being said, Bo's reaction seemed a little bit much.

Anonymous said...

Bo is right, the article was B.S.

Anonymous said...

Bo lose his temper?? No way!!! This is the same guy who went after Bill Snyder after K-State stomped NU a few years back. The DN is the ONLY voice in Nebraska that dare questions the football team. They once called out Osborne for being the sellout he was with his renegade program and he also banned them back in the early to mid-90's. They also forced a local newspaper writer to apologize after writing a article questioning the Callahan era. It was either that or he was no longer to be allowed to cover the team. And after that there is nothing else to do in NE so he had no choice.

Anonymous said...

I don't know why anyone would care about an editorial from the DN. Out of all of the major newspaper publishers in the state, they are by far the worst one. Most high school journalism classes have kids who can write better and more tasteful articles than practically any of the sports writers for the DN.

Mac G said...

did the last guy just indirectly call the Omaha World Herald a good media outlet? Laughable.

I have no personal opinion of DN either way but at least they have some balls to give other view points on Nebraska football.

How about the University screwing with the seating of college kids at games? Dr. Tom really Fd them over. I would like to see more attention on that issue.