Tiger Woods and Top Ten Summer Stories That Just Won't Go Away

You really have to love the way the media can bleed a story dry and still keep going long after its 15 minutes. This summer, there's no such thing as overdoing a story. It may have been an interesting story or not to begin with, but by the time the media is done belaboring it, all we want to do is see the story go away. So here are the top ten most overdone, overstated, overblown stories of the summer. 

Urban Meyer "Rips" Jeremy Fowler

If you only heard the reports, and never saw the video footage for yourself, you'd think that Meyer had gone into an uncontrolled rage.  You might think he ripped the arms off of Jeremy Fowler and beaten him with them for writing that receiver Deonte Thomson had insinuated that Tebow wasn't a "real" quarterback. In truth, it was more of a "rebuke" than a "rip" and was somewhat merited. Fowler didn't misquote Thomson, but he wasn't accurate in how he conveyed Thomson's thought. I actually think Meyer was kind of commendable for sticking up for his players. Of course, if he hadn't, that would have been the story instead. 

Gale Sayers vs. Brian Urlacher

Gale Sayers was asked about his thoughts on the upcoming season, and he gave them, and they weren't flattering.  

Then Brian Urlacher was asked what he thought about what Gale Sayers said, and his response wasn't flattering.

It was like the little kid on the playground who asks two big kids what they think of each other in order to manipulate a fight. They were both just answering questions, but that didn't matter to the media. The next thing you knew, it was a national story about a past great not getting proper respect from a present great, and a "that's what's wrong with America today" story.

I thought the media was supposed to report the news, not make it. Now it seems that every time Urlacher's name comes up Sayer's name follows.

It's time for this non-story to go away. 

Rex Ryan Swears

Perhaps the only one genuinely surprised to hear that Rex Ryan swears is his mom. Maybe he watches his tongue around her. Why precisely this was "newsworthy" remains a mystery to me. The next thing you know, we'll be finding out that there's swearing in other NFL locker rooms, too. 

Ben Roethlisberger

It's easy to think from the way the media has reported it, that Big Ben did it and got away with it.

However, in a story that took on the magnitude of this one, you have to wonder how a DA could have dismissed things so easily if there was something to it.

You wonder until you learn that there were some problems with the case though, like the alleged "victim" wasn't sure she'd been raped, and at times during the interview said she hadn't been.

Instead of reporting that though, the media was too busy reporting that Ben Roethlisberger had admitted to the police he had sex with her, a statement he'd never actually made.

In fact on this matter, the media did a much better job of getting out wrong information, than accurate information.

As a result there are a lot of very strong, very misinformed opinions about this story. He ends up getting suspended more for the perception of what he did than what he actually did. 

Dez Bryant Doesn't Carry Shoulder Pads

Dez Bryant, "I'm not here to be hazed, I'm here to play football" attitude gained a lot of outrage from the media.

What essentially then came out was a national "pro-hazing" stance. While no one ever got killed carrying shoulder pads, people have been killed every year for the last 40 years in hazing incidents.

Instead of making Bryant a scapegoat for not wanting  to be hazed, the collective media could have pointed to his courage and let the freshmen of the world know that this was the proper way to handle it.

Instead of furthering the myth that hazing helps build team chemistry, the media could have pointed out that both Super Bowl teams from last year have an anti-hazing policy.

The media didn't just make too much of the story, they reported the wrong story. 

USC and Lane Kiffen

There has been an awful lot of attention to the Trojans this summer, and some of it merited, but this much? Whether it's the penalties or the poaching of NFL coaches, or Bush's latest comments, it's just getting boring.

With all of this talk you'd think we were talking about a team that finished last season ranked higher than 22. The best thing about the sanctions against the Trojans is that those of us who don't live in So Cal won't have to have them shoved down our throats for the next few years.

Well, maybe not after this summer anyway.  

Brett Favre's Retirement Text

You might be under the impression that Brett Favre retired this summer.

He actually never did. Rather, one teammate said that he heard a couple of other teammates had gotten a text from Favre saying he wasn't going to play this year. Within hours the story that Favre had retired was racing through the nation.

The following day, when Favre said he wasn't retiring, rather than acknowledge they'd been wrong, the media made it appear as though Favre had "unretired" again.

While he has his history on this matter, he never actually retired this year. The media here is at fault, as no one seemed to bother to find out who those "couple of teammates" were or what they said.

In today's rush to get the story out  first though, the media often worries last about getting the story out accurate. 

Albert Haynesworth Worth

The summer is marked by the daily Haynesworth report about whether he passed the physical, and then what he did in training camp or didn't do in training camp or what he said about the 4-3 system, and so on.

It's driving me nuts!

He's coming off an unremarkable year and playing for an unremarkable team.

So what precisely makes his unremarkable training camp so worthy of remarking upon? 

Tiger Woods

The Tiger Woods story was on the cover of the New York Post a record number of days, breaking the record set from 9/11.

However big you think the story is, I'm sure you agree it's not bigger than that.

If you need any proof that James didn't get any extra attention for hosting "The Decision" then look no further than "The Apology."

Now he's getting divorced and the story that won''t die is back to haunt us some more. 

LeBron James "Decision"

Has there been a more controversial charity event in the history of charity? Some people make the argument the charity was a cover for his ego. I'm willing to give him a little more credit than that, though.

He's donated over a million dollars of his own money to ONEXONE and has been heavily involved with kids charities his whole career. 

Still, some say "It's not what he did it's how he did it." My reaction, what's wrong with the way he did it? The primary reasons given are that it was a narcissistic move and revolves around the sentiment, "LeBron thinks it's all about LeBron." Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but isn't where LeBron plays all about LeBron?

And as far as the "extra" attention goes, does anyone truly believe that ESPN would not have spent an hour on the subject if he hadn't announced it on "The Decision"? 

Certainly there's been more time devoted to talking about "The Decision" than one hour. Whether you agree with "The Decision" or not, whether you agree with the decision itself or not, there's little argument on this.

We're all sick of hearing about it.