Summer of Smokey? No! Summer of Dodging Questions!

If you fail to call out Tennessee’s decision to drop the Vol Caravan this year, you’re part of the problem.

I’ve long maintained that too many members of the sports media in the Tri-Cities market as being an extension of the public relations department rather than true journalists.

For instance, look at the lack of criticism East Tennessee State received for dropping football. Oh, there was some, primarily from myself, and ETSU retaliated against me for it.

And I received no support from my peers. Instead, then Johnson City Press sports editor Kelly Hodge actually defended David Mullins, the ETSU athletic director who dropped football and patronized reporters, in a column following Mullins’ retirement announcement.

When an ETSU athletic director can get away with saying 2007 was the greatest year in the history of Buccaneers athletics, something is wrong.

In Cleveland, when Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore, thousands of fans marched in protest and Modell was hung in effigy thanks to radio promotions.

Kinda says it all, doesn’t it?

Here, ETSU named on campus tennis courts after Mullins while selling their baseball park naming rights to the highest bidder instead of honoring legendary university figure Jim Mooney, whom the old ballpark was named after.