Former Iowa Hawkeyes star turned Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark has quickly become one of the biggest names in all of sports. And with that has naturally come the attention from the media. But has the media perhaps protected Clark more than they should? FS1’s Colin Cowherd and Nick Wright seem to believe so.
One of the bigger stories surrounding Clark as of late has been the suspension of Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star after a rather uncomfortable interaction with Clark during her introductory press conference with the Indiana Fever last month.
Doyel will also no longer be covering any Fever games in person this season after this interaction, a decision that has been highly debated amongst sports media members.
Colin Cowherd made his stance on the matter very clear on Thursday, saying that he believes that Doyel shouldn’t have been suspended.
Further explaining his reasoning as to why he thinks this, he said that he believes that this is an instance of the media protecting Clark, despite the fact that he believes Clark doesn’t actually need all that much protection.
“It’s something that the media does with regularity,” said Cowherd on his podcast, the Colin Cowherd Podcast alongside Nick Wright. “They protect players who don’t need protecting. It’s actually disrespectful. I wouldn’t have suspended Gregg Doyel. Caitlin doesn’t need our protection. She is a strong, tough, defiant… just watch her in games. She is tough.
Nick Wright then chimed in, saying that he believes that as the WNBA grows in popularity in the coming years, there will be an “equality of criticism” that is more on par with what NBA players deal with.
“There is a level of, this just sounds silly, but equality of criticism that I do think now is going to come to the WNBA,” Wright said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a direct, straight, linear growth, but I do think they now have enough star power that it is going to be a topic.”
In some ways, Wright is absolutely correct. Clark seemed completely well-versed to handle herself in the midst of her awkward interaction with Doyel. It can certainly be argued that the decision to remove him from covering the team in person was a bit of an overreaction, largely because the clip of the interaction went viral on social media.
However, Clark does currently face her own level of criticism from the media when it comes to the comparisons she gets to NBA stars, which is certainly unfair.
All you have to do is go on social media and you’ll find a clip of athletes who don’t even play basketball asked whether or not they can beat Clark in a 1-on-1 basketball game. Most recently, former Iowa Hawkeyes cornerback turned NFL draft pick Cooper DeJean went viral on social media for publically saying he believes he could beat Clark in that hypothetical scenario.
Again, it certainly seems like Clark can take the heat in these instances. But for those reasons, it may be smart to keep the right people around Clark when it comes to media members directly asking her questions in the future.
