Blogs › Buffzone Blog

Hawk's rant distorted

Posted February 15, 2007

This is why people dislike the media.

On national signing day Feb. 7, Colorado football coach Dan Hawkins discussed his recruiting class at a press conference. Following the formal press conference. Hawkins sat down at two round tables with a handful of beat writers, columnists and radio guys who cover his team on a regular basis.

I was sitting right next to him.

This is something that former coach Gary Barnett did on a regular basis each week during the football season and Hawkins continued the tradition when he was hired.

Toward the end of the informal but on-the-record session, Hawkins was asked about players leaving the team and whether he thought more would leave before next season. He answered the question by sharing a story meant to show the type of atmosphere he inherited and the mind set he is trying to change at CU.

He said the parent of a player had recently sent him an anonymous letter complaining that he had cut by a week the amount of time players would have off at the end of the spring semester.

At one point while telling the story, Hawkins stood up and raised his voice for effect. He was never angry or upset in any way. Just Hawk being Hawk.

"It's Division I football! It's the Big 12! It ain't intramurals! You've got two weeks after finals, you've got a week of July Fourth and you get a week before camp starts," Hawkins said in his trademark booming voice, but not a shout. "That's a month. That's probably more vacation then you get. And we're a little bummed out that we don't get three weeks?"

"Go play intramurals, brother … Go play intramurals,"

Listen to the rant here.

He was never angry. He was never being challenged by a reporter. He was never under any stress at all. He was simply making a point with emphasis in a way only Hawkins can. He did it all with a smile.

When he was done, we all laughed at his animated delivery and he had clearly gotten the point across that too many people associated with the CU program still lack the dedication and resolve needed to compete for Big 12 and national championships. It's something he is trying to change.

I'm telling you, it's a shame there is no video of this because media outlets such as ESPN have completely blown it out of proportion and in some cases, such as Jim Rome, totally taken the whole thing out of context.

Rome actually suggested this was something the athletic director needed to look into. That's completely absurd, but not surprising considering the source

Hawkins is now being painted as someone who lost his cool or was angry. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some have said he must be feeling the pressure of a 2-10 season. Maybe he is, but that had nothing to do with his rant.

As defensive tackle George Hypolite said to me Wednesday at the CU basketball game, "That's just Hawk. He always does that when he's talking to us as a team. He gradually raises his voice and gets more and more fired up when he's talking to us."

Exactly.

Here is how I'm betting this all happened. We here at the Daily Camera published a podcast of Hawkins rant the day of the press conference. It's a funny clip and I imagine links to it being e-mailed around the country between friends. It eventually came to the attention of someone at ESPN who decided to make a big deal out of it on a slow news day nearly a week after it occurred.

People who weren't there and have no clue about the context of the situation have made it into something it wasn't just because they hear the man raise his voice. It's something that happens in the media far too often these days and we in the media deserve the criticism we get for our lack of fact checking and accuracy.