What do people think of this whole Curt Schilling saga?  In case you’ve been living in a cave here is the nuts and bolts of what happened.  The following recap is courtesy of Boston.com

A contrite Curt Schilling today issued a public apology for his scathing comments on Giants slugger Barry Bonds, writing on his blog that it was “absolutely irresponsible and wrong to say what I did.”

“Everyone has days and events in life they’d love to push the rewind button on, yesterday was one of those days,” Schilling’s blog entry began. “Regardless of my opinions, thoughts and beliefs on anything Barry Bonds it was absolutely irresponsible and wrong to say what I did. I don’t think it’s within anyone’s right to say the things I said yesterday and affect other peoples lives in that way.”

In response to a question about Bonds’s pursuit of Hank Aaron’s home run record during a radio interview on WEEI yesterday, Schilling said Bonds “admitted that he used steroids” and to “cheating on his wife, cheating on his taxes, and cheating on the game.” He added, “I don’t care that he’s black, or green, or purple, or yellow, or whatever. It’s unfortunate… there’s good people and bad people. It’s unfortunate that it’s happening the way it’s happening.”

The harsh criticism got national attention, and has been fodder for reporters, radio talk show callers, bloggers, and Internet message board posters over the last 24 hours.

Schilling cited the early hour of the interview in his apology, though he didn’t use it as an excuse.

“I’d love to tell you I was ambushed, misquoted, misinterpreted, something other than what it was, but I wasn’t,” Schilling wrote. “I’m thinking that waking up at 8:30 am to do the weekly interview we do with WEEI is probably not the greatest format and if you heard the interview it’s not hard to realize that I’m usually awake about 30-45 seconds before it begins. That’s still no excuse or reason to say what I did, or even answer the question that was asked.”

I decided that I had to weigh in on this Schilling controversy when I tuned into Sportscenter and saw Bob Ryan and Jay Mariotti absolutely blasting Curt for his comments regarding Barry Bonds.   In my opinion, this whole controversy has nothing to do with what Schilling said. Instead this all boils down to the traditional media seizing an opportunity to try and bury a guy who they despise.   A guy they despise not because of his personality (which I’m not a huge fan of either) but rather because of what he represents.

Curt Schilling is a pioneer in the way he uses technology to communicate with the fans.   First it was Sons of Sam Horn and now it’s his well publicized blog.    By leveraging the internet, Schilling has basically eliminated the need for the traditional sports reporter.   Schilling doesn’t talk with the Boston media, yet we know more about what he thinks and feels than any other player on the team.   How would that make you feel if you were Dan Shaugnessy and you think the only way Red Sox fans should be able to learn about the team is through your pen?    You’d be scared.   It’s no secret that traditional newspapers are dying because of the Internet.   The same can be said for the traditional sports reporter.   They are already fighting a losing battle against the Bill Simmons’s of the world, as well as all the blogs and sports websites, but what would ever happen if players started communicating directly with fans?  The traditional sports reporter would become extinct overnight. 

And in my opinion, that’s the only reason Curt’s comments became such an inflammatory story.  The media is trying to bury and discredit a guy who poses a threat to their way of life.    If Derek Jeter ripped Barry Bonds do you think anybody would attack Jeter?  Of course not.   I mean what did Schilling say that was so volatile?  Schilling didn’t say anything that people didn’t already know.  Yet he is getting crushed for it.   Again, I don’t pretend to love Curt Schilling, but let’s call a spade a spade.   The media has an ax to grind with Curt Schilling and that’s all this story is about.  The only thing that was surprising to me was that Schilling apologized and I think he did that just so this wouldn’t be a prolonged controversy.