Look out, it is going to keep growing.
The latest WaPo feature is not on the story itself, but on how there will soon be more stories.
Greeeeaat.
I already said my piece about Game Day’s decision to broadcast from Blacksburg for the Va. Tech-East Carolina game instead of going to Berkeley for Cal vs. Tennessee. They chickened out.
But again, why must every sports page now make a connection between the April 16 massacre and Virginia Tech football? Did CNN, Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, etc., not do their jobs covering the horrifying tragedy? Why the need for the football perspective? Is it necessary to hear every possible angle on this?
It is not the job of the sports media to comment on this massacre. Doesn’t anyone remember the movie Heathers? Using a tragedy like this to draw an audience reeks of exploitation.
This may sound callous, but the Hokie football team is not going to be affected in any way by the massacre. It will not try to win any harder than it usually does. When the helmets are strapped on, it will beat East Carolina handily, just like it has the last three times the schools have met.
But what may happen is the team could be distracted more than usual by a bunch of unwarranted attention that has nothing to do with its play on the field.
Says VT tackle Duane Brown:
“It’s kind of a bad thing, that’s the only thing that reminds people of Virginia Tech. But at the same time, everyone sympathizes with you. It will be on people’s minds whenever Virginia Tech comes up. But we’re ready for it.”
I’m not.
Heck, even Va. Tech students are ready to move on.
Powell said he recently asked his friend what the students talk about most. He thought his friend would mention the campus shootings in April, when the Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho killed 27 students, 5 faculty members and himself.
Instead, his friend said that more than anything, the freshmen wanted to know when and where they would receive their football tickets.
“It just made me realize that people are ready to get past what happened and they’re ready to look toward this team to lead us out of this,” Powell said Sunday during the Atlantic Coast Conference’s news media day.
Not that the sports media is listening. This is the best story to happen to wannabe Rick Reillys since Katrina hit. Some are already comparing the Hokies to the New Orleans Saints.
A Pulitzer awaits. To the keyboard!
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