Indianapolis Star sports columnist Gregg Doyel was quietly suspended recently after an uncomfortable run-in with new Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark at her introductory press conference. Still, Colin Cowherd believes the punishment was a bridge too far. This is not because Doyel should not have been punished but because Cowherd believes Clark does not need protection from Indy Star management or anyone else in sports media.
In the latest episode of The Colin Cowherd Podcast, Cowherd explained how Clark is becoming the latest athlete that sports media goes out of its way to protect without reason.
“I would not have suspended Gregg Doyel, although I thought it was really weird,” Cowherd said of Doyel’s strange greeting and hand gesture to Clark last month. “Ask yourself this: if her name was Kevin Clark, would he have been suspended? Caitlin doesn’t need our protection. She is strong, tough, and defiant. I mean, watch her in games. She is tough.”
Doyel put up a heart-hand symbol that Clark is known to put up on the court to her family before asking the basketball sensation a question. He also told her, “Start doing (the sign) to me, and we’ll get along just fine.”
Fans who saw the viral clip almost universally agreed it was uncomfortable, but to Cowherd, it’s clear Clark handled it fine. And she seems more than able to handle a sports writer like Doyel, who was also banned from covering Fever games as part of his punishment.
“I think the media is well-meaning with Caitlin, but it is a very regular occurrence of protecting people who don’t need protecting,” Cowherd explained. “And the ultimate respect for women athletes is that Serena (Williams) is Roger Federer’s equal emotionally and in her sport.”
It’s all part of sports media’s adjustment to covering the WNBA more thoroughly, Cowherd said.
“The WNBA will arrive this year, and it will arrive because the discussions will be authentic and critical, not flowery and protective,” he added. “And I’m looking forward to it.”
A sports journalist getting banned from local team coverage is an extreme gesture. It’s worth asking how Doyel can do his job if he is boxed out of covering perhaps the biggest story in town by his own bosses. Would Doyel have been suspended if the clip had not gone viral?
These are all fair questions, as is Cowherd’s point about the recipient. Doyel is known in the industry as an oddball, and he acknowledged that in his apology to Clark and Indiana fans.
IndyStar bringing the hammer down is likely strongly connected to Clark’s fame and the high profile the incident took on, and may not truly be fair to Doyel in the big picture.