clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Somebody fire Bob Kravitz, please

If you buy something from an SB Nation link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

If you live in Indiana, you know that Bob Kravitiz is THE WORST sports writer on the planet. This guy makes six figures, and he knows next to nothing about the sports (yes, plural) he covers. Kravitz has a very nice job. He's living proof that it's not what you do that gets you promoted at Gannett. It's who you know, and how you can blackmail them with pictures of them a a wild party with chicks, guns, firetrucks, and a donkey (ok, I made that up).

He's paid very well by Gannett (unheard of for a company that makes Ebenezer Scourge look like St. Theresa). He's paid to write his opinion about Indiana sports. This covers the Colts, Pacers, college, and minor league teams (hockey and baseball).  

Now, like I always say, anyone is entitled to their opinion. If Gannett wants to throw away their money by giving it to Kravitz, that's fine. Though, I have to wonder why they still employ this fool, considering that no one likes his writing, and his writing isn't bringing in any new readers.

Gannett's purchase of the Star several years ago KILLED the only high circulation newspaper Indianapolis had, and it's a shame. The Star used to be a good local paper.

Bob's latest foray into the realm of the hopelessly deranged is an ultimatum to the Colts and owner Jim Irsay. It goes something like this: Tony Dungy must guide the Colts to the Super Bowl, or he should be fired.

Forget the fact that the ultimatum is silly for the sole reason Dungy isn't going anywhere. He's the most respected coach in football. In terms of coaching, he's top 5, easy. I'd put guys like Belichick and Parcells ahead of Dungy because of their innovations and their Super Bowl wins. But that's it. Maybe Shannahan is better, but Dungy owns him in the playoffs. Gruden has a ring, but has done nothing since winning with Dungy's old team, which Dungy built from the ground up.

So, even though Dungy is the winningest coach in Indy Colts history; even though he has over 100 wins; even though he has guided the Colts to the best sustained success in their entire history in Indianapolis, Kravitz (or Krapitz as we Hoosiers call him) thinks Dungy should go if he doesn't deliver a trophy:

This should -- not will be, but should -- be his make-or-break season in Indianapolis.

As in win, or else.

Kravitiz's main argument is that if Indy had any other coach that achieved the same things in Indy as Dungy has, he'd be on the hot seat. But, because Dungy is "hands-down the nicest man in the National Football League," he is given a pass by management.
Let's be honest: If Dungy's name was Tom Coughlin, or Nick Saban, or any one of the other less-lovable coaches in this league, we'd be issuing ultimatums and turning up the temperature.

But we don't.

Because he's Tony.

The logic behind this argument is so juvenille, I'm surprised it wasn't submitted in crayon. Forget for a moment that guys like Tom Coughlin or Nick Saban are no where near as good coaching football as Dungy. When Coughlin wins over 100 games, call me. When Nick Saban wins a playoff game, call me.

Until then, comparing them with Dungy is silly.

Even the whole "nice guy" argument is easily refuted. Guys like Steve Mariucci are nice guys. He was well liked by the owners, management, and the players in both SF and Detroit. Yet, he was fired because he didn't win.

Dungy wins.

Has he won a Super Bowl? No. Teams like the Patriots and the Steelers have gotten in the way. These same teams have gotten in the way of coaches like Mike Holmgren, John Fox, and Andy Reid. If we follow Bob's "logic," I guess they should get the boot as well, right? Each of them is over 5 years coaching the same team and ZERO Super Bowls to show for their efforts. And before you say but at least they've been to a Super Bowl, stop and consider that if these guys coached their teams in the AFC (like Dungy does), they wouldn't have gotten there. The AFC is varsity (7 Super Bowls in the last 10 years) and the NFC is JV. If Dungy coached this Colts team in the NFC, they'd have been in the last three Super Bowls.

The guy Kravitz suggests the Colts replace Dungy with is Bill Cowher. Why? Because Cowher uses "a judicious use of fear as a motivator." Basically, he's "meaner" than Dungy. Once I got to this point in Kravit'z article, I laughed out loud. He's advocating for the same Bill Cowher that needed 15 years to finally win a Super Bowl in Pittsburgh (and it was won under dubious circumstances). His "fear" needed 15 years to win it all, and Kravitiz is bitching after 5 years of Dungy's "nice guy" approach. If Cowher got a 15 year pass, then NO ONE should say anything about Dungy. And if Kravitz thinks Dungy is all buddy-buddy with his players, then that is just more proof Bob doesn't know what he's talking about. Players respect Dungy, but they also know that he holds them to a high standard and he will chew them out if they screw up big time. Ask Derrick Brooks, who once openly questioned Jon Gruden's coaching, saying Dungy held players to a higher standard in comparison.

The bottom line here is Dungy isn't going anywhere, nor should he. Kravitiz's latest turd bomb is another stunt by the Gannett-owned Star to stir controversy. They tried to move heaven and earth a few years ago with their articles desperately trying to get the Colts to move to LA. They mis-reported Adam Vinatieri's injury recently, and got called out for it. They were called out for their bad reporting on the NBA trade involving Al Harrington to the Indiana Pacers from the Atlanta Hawks.

This is a newspaper with a horrible track record for mis-representing facts and stanting news to SELL NEWSPAPERS rather than do their job, which is to report the news.

You will very rarely see me bash Kravitz because if I responded to everything this idiot said, that in itself could be its own blog. He is THAT stupid, and his writing is so much fun to make fun of. I'm responding to this because I get the feeling the Star is sniffing for a continuing story. They will pounce on the Colts the moment the start to lose this season. Count on it. And if they fail to win a Super Bowl this year, the Star will scream from their complex on Pennsylvania Street that Dungy should go, and they'll claim they were the first to suggest it.

Whatever they do or say, it won't change anything. Dungy is staying as long as he wants to, and most Colts fans are very, very happy with that. If anybody should go, it's Kravitz. Dungy helps fill the seats of the RCA Dome. He's a big reason why the new Lucas Oil Stadium is getting built. He's bringing people to the Colts.

Kravitz, on the other hand, is universally disliked and he is not bringing more readers to the Star. Yet, he thinks Dungy should be be fired. Too funny.