As I sat to think about this column, many different ideas popped into my head. Being a senior, it seems the perfect opportunity to close this chapter of my life with some significant, full-of-purpose exposé of what the last four years have meant to me.
Well, there are some problems with that.
No one really cares how I have dealt with UW-Madison or how I have spent my time here. Also, I'm too lazy to graduate and will be here next fall, continuing to harass the minds of readers on Thursday mornings and receive hatemail from middle-aged men in Stoughton, Wis.
With that said, I feel the need to express sorrow at this moment. Apologies are in order to any reader who dislikes my column, or me for that matter.
But unfortunately for those people, that is not the cause of my current state of grief.
I feel sorry for the general state of athletics, both college and professional, and the impact that it is having on students at UW-Madison. In fact, sorrow may not be the right word - perhaps alarm or disgust would better describe these feelings.
I want to apologize to the students who want to become sports writers but aren't able to actually walk into locker rooms to interview athletes and instead have to fight with the likes of the Wisconsin State Journal and The Capital Times in order to ask a question. This is all while the athletes are paraded out like cattle at a state fair, to be judged and eventually ridiculed depending on their answers.
Hopefully these practices can change. Maybe not in this upcoming school year or even in five years, but hopefully some day students will truly be able to learn how to interact and develop a relationship with athletes.
Call this cynicism, call it stubbornness, call it whatever you want, but the current relationship between Wisconsin athletics and the media is shriveled and starved. This is a trend that is rapidly growing across the country. Bill Belichick is completely turning the media around in New England, while it seems that other coaches view the media on the same level as vermin.
It is strange how the 24-hour news cycle has changed things. Hardheaded coaches used to be revered, and the media loved them for it. Coaches would be able to yell at a reporter at any time about an article in that day's paper and then meet him later in a bar for a pint to put the matter behind them.
But now, with access so limited, these relationships are never formed to begin with. Bret Bielema may sit down with the beat writers of the State Journal and the Cap Times before the season begins, but after that, communication is generally cut off between the two parties.
There are many reasons for this. The need to fill 24 hours every day has played a huge part, and the media is willing to take anything it can get. This has resulted in pro teams, and institutions like Wisconsin, trying to protect its players from the media frenzy that awaits them outside of the friendly confines of the locker room doors.
The need to protect athletes, especially student-athletes, is an obvious concern. As a reporter, I want to dig deep and find out who these athletes are - it is the general nature of any reporter. But these athletes are still students and deserve some form of privacy, no matter what.
That is why when Lance Smith-Williams was off-limits this season, and Michael Flowers chose not to talk to the media during the season I personally didn't have a problem with it.
But that fine line has quickly developed into the size of the Grand Canyon, with the media on one side and the athletes on the other.
Student newspapers are completely ignored and neglected from the process of a meet-and-greet, which in the eyes of this reporter, is the true crime. Wisconsin prides itself on its education, ranging from the School of Business to the graduation rates of student athletes.
So why isn't the same courtesy given to the student press?
After covering the men's hockey team for two years, I only saw the inside of the Badgers' locker room once, after their loss in the NCAA Regional final to North Dakota.
I have never been able to interview Bielema one-on-one, and the chances of that ever happening seem very unlikely.
If any changes are made, they will be for the better. It's hard to close access to the media anymore than when Bielema starts a press conference by announcing, Running backs will be off-limits this week.""
There is a stark difference between defending and protecting the innocent and blatantly abusing the power you are given in order to keep the media in the dark, and therefore have one less thing to worry about.
It is this mentality that is covering the nation. Sitting in class and hearing tales of the past, it is hard to not be jealous and full of envy when comparing 'the good ol' days' to the present.
It is this, more than anything, for which I am sorry.
If you would like to help Nate 'fight the man' and bring back the glory days of 1920, e-mail him at ncarey@dailycardinal.com.
