If there’s one thing I’ve noticed over the past few days when it comes to the reporting of the Michael Lombardi investigation, it’s how quickly some want to dismiss what is being investigated. There is truth to the feeling that just because a lawyer asks a question doesn’t mean the activity actually happened. They are just fact finding, and specifically WRAL is reporting something that they heard from people who were asked the questions.
So, let’s step back and not talk about what is being alleged,
salacious as it is. Let’s ask another question—why was WRAL able to report this in the first place?
We can go ahead and stop with the whole idea that they are just “out to get” Carolina or Belichick. What is being reported was cued up because of Carolina’s own investigation, and we all had questions about what was actually being investigated. It’s also pretty clear that something happened not only to spur the investigation but to force Lombardi to resign on Thursday. Yes, Lombardi leaving seemed like the inevitable result, however, him choosing to resign wasn’t. All you have to do is read the David Hale piece from ESPN or the piece posted in the Athletic before the TCU game. Lombardi’s attorney was publicly calling the investigation a “witch hunt” and it was setting up to where they were ready to fight the inevitable result.
Instead, Lombardi just resigns?
So what’s the key here? Look at the reporting, and in it you’re not only going to see people that were done with Lombardi, but you’ll see people that are completely over the entirety of the Bill Belichick experience. For the past year, people in the department have time and again gone to reporters to talk about the sort of culture that Belichick has cultivated. This, by the way, bridges over two different Athletic Directors as current AD Steve Newmark was technically just learning the job last year.
Some folks are going to compare this to the football issues that started back in 2010 and carried on for seven years. There is a huge difference this time—from the beginning people in the athletic department rallied around the cause and tried to handle things internally. It was constant external pressure that would bring issues to the surface. This time, however, the calls are literally coming from inside the house. Local reporters are able to speak to athletic department personnel easily enough to report on what’s being asked, and in all that we haven’t heard any denials from UNC or word that they are going to find out who is leaking out this information.
The other part about this is think about how much different the landscape is from over a decade ago. The News and Observer is a shell of itself and hasn’t broken any of the news, WRAL really only has two full time sports reporters now and a third does a lot of other inside investigation that gets into sports, the other local stations are just as cut down, and even sports talk radio isn’t nearly as prominent as it was before as cutbacks have shifted the voices on the dial, pushing some to podcasts. Between that and just how much college sports as a whole have changed—insomuch as the initial issues that football had back in 2010 wouldn’t even be considered improper today—there have to be a significant number of folks that want this to get out for it to be reported on in this manner.
To this point, we don’t have to really care whether or not what is being asked by the lawyers happened. What matters is that a significant number of people in the athletic department are clearly done with all of this, and hoping to give the whole Belichick system enough of a black eye to where everyone can move on. Carolina has said they are going to continue investigating, even with Lombardi out, and at some point that means the head coach is going to have to answer for something. Unlike the Patriots, UNC is a public entity. When there’s a report, it will come out. Maybe Bill Belichick and Michael Lombardi never fully grasped this, but the folks in the athletic department sure do. They’ve ridden this horse before.
It’s pretty clear the ones speaking to the media understand to move on, it had to be messy. Right now they sure seem like the four year old with a box of crayons.
