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Paul Daugherty
Enquirer columnist files news and observations

Paul Daugherty
Paul Daugherty has been an Enquirer sports columnist since 1994 and has been chronicling Cincinnati sports since 1988. He has covered almost every major sporting event in America, as well as five Summer Olympics. Along the way, he has been named one of the country's top-5 sports columnists four times, and Ohio columnist of the year on seven different occasions. Last year, he was voted 2nd-best sports columnist in the country, by the Associated Press Sports Editors.

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Wednesday, January 03, 2007

why sportswriters are cynical

While Marvin Lewis was doing a masterful act of contrition/spin job for the fawning local media yesterday (myself included), he was signing a guy who'd spent almost 300 days in jail. While Lewis was promising to be a hardass, he was bringing in a convict. Maybe he should become a prison warden.

Look, I like Lewis a lot. Away from the mass media feeding sessions, he's pleasant and straight up. He maintains that off-field junk has nothing to do with onfield performance, so signing Jason Berryman isn't exactly inconsistent with that. But to do what Lewis did yesterday does nothing but add another layer of mistrust. I wasn't born cynical. There is no cynical gene that I'm aware of. People in this business become cynical because of the people they have to deal with. Cynicism is the best armor we have to keep from looking foolish.

Lewis can bring in safecrackers, con men, tax cheats and arsonists, for all I care. Just be honest about it, and be prepared for the backlash when you don't win. And don't be as incredibly disingenuous as you were Tuesday, when you so sincerely addressed the character issue and swore it would be dealt with.

For the record, Berryman was an outside LB at Iowa State before they kicked him off the team in '05. In '04, he served nearly 300 days, on assault and theft convictions. No one took a chance on him, until now. It's hard to see Marvin Lewis in the same light today as I did yesterday.


10 Comments:

at 12:03 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree Doc,

Why does Lewis (Or Brown) take so many risks with turds. The Bengals are a few more arrests from changing their orange and black uniforms to black and white.

 
at 12:31 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Right on, Doc. This Bengal situation, for the already cynical, is becoming down right depressing. Of late, the more that Marvin stammers and rambles through these post-season interviews, the more it becomes apparent that he needs to start interviewing local realtors and dusting off his resume.

 
at 12:57 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Marvin knows one thing: coaches don't get fired for having players misbehave. If so, he wouldn't be around. Coaches get fired for losing. And if signing Berryman/others wins games, then he'll do it.

 
at 4:27 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

The question is becoming how long are we lemmings going to put up w/ Marvin's lies? I for one am getting tired of them. I am a 22 yr tiket holder at the moment I'm not sure about the 23rd year.
Robert Young
Milford

 
at 5:21 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Under Marvin Lewis' watch, the Bengals have gone from being a laughing-stock because of their win/loss record to being a laughing-stock because of their player's arrest records. I guess that might be progress to some.

 
at 5:54 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

NFL teams want one thing: winning. If Marvin thinks this guy will help, he'll be on the team next year. If not, he won't.
Perhaps he did a bit of acting yesterday, Doc. Guess what, we all lie. In our smiles to co-workers cuz we're supposed to, to answering "fine" when asked "how you doing?" to tons of other stuff. We lie. And "we" IS the right pronoun. You, me, and everyone else, including Marvin. He'll lie some more, too. So will I. If he's rude, call him on it to his face instead of in the paper. You'll get tons of respect from your colleagues, who feel the same way you do. His short, annoyed responses to reasonable questions pisses me off, too. But if I were in your shoes, I'd tell him. No lie.

 
at 6:27 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

bobestes makes a good and valid point about why coaches get fired. So I see that rationale. Still- this decision is hard to believe. Its hard to root for a team whose decision makers are this... i guess "stupid" is the appropriate word. Is the concept of public relations too difficult to grasp? The fan base is simmering with frustration over this type of player, and this seemed like a wise decision? For Marvin and the rest of the brain-trust - maybe its intelligence, (rather than sincerity) that needs to be questioned. This guy probably won't even make the team. All he does is line up with Rucker, Mcneal, Nicholson, Askew & Thurman as guys who contribute absolutely nothing to the team - but provide more fodder for national criticism.

 
at 8:04 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

As long as there are no empty seats in Paul Brown Stadium, I don't think anything else matters to Mike Brown.

 
at 10:05 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm cynical of sportswriters, I think they just want to sell papers.

I also agree with "anonymous" @ 5:54 PM. I get tired of reading writers and hearing radio hosts talk about Marvin's attitude at press conferences. Say it to his face on the record or go away.

 
at 11:14 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

PD,

What were they thinking? It mystifies me. Not just sportswriters, but what Bengal fan can help not being cynical? Warden Lewis is how i've referred to Marvin all year.

Can't resist a few last comments on the '06 season...

Remember when Marvin tried to ease Richie Braham out of the lineup in '03? The offense was going viciously bad without him, Lewis finally wised up & put him back in. Jon Kitna (Jon Kitna!!!) becomes Comeback Player of the Year.

In that disastrous early win over Cleveland this year, Braham goes down, Pollack goes down, D. Jackson goes down, talk about your costly victories. You couldn't help having a sinking feeling for the season from day forward.

Shortly after, Levi is out, B. WIlliams is out, and Palmer never really looks comfortable in the pocket for the rest of the year.

Hurried, hit, sacked, fumbling, & passes high & wide, & with not enough confidence in the guys up front to keep him standing. It's actually amazing to me he had the year that he did.

All you needed to hear were Palmer's comments about Braham on his retirement to know how much not having Ritchie affected Palmer's game.

BUT, despite all of those O-line woes...

You CANNOT let your opposing teams have an extra quarter of possession time every game!!! DUH! You would have to go back to the 70's & early 80's to find a Bengals team that inspired even just a tad of uneasiness in an opposing QB.

As everyone says, Justin Smith is a tough, sideline to sideline defender, but NOT an NFL sacker as advertised. The rest of the starting D-line (with the possible exception of Geathers at some point) is of no use. Brian Simmons is the old pro, and as old pros go, he's always been mediocore at best. The rest of the 'backers are way too young to judge, though L. Johnson has his moments.

And the secondary? It would be OK if D. Jackson can play, Madieu gets back to form, and we had guys who could actually cover. I'm hopeful for Joseph.

And to top it all, as i said in my reply to your Pittsburgh comments, then there's Bresnahan...

Ah but after all, what a sports wasteland there is in front of us now til September.

 
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