Another ESPN.com Problem

To echo Ben's comments about ESPN.com seemingly being ignorant of events in the Pac-10, one of their college football writers, Mark Schlabach, wrote a story about Sam Keller a few days ago. Keller, who began the 2005 football season as ASU's starting QB before an injury ended his season, transferred to Nebraska at the beginning of last season after he was named the ASU starter for 2006 by then-coach Dirk Koetter and then replaced just two days later in favor of Rudy Carpenter. It was a major story here and, in some ways, haunted ASU throughout last season.

Keller is now going to be the starter at Nebraska this year, and Schlabach writes this story portraying Keller to be the wronged man in the ASU story. The problem is, he never attempts to get any ASU perspective in the story. He mentions off-hand how many ASU players went to Koetter after he named Keller the starter and said they felt that Carpenter was the better choice to lead the team, but it seems he made no attempt to talk to any of those players. Also, Keller's dad is quoted in the article saying that Carpenter didn't have what it took to be "the guy" on a football team, but again, there are no comments from Carpenter in the story. He does say in the story that Koetter could not be reached for comment, but even if had talked to Koetter, that does not get an ASU perspective in the story, as Koetter was fired by ASU and now works as an NFL assistant. Finally, he mentions the RUMORS (not substantiated facts by any means) that Carpenter threatened to transfer, which led to Koetter changing his mind. However, he does not at all address the many rumors that have circulated around ASU about Keller and his off-field behavior. Overall, I just found it to be a very irresponsible story that basically read like a press release for Keller, making him the fallen hero and everyone at ASU (Koetter and Carpenter in particular) the villains. Sorry to go on and on, but this story just frustrates me as an ASU football fan because many outside Tempe will read this and believe they are getting the whole story when they are not.