Pigs, gators, and stupidity

Yesterday a story broke that a reporter for The Hog Sports Radio was fired for wearing a Florida Gators hat to an Arkansas Razorbacks press conference.

You can watch press conference here, with Razorback Head Coach Bobby Petrino commenting on reporter Renee Gork's hat at around 1:35 into the video. Judging by his eye movement, Gork is somewhere off to his left. Both Gork and The Hog Sports Radio GM, Dan Storrs, went on the Dan Patrick Show yesterday and gave their side of what happened. Here are some links for you to catch up on:

• Sports Illustrated
• ESPN
• ESPN College Football reporter Chris Low

Aside from her apparent lack of taste in teams to support, I have no problem with her owning and wearing a Gators hat. The problem was that she wore a hat of a rival team on the job. Point of clarification here - it's professionally regarded to be in bad taste to wear apparel in support of any team when covering sports. In this case, Gork was employed by a station that doesn't claim to be objective and therefore the problem lies in that she was wearing the hat of an occasional opponent that is generally disliked across the rest of the SEC.

 Does anyone who knows me really think that if I was sentenced to work for the Mets that I would get rid of my Braves jerseys and hats? Or if one I am working for the University of Florida that I would simply no longer be a Georgia fan? Of course not! But you better believe I would be ULTRA-judicious about how and when they get worn in public. Wearing a Gators hat to ANY other team's press conference would be like Sarah going in to work at C*N wearing a "Faux News rocks!" shirt. Simply bad taste...on multiple levels.

Short and simple: you have got to always be aware of your surroundings. You must clearly know who you are working for, what they are about, as well as who is LISTENING to you and what they are expecting. The Hog Sports Radio apparently does not try to be objective, which is fine. If you are going to work for a station that has a stated purpose of supporting-not just covering-a team or school, and that's what the listeners are tuning in for, you simply can't make mistakes like that. People are always listening, and if it is known that you have an affiliation with another entity, someone who is listening is going to link your words or actions to that entity, whether correct or not. Whether she intended to or not, she put her employer in a position where they had to go on the defense, and that usually doesn't go over well.

I can't fault Petrino or the school for being irritated at Gork's attire. I also believe her side of the story that it was an honest mistake and she meant no disrespect. But how many times have we heard or read a story where the outcome would be drastically different had the person involved taken just 10 more seconds to think about what they were doing?