What I learned about some sports reporters: they're full of themselves.

LA Daily News' USC beat writer Scott Wolf got himself banned this morning from USC practices (for two weeks) and from the press box at the next home game.  Before the start of the season, USC requested journalists not to report on player injuries.  Whether out of privacy rules from HIPAA or from a competitive standpoint, the fact of the matter is, USC was playing with 75 scholarship players, of which a handful were walk-ons, and a student-athlete's privacy is important.

(Now mind you, this is the same pattern USC followed with Armond Armstead's injury, which was never fully disclosed, and instead deferred to the Armstead family.  The only way we learned about Armond's true injury, was from the lawsuit his family filed against USC last month -- he had had a mild heart attack.)

Scott Wolf not only ignored this request not to report on player injuries, but he dismissed a specific warning from USC's coach (and presumably the athletic director) not to publish the injury status of a particular player.

(Now, trust me when I tell you, many USC fans hate Scott Wolf to begin with.  I've never really paid attention to Scott Wolf, except when I finally signed up to Twitter (so that I could use Pinterest in the invite-only period), because of the people I was following, his tweets were showing up.  It was then that I noticed that there was a lot of hate for Scott.  Scott's own posts are filled with comments expressing deep hatred of Scott by USC fans...and a loving affection from Bruin fans.)

So of course, sports writers showed their true colors:

Not sure banning reporters from practice is a hot idea. Can end up w/ them digging for stories more troubling than injury reports.
— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) September 12, 2012

Holy shit! Bruce has found the secret to keeping dirt out of the front pages!  NOT!

Kiffin/Sarkisian were assistants for USC teams that had pretty successful run under Carroll, who had no draconian policy re injury reports.
— Gary Klein (@LATimesklein) September 12, 2012

Looks like someone didn't bother to read The Art of War.

Coaches don't have to tell reporters anything. That's their right. But to punish someone for reporting something that's true? Not cool.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) September 12, 2012

Well I suppose if you think Wikileaks was in the right to leak sensitive diplomatic cables, then you go right ahead and stand proud on your pedestal of naivete, Stewie.

If other LA media report USC kicker's injury, do they get banned too? No one in press box. USC cannot afford the bad publicity.
— Dennis Dodd (@dennisdoddcbs) September 12, 2012

It is the other way around -- 92,000 fans in the Coliseum says so.  If you and others don't want to show up, then don't; no one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to go to the Coliseum, Dennis.

I guess Lane Kiffin learned something from Al Davis: How to threaten the writers
— Art Spander (@artspander) September 12, 2012

Al Davis sued people for talking about him; a two week ban was nothing.  If Kiffin were to act like Al Davis, he would have permanently kicked Scott Wolf out and then filed a defamation lawsuit against Scot for all the crap he's written over the years.

What a bunch of whining girls, these sportswriters are!  They see themselves vital to sports, as to hold influence over its outcome and perception -- hey, who cares about the game being played, right?

Well, the ban was rescinded, although it was probably meant to be that way to begin with, in order to send a message to Scott Wolf and others like Gary Klein.  Most USC fans know that Gary Klein's article on Joe McKnight was timed to come out on the day of USC's first football game, just to sell print.

But now we know the true colors of some of these writers.