The PG certainly is capable of authoring pieces like this. For the favored teams of its sports editor, that is.
For those teams that are rivals of his favored teams, critical hack pieces intended to sabotage success are the standard.
Pitt sports cause much of its own damage with incompetence and inadequate commitment, but the harm of biased media is very real (and unprecedented for a local entity) and more formidable than most will acknowledge.
If media coverage of any thing was indifferent at best and relentlessly overthetop negative at worst, all the time, as it is for Pitt sports, the subconscious impact over time would be inevitable. Game day results obviously matter more, but they don't happen in a vacuum. It's a cycle. Positive buzz has a big impact. If you want to say game results come first, ok. I'd even agree, to an extent. Spend bigger, double down to put a winner on the field, it will add zealots to the fan base, and media would be forced to give better coverage so as not to alienate readers and viewers. Flip side, crap results and demonstrated incompetence should be criticized constructively (and extremes like horrific crimes should be BLASTED). But I think all but the most naive can agree that doesn't happen eqitably here.
