The University of Nebraska’s now on its third football public-address announcer this offseason, and their second one only lasted one day. Nebraska said Monday they’d hired former KETV local sports director Jon Scheutz for the position, but on Tuesday, they told Schuetz they were “going in a different direction” thanks to the discovery of a November Facebook post he made criticizing the Cornhuskers’ decision to fire coach Bo Pelini. From KETV:
Schuetz says the University of Nebraska contacted him about a social media post Schuetz made months ago in the wake of the firing of former head football coach Bo Pelini.
The post, now taken down, reportedly was critical of the University’s actions against Pelini.
In a conversation with KETV NewsWatch 7, Schuetz said Tuesday he was told the University was going in a different direction.
Schuetz said he understands the University’s position, and has no animosity about its decision to look for another announcer.
Here’s the key part of the university statement on Schuetz:
“Yesterday, the University was made aware of a social media comment posted last year by the newly-named football public address announcer, Jon Schuetz. After reviewing the post, highly critical of University leadership and, after thorough internal discussion, we visited with Jon, who was extremely apologetic and agreed with our decision that he cannot represent the University in such a public capacity.”
Nebraska obviously has the right to choose whoever they want as a PA announcer, but their handling of this seems amateurish. It’s not surprising that a long-time observer of the team (Schuetz spent 24 years in local television in Omaha and over 15 at KETV, leaving in 2010) would have an opinion on the Pelini firing, one that was divisive amongst many fans of the program. If they were particularly concerned about opinions he’d previously expressed, they should have looked into those opinions before announcing they’d hired him. Parting ways with someone over a months-old critical Facebook post also seems a little much; consider how many worse comments have been made on social media by various media types without even a suspension. Even if they really wanted those views taken back, it seems they could have solved this by having Schuetz apologize publicly and delete the post (both of which he did). For reference, this is nowhere near the level of the criminal charges (alleged extortion of over $363,000 from two elderly women) that got previous PA announcer Patrick Coombs fired. Those clearly deserved a strong response; old Facebook comments, maybe not so much.
The Cornhuskers wound up going with Lane Grindle instead, the previous sideline reporter on their radio broadcasts. Interestingly, according to a university release, Grindle will continue to perform radio duties:
We are pleased to welcome Lane Grindle as our new public address announcer for the 2015 season. Lane has been a part of the Husker Family for more than 10 years, and we look forward to his first game in the booth at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. Grindle, who currently is a member of the Husker IMG Sports Network team, will continue his pre and postgame football duties on the radio network during home games and will still serve as the sideline reporter for away games. Steve Taylor, also with the Husker IMG Sports Network broadcast team, will serve in an expanded role at Husker home games as the sideline reporter.”
So, it seems Nebraska’s at least found an alternative in time for the season. Have they vetted all his Facebook posts, though?
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