THE SID IS GONE! LONG LIVE THE NEW SID!

Maybe I’m naive in thinking this, but possibly, just possibly, we might be able to get more credibility coming out of ETSU moving forward. And with it more coverage.

East Tennessee State sports information director Kevin Brown has left his post.

In doing so Brown has received much praise from his former co-workers at ETSU, and the criticisms I have of the Buccaneers’ sports information department generally don’t concern him as he primarily dealt with coverage of the men’s basketball program.

But make no doubt, the ETSU sports information department is rife for criticism.

And I have no doubt for writing this column I will be vilified by ETSU, which traditionally doesn’t take constructive criticism well.

ETSU culture demands those perceived as their “fair haired boys” receive unjust praise to the point of absurdity and woe be it the entity that calls them out on it.

For example, consider the unspoken mantra former President Paul Stanton simply could not be criticized.

I once wrote a piece during my short stint as a sportswriter for the Elizabethton Star merely stating the truth that since Stanton cut the ETSU football program, Buccaneers fans didn’t hold him in the same reverence as many inside ETSU did.

It was shelved by then-sports editor Wes Holtzclaw. Too controversial (!).