This was me talking with Brian O’Connor after UVA Baseball had just won the 2015 national title. Photo: Crystal Graham/AFP
I’m going to rain on my own parade here, with respect to the rumors about UVA Baseball coach Brian O’Connor and Mississippi State.
It sometimes doesn’t occur to me that I’m what they call a journalist, and that journalists do things like, request to talk with somebody in the news.
I’m being facetious.
My default when it comes to matters involving UVA Athletics is, they don’t want to talk to me, which is why I end up finding out so much about what’s going on through FOIA requests, because the UVA Athletics media people send me in that direction.
The O’Connor rumors being more in the breaking news department, it’s not the kind of thing where you can wait for the FOIA office to take five working days to get back to you.
ICYMI: From earlier today …
A selfie of me and AFP staff writer Scott German beside Brian O’Connor at Fenway Park in 2024. Photo: Chris Graham/AFP
So, I asked a contact in media relations with UVA Athletics if it would be possible for me to get on the phone with Coach O’Connor to talk about the rumors.
Seems simple and straightforward.
If he’s not interested in the Mississippi State job, he could just tell me, or tell any number of us ink-stained wretches, and the story goes away.
The answer that I got back would seem to fall under the not good news heading:
We’re not making anybody available right now.
This seems to point in the direction of, something is going on with these rumors that probably make them more than rumors.
Damn it.