Connecticut Media Fights Back

You have to understand something about Connecticut. In terms of sports, we don’t have much to call our own. We live in the middle of the Yankee/Red Sox rivalry. South of Middletown, you take trips to the stadium during the summer. The more north you go, the more you want to spend your days at Fenway. We lost our hockey team. We root for three different NFL teams, none of whom are actually in Connecticut. The NBA is completely forgotten.

Sports writers don’t have much to strive for while working in Connecticut. It’s a sad day when someone’s career goal is to be a beat writer for a college basketball team.

Nevertheless, the entire state, including the media, loves their Huskies. So much so, that people often times forget how testy men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun can get. To put it mildly, the guy is a prick.

Over the years, he has had numerous run-ins with the press. Mike Francesca from WFAN has said on the air that they almost got into a fight over Francesca’s criticism of the team while at CBS many moons ago. It’s also hard to forget the Ryan Gomes incident that was all over ESPN two seasons ago. That time, Calhoun went insane on New Haven Register columnist Dave Solomon. He also routinely walks out on press conferences without every answering a question.

Most of the time however, Calhoun’s wrath is quickly forgotten. This time, the media is taking action.

Calhoun’s latest tirade was over the Hartford Courant’s Jeff Jacobs’ column that questioned whether it was fair that Marcus Williams was only suspended one semester for stealing laptops from the women’s basketball team while A.J. Price was suspended for the entire season.

Jacobs also went on WFAN to talk about his opinion.

This irked the UConn coach to the point where he threatened Jacobs, saying “If he has enough [testicles] to come up, he better come up with a couple of armed guards.” UConn sports information director Kyle Muncy also called Jacobs unqualified to speak on the air about the situation.

On Monday, Jacobs wrote a column detailing the problems between himself and Calhoun, basically saying that he has had enough. A day later, every sports columnist in the state gave their opinion, mostly in defense of their colleague.

Calhoun has no right to bully around members of the media however he pleases and all too often, he has gotten a pass.

It’s nice to see the rest of the media to back on of its own.

From Now On, Jim, I Give No Quarter – Hartford Courant
Calhoun’s outrage at writer out of bounds – New Haven Register
Sadly, Jacobs-Calhoun feud takes emphasis away from the court – Connecticut Post