Monday, October 20, 2008

The mysterious blocked punt

Late in the third quarter the Massachusetts football team had a punt blocked by that ultimately decided the game. But, who blocked the punt? The PA announcer credited Eric McBride with the punt, but in the box score, Nicholas Battle got credit for the block. You would think the big-time journalists would get it right.

They didn't.

Even my sports editors disagreed. Eli Rosenswaike said McBride blocked it, Jeff Larnard said Battle. OK so they're more or less amateurs. What do the media relations people think? The UMass Athletics game wrap (written by Media Relations person Jason Yellin) says the play was made by McBride. 

The Richmond website credits Battle for the block. There's still no consensus over who blocked the punt. One Richmond newspaper website says Battle. So does the Republican, Gazette, and Boston Herald.

The Associated PressBoston Globe, and Enterprise News say McBride. I feel pretty good about the punt belonging to McBride, but it makes no sense that all the newspapers can't agree with each other considering it was the biggest play of the game. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There isn't a replay or something people could look at and determine it conclusively?

Adam said...

there was no access to replay at the time it was published. perhaps eli could ask yellin for the tape but at this point the wrap and sidebar had different people getting credit for the blocked kick.