I suppose since these guys are lasting about three months now there isn't much to pay attention to. From my calculations, there has been five different football beat writers since 2006. And we wonder why Hubbs has exalted status in this town? Anyway, the highlights: His name is Evan Woodbery. He is an Alabama grad. He covered Auburn for the Mobile Press Register. And Auburn fans want nothing but the worst for the guy. They allege he is a Bama homer who intentionally drummed up bad press about Auburn. His handiwork? The Big Cat recruiting story and parts of the Cam Newton scandal. Let me repeat: Auburn fans hate this guy and in essence designed a website imploring Al.com to fire him for being "too negative". My initials thoughts: First, anytime journalists are hated I think they (the journalists) are probably on to something; maybe not the whole something, but getting close to the truth of the matter. Second -- and here is why Vol fans should care -- at his core this guy seems like an investigative journalist, someone who thrives on uncovering the hidden story. My nonscientific perspective of the News Sentinel over the last few years is that they have doubled down on investigative journalism and gone away some from the cutesy human interest stories. So, don't be surprised if this guy plays with the gloves off a little. Or, if like the others recently, uses his position to transition to another job. Or is a spy for Nick Saban. Or, just takes a check and thanks his lucky stars he left Alabama. Oh, one other sidenote. Can you guess the last UT football beat writer who previously worked for the Mobile Press-Register?
Too bad these quite limited skills didn't translate with the ladies. "Oh, did you know Jermaine Copeland was from Harriman," is not the best pick up line. Well, it worked with one lady I suppose, but she married me.
The last "investigative" story the News Sentinel did to which I was privvy to the inside details was a total hack job that vilified the wrong people in order to make the story more interesting.
