Izzo Right, His Bosses? Not So Much
Obviously the highlight of last night's press conference in East Lansing was the back and forth between Tom Izzo and Lynn Henning of the Detroit News. It certainly was something that we have not seen around here, probably since Joe Falls attacked Mike Illitch at the Phil Garner hiring presser many years ago. Izzo did what he had to do and I commend him for calling out Lynn by name and even attacking his column, which did turn out to be 100 percent off-base. But, while Izzo defended his bosses last night, it was that duo which started this whole mess in the first place. Henning had enough of the "media bashing" and decided to attempt to defend his profession, and I commend him for it. Detroit has become an extremely soft media town. This certainly is not New York or Philadelphia or even Dallas for that matter. There are rare testy moments like what we had in East Lansing last night. Some writers and broadcasters here are very afraid to challenge anybody and in Izzo's defense, he is brilliant with his group of media. Brilliant. He invites them to dinner, he treats them like good friends, and he knows exactly what he is doing. Henning knows this, yet, after firing his initial salvo, then seemed to back down a bit.
Lou Anna Simon and Mark Hollis started it. The MSU President and AD took what was supposed to be a party, and turned it into a game of finger-pointing. Simon, in her speech, decided to rip the media and said that tweets were becoming facts. Hollis called some of the reporting "out of control". Really? Out of control, huh? Did anybody report that Tom got hit in the head by a golf club by his wife? Did anybody report that there was friction between Izzo and Hollis? Did anybody write that Tom was leaving to take the job? The quote unquote "out of control" may have been some of Lynn's opinions and maybe even what my man Pat Caputo had to say, but those are their "opinions" on the matter. In addition, it was Simon and Hollis that allowed the Monday circus at Tom's camp to go on. That could have been easily avoided with a quick statement before the camp started. There was nothing and THEY allowed the media inside.
There is no defending Lynn's piece the other day. It was way off and false. MSU is taking Tom back with open arms and he never left! Bad form by Lynn to write that, but, it was HIS OPINION. Not a report. An opinion piece. The Detroit News is the real culprit here for allowing it to go to print, when, as Izzo pointed out, Henning has not been around his program in years! That is on the Detroit News, which has still not hired a second sports columnist to pair with Wojo. Is Henning a baseball writer? Is he a general sports columnist? Nobody knows because the minor league newspaper doesn't even know. Heck, the Free Press's top sports columnist doesn't even live here anymore! Regardless, I found it to be in poor taste that the boss duo at MSU decided to go on a media bashing tour before Tom spoke. Izzo is the story. Izzo is the man. Just leave it at that.
