WILL THE DENVER POST SUPPORT SEAN KEELER WHEN A CHICAGO PAPER WAS CORRUPT?

The sports columnist is backed by his editors as Deion Sanders refuses to answer his questions, but in due time, Colorado boosters may flood the office of the newspaper’s owner, Alden Global Capital

     The Denver Post is owned by Alden Global Capital, a sinister hedge fund. If enough boosters, graduates and non-graduates of the University of Colorado bombard the New York headquarters, who knows if Sean Keeler would remain a sports columnist? As you might realize, I love to write in this space, but more significantly, there is a potent mission in keeping media outlets honest because I worked for one that was corrupt.

     It crossed my mind that Keeler, a target of the cowardly Deion Sanders, could be pressured out of a job by CU mobs — maybe even Ralphie the Buffalo — who enjoyed the brief success of the football program last season. Never mind that Sanders’ work has turned to hellfire, including a son who filed for bankruptcy because he couldn’t handle his NIL fortunes, only adding to the uncontrollable havoc of a 4-8 record. Smart folks don’t refer to this coach as a leader of the people anymore.

     Deion has been unmasked as a transfer-portal madman who won’t survive in the gig, whether he resigns or is fired. Leave it to Keeler to call him “Deposition Deion,” among other harmless twerks that are meaningless compared to Sanders’ thrashings of former players and opposing coaches. Have we ever seen a bully so loose with the language trying to quiet a columnist who simply fires back? Sanders has decided Keeler is a creep, when I would suggest he look in the mirror, and accuses the writer of “always being on the attack” while asking, “What happened to get you like this? No, I’m serious. I want to help because it’s not normal.”

     If this was an attempt to be funny, it failed when Sanders ordered a ban through the university that won’t allow Keeler to ask questions at news conferences. He’s cutting off an opinionist who will continue to write what he wants about Sanders. Monday, I listened to ESPN on Sirius radio and heard callers ravage Keeler as a “talk show” wannabe. Then I heard a national host, Freddie Coleman, support Sanders and destroy anyone who rips him — because Deion appeared on his show recently, which screams of solid broadcast ethics.

     What we have is a Black coach, who does what he wants, and a white columnist, who does what his dogmatic position demands in a hot sports market. To his credit, a Black columnist named Jim Trotter smashed Sanders in The Athletic. But Deion has millions of fans, a list built through the years. They won’t go away. How will the Post react as the edict carries on this year? In house, editor Lee Ann Colacioppo and sports editor Matt Schubert contacted the university’s sports information office and met with two staffers. Wrote Schubert: “At the conclusion of the meeting, The Post requested specific parameters in writing and submitted a list of questions. CU sent its statement nine days later (last) Friday. The statement did not cite any specific media policies violated by Keeler. When asked for clarification, a sports information staffer said that Keeler had not violated any specific media policies.”

     Meanwhile, Keeler kept writing — including a piece off a Sanders news conference Saturday leading to this beautiful headline: “Do you believe? North Dakota State sure does. Here’s how Deion Sanders, CU Buffs can avoid shocking upset in Boulder.” What if Sanders loses his first game of 2024? The columnist presented the possibility. Then he wrote about Nikola Jokic and Colorado State.

     “It's well within anyone's right to not take questions. The reasons listed here by CU, however, are entirely subjective,” Schubert said. “It would be more accurate to say, ‘We don't like Sean Keeler's critiques of our program.’ ”

     The editors were fair in their dealings with CU. They were fair in letting him write immediately about North Dakota State. All is fine inside the building, for now. Unless Sanders hotheads swarm Alden managing director Heath Freeman — he served as a placekicker at Duke, before he became known as “a destroyer of newspapers” — and force a Keeler investigation. From what I know of Freeman’s “columnists,” I see one softie in Chicago, Paul Sullivan. How will the corporate ranks react to Keeler?

     The question is worth asking. As the Chicago White Sox bend over and lose 122 or more games — the worst season in modern American sports history — I’ll toss out the Ozzie Guillen debacle. The manager didn’t like how I barbed him in my column, such as when he defended a pitcher’s right to throw at a batter’s face, and he called me a “f—ing fag.” Today, Guillen would be mocked and suspended heavily. Back then, owner Jerry Reinsdorf didn’t care. The sadsack media didn’t care. Appease Ozzie, came the cry, because he won a World Series the previous October. I received a call from reporter Don Lemon, who was gay and worked for a local TV station. He didn’t know what to say.

     My newspaper didn’t care, either. When a family man in the suburbs is called a “f—ing fag,” the lie controlled our lives for a while, with fans shouting gay epithets at me. Did I expect a call from Sun-Times ownership about how to handle Guillen’s slobbery? Nah. Conrad Black already was run out of his position and was thrashed in court for looting $84 million from the paper, while partner David Radler eventually would repay $63.4 million. How would management like me to handle the story, as a daily panelist on ESPN’s “Around The Horn” and the city’s biggest sports columnist?

     I heard nothing. But the editors — John Barron and Don Hayner — were White Sox fans who somehow had fun with the story. Did they quote a gay hairdresser defending Guillen and give the story big play? They did. And finally, a sports editor called not to check in but asked me to issue a statement. A crackpot manager stoops and fails. And I have to comment for a story? I wrote a column, demanding a suspension. Major League Baseball giggled and sent Guillen to a sensitivity class that obviously didn’t work.

     Why? Oh, Reinsdorf had a say in how our sports department was operated. Some colleagues were on my side. Other colleagues — still there, sadly — were weenies. I signed another contract and, yet, had no interest in extending my 17-year career at the paper much longer. I handed back a guaranteed million dollars because, in Beijing at the Summer Olympics, digital technology was a farce. From that point on, my life and my health were great, not bothered when Roger Ebert called me a “rat.”

     This as the newspaper, a nonprofit operation, begs for $15 a month when I sign up. Don’t the bosses realize I get free content by merely writing “bozotheclownsucks” on their site? Print circulation, recently botched for several days, is in the 30,000 range after reaching 350,000 in 2008. So how does the Sun-Times make money?

     Thanks for your help, Jerry. You might bury a ballclub and a paper in one swoop.

     So that’s why I wonder about Sean Keeler. All it takes is a bad guy, or many bad guys, at the top of his organization. I wrote him in Denver and said I was in his spot, once upon a time. He thanked me.

     And if Deion loses to North Dakota State, a columnist beats a brute.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.