Everybody's favorite Statesman columnist is back to what he does best: incite anger.
Murphy jumped on a story on FOXSports.com about the Broncos that we linked to this morning regarding their being ranked as the best college football team from the last decade. The story is really not that big of a deal. FOX Sports didn't write it. Some Bleacher Report guy did. Bleacher Report is an open community for sports writers to give their opinions, and FOX Sports picks up an occasional story here and there.
Nevertheless, Murphy found the story important enough to blog about, and needless to say, he disagreed with it.
Still, it's tough to see how a team with one top-5 finish in the polls and no national titles (Boise State) is better than a team like USC, which won back-to-back national titles in the last decade.
Come on, Fox. This is plain ridiculous.
And then all hell broke loose in the comments section. Here is just a taste of the maelstrom of opinion:
I hate Murphy. Even if you feel that way as a local sports writer you have a lot of hate for our team and it is so easy to see in your writing of them. No one likes you in Boise except Vandal fans!
...and...
I do not know how he still has a job. Move to Moscow or Pocatello. OR if you dont have anyting nice to say just shut up
...not to mention...
You are entitled to your opinion and that is fine, you hate BSU, ok. My point again is that I do not think a local sports writer should have your negative opinion and always express teh negative side and view of our local team that most of us love in our local paper. He doesn't fit. I should not get angry every time I have to read his negative views of our team in MY LOCAL PAPER every day. You say then don't read it. It is one of the only things I have to keep up on my team. Most of us want a writer that gets us excited about our team and points out the positives. That is the point.
...and one more for good measure...
PLEASE STATESMAN PLEASE READ THIS. Give us a writer who gets excited about our local team and get us a writer who is excited about writing about them and actually likes them. Get rid of this bum. You would be doing us and from his writing I believe him a favor by doing so.
There were plenty more where that came from. At the time of this post, Murphy's article had racked up 56 comments. To put that in perspective, Chadd Cripe openly solicited comments about the quarterback race in a blog post last week. He got 46 replies.
Fortunately, some good came of this. One level-headed commenter set Murphy straight and gave everyone hope that there is a better alternative out there.
Murph, I am sure you read these comments. Understand that I don't live in Idaho. I live in St. George, UT. There is nothing in the way of Boise State coverage down here. I look to the Statesman to keep me informed. While I applaud you for remaining objective and fair most of the time, I have to agree with the masses this time. You purposely are misleading your readership with this blog entry.
For the rest of you out there who feel like I do, there is a little known website out there that I've found has all the Boise State information one could want. It's called 'One Bronco Nation Under God' and you can access it at www.obnug.com.
I wouldn't be one bit surprised if Murph found this FoxSports.com piece by going to OBNUG himself and seeing the link that was posted this morning.
Glad to see this whole thing could come to a fair and just conclusion.
Boise State #1 football team over last decade? [Murph's Turf]
Update: Murphy has been compelled to respond.
Posts
I see both sides of this "story".
ReplyDeleteFirst, I think Bronco fans are a little thin skinned sometimes. I mean, we are the only game in town. Hell, we're the only game within a 300 mile radius. Thus, they don't have to take a lot of criticism from some other team's fans. Except the strong Vandal contingent here, but they haven't had much to crow about in the past 10 or so years.
When I went down to the Utah game a couple years ago, you were constantly reminded that BYU was close. So was Weber State. Plus, Utah State was just up the road. There was a dairymen promotion going on that was mentioned repeatedly about getting each schools fans involved. It dawned on me just how easy Bronco fans have it.
I hate to say it, but I think it might have made some of us soft.
That being said, however, I do think that for Murphy to dismiss the list as "ridiculous" goes a little out of bounds. He is not a reporter. He is a columnist. Reporters have the duty to be "objective". Columnists have opinions, which is different. Any time the local team is getting positive pub, it is a good thing. ALWAYS. Now, as a columnist, if Boise State screws up, I expect him to call them on it. (Paul J for example). But when it's a good thing, get on board, Murph.
Interesting take on the Utah teams. It is certainly easy to get a big head about the Broncos when there is very little to convince you otherwise. Something that might have made this discussion a little easier to handle? A playoff system. Then we could have seen just how good that 2006 team was.
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