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Chip Kelly was asked about the recent controversial media decision made by the USC football program, giving his response to the situation. The UCLA leader was blown away by what had transpired.
“Can someone do that?” he asked when the news was brought to his attention.
Lincoln Riley and the Trojans made headlines this week when they suspended a local beat reporter for a two-week period. The temporary banishment came after a story about a USC player was published.
Despite the fact that nothing negative was said in the article, Riley and Co. opted to punish the writer for using a quote given outside of the team’s pre-approved media availability.
The reporter overheard a conversation between said player and a teammate that came just prior to a press conference, which happened to be the freshman player’s first as a USC team member.
Many in the media blasted USC for its handling of the situation, saying that it was an overuse of power. The quote was used to speak on a player’s personality traits away from the football field, allowing readers insight into who the athlete was as a human being.
USC AD Jennifer Cohen, however, backed the football program’s decision, standing behind the suspension as a breach of coach and player trust.
Crosstown rival Chip Kelly was asked about the incident this week, and he gave a surprising response.
“Can someone do that?” the head coach said. “I’ve never heard of that before. I’m never one to comment on somebody else’s policies… I didn’t even know you could do that, so I don’t think we have policies on that…
“We don’t pay much attention, no offense to the group, to what’s being written. Some individuals do, I don’t, so I wouldn’t be able to tell you if I disagreed with something somebody else wrote. Maybe when I was younger, but right now, we try to preach about being the most prepared and the least distracted. Following things like that, you’re going down a rabbit hole.”
This morning, #UCLA head coach Chip Kelly was asked about the situation at USC, with Lincoln Riley issuing a 2-week suspension to SCNG reporter Luca Evans for what the program considered violations of its media policy: pic.twitter.com/OKcJrQ1pof
— Tracy McDannald 📎 (@Tracy_McDannald) September 20, 2023
Riley is much younger than his Los Angeles counterpart, and he’s obviously reading a bit more of what’s being written in the local news.
It’s been said that he held a similar attitude toward the media in Oklahoma, too.
Both LA teams enter this weekend at 3-0, so there’s not much negative the media can say about either program outside of this USC suspension.