[h1]The 10 Most Disgusting Figures In College Football [/h1]
by
Jay Coulter on
Jul 18, 2011 1:39 PM CDT in
Football
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Even the best things in life come with annoyances. College football is not immune. There are some people in the world who bring everyone down, whether it's college football or Friday night happy hour. Today, we take a look at the Top 10 Most Disgusting Figures in college football.
While most of the list is comprised of media members, membership is open to anyone. The list obviously has an Auburn slant, but I'm sure fans of other programs will agree with at least some of our selections. Here goes:
1. Paul Finebaum (Radio Host) - Was there ever any doubt? Any man who allows his callers to trash innocent college girls on national radio not only deserves to be number one, but probably has a reserve seat waiting in hell. He brings out the very worst in fandom and is a huge cancer on the game of college football. He's almost single handedly turned the Iron Bowl into an English soccer match. Fortunately, many in the national media are taking notice.
2. Thayer Evans (Fox Sports) - Evans story is a cautionary one for all writers. By letting his strong personal feelings infect his job, he's now widely regarded as a joke nationally. The viciousness in which he went after Cam Newton last season was startling considering he writes for a national publication. Then again,
Fox Sports is run by
News Corp. which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, and we all know how they conduct business. While Newton has moved on, Evans is left to pick up the pieces of his career.
3. Pete Thamel (New York Times) - Better suited for
The New York Post than
The New York Times, Thamel did his best last year to bring down Cam Newton. There's something unsettling about a writer from the nation's largest paper working tirelessly to bring down a college student. Thamel's insinuations in those stories were nauseating. It's been widely speculated that former Florida coach Urban Meyer worked with Thamel in breaking the story. The Times covering college football is akin to
Vanity Fair writing about NASCAR.
4. Tim Brando (CBS Sports) - Has anyone in the college game fallen faster than Brando? Once regarded as the best studio man in college football, his weekly appearances on the Finebaum program along with his daily radio show has ruined his reputation. Who knew his views were so out in left field? Spend five minutes listening to Brando and you quickly realize how highly he thinks of himself. A word of advice: stick to giving game highlights at halftime.
5. Joe Schad (ESPN) - Has any national reporter missed on stories as much as
ESPN's Schad? When you see his name attached to a story, take it with a grain of salt. Because of the four letters before his name, he's able to create firestorms that take months to put out. How much longer will
ESPN keep him on the college football beat?
6. Brooks Melchior (Sports By Brooks) - The biggest joke in all of college football blogging, Melchior wants so bad to play with the big boys. He never lets the truth get in the way of a good story. His recent story on the Auburn Tigerettes had some of his own loyal readers questioning his work. A Georgia graduate, he can't hide his hatred of Auburn. Fortunately for Tiger fans, few in college football take him seriously. I considered leaving him off the list completely because of his lack of reach in the media world.
7. Jessie Palmer (ESPN) - Yet another reporter who can't put aside his petty college hatred. Last fall, the former Florida quarterback took every opportunity to down play Auburn as they moved up the BCS ranks. Watching scenes of him get emotional holding a rose in his hand on
The Bachelor is more than enough to pull his man card and send him into exile forever.
8. Jim Delany (Big 10) - Like your mom always said, be careful what you say about others, because it may come back to haunt you. So is the case for the Big 10 commissioner. Only a year ago, Delany delighted in taking shots at the SEC and its problems with the NCAA. Fast forward to now and his conference is widely viewed as the most corrupt of all. Have there ever been two bigger phonies than Jim Tressel and Delany?
9. Andrea Kremer (HBO) - In the
latest book about the
ESPN Empire, Kremer's bosses heaped praise on her reporting skills while she worked in Bristol. Talk about a detached bunch! Her recent
HBO piece about college football cheating was one of the great hatchet jobs of the past 25 years - and that's saying a lot. Kremer was clearly only interested in the four former Auburn players who had vendettas against the school. Several former Auburn players came forward to say they had spoken with Kremer to dispute these accusations. How many of their interviews made it on air? Zero.
10. Lane Kiffin (USC) - Never has anyone in college football made so much money for doing so little. Look up the definition of charmed life and you'll see a picture of Lane grinning. Although gone from the SEC for more than a year now, he continues to create chaos for the conference and his old program, Tennessee. His arrogance is hard to watch.