11-18-2009/11-19-2009 BOTTOM LINE EDITORIAL... KU'S MARK MANGINO UNDER FULL MEDIA ATTACK By John Landsberg It is simply amazing how fast the news media and fans will turn on a coach when he starts losing. Entering this season football coach Mark Mangino and his Kansas Jayhawk football team were picked by sports "experts" to win the Big XII North crown---with ease. After all, Mangino had taken one of the lousiest football programs in the country and had completely turned it around. In 2007 KU had a 12-1 record and an Orange Bowl victory. Oh, in that year he was named the "National Coach of the Year." He was considered the BEST coach in the nation. Take that Bob Stoops, Urban Meyer, Pete Carroll, Joe Paterno, Jim Tressel, et al. Mangino did all of this after inheriting a football program eight years ago which had not posted a winning record in any of the previous six seasons prior to his arrival. Going to a football game at KU was something a few of the Jayhawk faithful did until basketball season started. Mangino has already become the third-winningest coach in school history and has led KU to more Bowl games (four) than any previous Jayhawk coach. His 3-1 bowl-game mark gives him the most bowl wins at the school. He has helped bring in millions of dollars to the school. He is running a profitable major business. He has been able to take players who were not recruited by biggers schools and coach them up into winners. Many of the players whining about Mangino's tactics were poor performers on full scholarships that he was trying to motivate. (Note: The cost of a scholarship at Florida State is $37,500 per year or $150,000 for a four-year degree.) ESPN reported one player said Mangino said "hurtful things" to him. Wait until they enter the corporate world where CEO's do not care about their "feelings." This year, the Jayhawks started with a perfect 5-0 mark and Mangino was a genius. However, the team has been plagued by injuries and turnovers and an injured star quarterback (who would be third string at any major football power), and has now lost 5 straight games. And now, incredibly, there seems to be an all-out media campaign to have the coach fired. In one of the most ridiculous columns ever written in the annals of sports history, Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock believes Mangino should be fired because he is fat. (LINK) "Every problem he experienced at Kansas could be blamed on his weight," pontificated Whitlock. The Web site Deadspin had a field day making fun of Whitlock, calling him the "arbiter of pudginess" noting Whitlock had also written a cruel column picking on Serena Williams' "ballooning weight." The Pitch Weekly teed off on Mangino, calling him the "White Whale." All in good fun, of course. Heck, the sleuths at the Lawrence Journal-World uncovered the fact that "scofflaw Mangino racked up 23 parking tickets for parking in a loading zone near his office between 2004 and 2007." Parking tickets? At most major schools the coach has his own parking spot. Some probably have their own drivers. At KU they are giving their head coach parking tickets? Oh, and reportedly, Coach Mangino also poked a player in the chest. He has even yelled at other players. Stop the presses!!! That hasn't been done by a grade/high/college football coach somewhere in....the past 10 minutes. You can be sure that Nebraska's Bo Pellini has never yelled at a player. Or Stoops. As a veteran, I can only hope that none of these players ever go into the military. "Mom, my drill sergeant has said some really hurtful things to me and said some bad people might shoot at me. Can I come home?" As one would expect, sports talkers (KSU homer Kevin Kietzman has been in full attack) have also piled on, following other media outlets. The media feeding frenzy is in full force. These childish attacks have made the news media look like clowns. It also makes the media look petty and mean-spirited. It is kind of like children who now have permission to pick on the fat kid in the playground. At 5-0 the media reported on none of this; at 0-5 this is major news. In this day and age of political correctness it seems inconceivable that a discussion of one of the top coaches in the nation who has completely turned around an abysmal program and has brought in millions of dollars is reduced to fat jokes. Or being judged by the remarks of a handful of whining players out of the hundreds he has coached. The news media is now saying Mangino will be fired. They should be ashamed.
WHITLOCK AND FAT? "Of all people to rag on the coach because fat��Jason Whitlock? Maybe he needs to get reacquainted with his bathroom mirror. I�m actually surprised Whitlock hasn�t called him a racist��yet."
11-19-2009 PUBLIC APOLOGY "Nice article John. And you're absolutely right. the feeding frenzy is absurd. Look how long Indiana tolerated Bobby Knight. And you don't see Notre Dame faithful telling Charlie Weis to go on a diet or saying his weight is why the team is suffering! Good grief... "Lew should just tell Mangino to calm down, pay his tickets, and dock him a week's pay for disciplinary reasons, Then make him publicly apologize. After all, in this day and age, an apology is all you need to get you off the hook."
WEIS'S WEIGHT "Charlie Weis already had weight reduction surgery (during which he nearly died). Imagine how fat he'd be without that."
NICE WORK "Just wanted to commend you on your editorial about the Mangino thing. You're absolutely right about how ridiculous it is that the media is coming down this hard on him (particularly when they've all fawned over him, especially Whitlock), and it's silly that this thing spun out of control so fast. Anyway, just wanted to say nice work. You continue to set the bar for local media criticism." ---- McKay
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