Overblown Non-Story of the Week Award

Okay folks, here it is, the first official "Overblown Non-Story of the Week Award", which will be awarded to a story that hits the national sports media despite having zero actual merits as sports news. I'm not sure I'm going to hand out this award every week, but I feel like this kind of things is going to come up often enough that I should make it at least a semi-regular feature. In order to be eligible for the award, the story must appear as a front page link on a prominent national sports website (ESPN, SI, etc), or I must hear it referenced on two different national sports radio programs in the same day (I typically listen to 3 different shows each weekday). Chances are, most recipiants will wind up satisifying both criteria.

This week's award goes to the coverage that has surrounded what happened at a Detriot Lions' team Halloween party. First, a brief summary of the events themselves. In 2006, Joe Cullen, Detriot's defensive line coach, was arrested for driving naked through a Wendy's drive-in. A week later, he was arrested on suspicion of driving drunk. There were some serious personal issues going on behind the scenes that the coach has made great progress with over the last year plus. Fast forward to earlier this week, when Lions' quarterback showed up at a team Halloween party dressed as the naked coach, with his wife dressed up as a Wendy's drive-thru worker.

The following day, Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press wrote this stinging article: What was Kitna thinking? Costume masks the more serious issue. In it, he blasted Kitna for his insensitivity in bringing this difficult incident back to the attention of the local community, and demanded an apology. As is the way of the world, the story was quickly picked up and made national news and buzzed across sports talk radio.

Notably absent from the article - any word on Coach Cullen's actual opinion about the incident. For the record, Cullen has told the team he had no problem with the costume, and Kitna has stated in his defense that when Cullen found out about it, his first question was "Did you win?" refering to the costume contest at the party. For the record, Kitna did not win, and this apparently brought some disappointment to Cullen. So, in the style of our day, Sharp was taking offense and demanding an apology on behalf of someone who did not want one. Kitna has insisted that he never would have done it if he hadn't known the coach would find it funny.

The irony of the whole situation is that Sharp, in blasting Kitna for bringing this incident back up, was actually the one who ensured that the story returned not only to local promience, but also to the national scene. Kitna has spent the better part of the last couple days apologizing, not for the incident itself, but for the commotion that has risen around it. In this writer's opinion, he owes an apology to no one, as long as Cullen doesn't want one. The people who should be apologizing are Drew Sharp and the other members of the media who made the Cullen costume incident this week's recipiant of the "Overblown Non-Story of the Week Award".