A buddy of mine writes a blog for NU football. He got Teddy Greenstein to do an interview. Teddy is an NU alum... but even he sees NU football as a page 3 story until they can fill up the stadium... which <gulp> i guess I agree.

Purple Mafia Profile - Teddy Greenstein
It's Friday which means not only are you getting psyched for the weekend, but you also get to consume you're favorite off-season feature - Purple Mafia Profiles. Today, LTP delivers Chicago Tribune sports columnist Teddy Greenstein right to your Internet doorstep. In addition to debunking the myth that print is dead, Teddy "cross-platform" Greenstein offers a different twist to my usual over-indulgent introductions by offering a first person "bio". Afterall, Teddy actually gets coin to write while I do not, so why not freeload from the master of the column inch?

I will note in my previous life I actually ran across Teddy's path once or twice. TG graduated in 1994 so we were almost the same year. This interview jogged my memory banks and I have one memory of consuming NU sports with Teddy - the 1999 NIT game against DePaul. Teddy and I watched from a sports bar in Tucson while we were there to cover the White Sox in spring training. But I digress. Time to get into it...Teddy the intro please...

TG: The Bio: I grew up in the college football mecca of Manhattan, rooting for the Yankees, Jets, Knicks and St. John's hoops (ed note: uh-oh, this is not starting off well). I got to Medill in '90, just in time to watch (sort of) the Cats to break their 14-game losing streak by beating Northern Illinois. (I hit Dyche Stadium early that morning to make a few bucks by assisting a TV production company. I dozed off in the truck during the game.)

I worked at the Daily Northwestern all four years and overlapped with a bunch of future media all-stars (Victor Chi, J.A. Adande, Michael Lev, Kevin Ding, Joel Boyd, Rachel Alexander (now Nichols), Jodie Valade, and Ben Bolch).

My first full professional gig was at Sports Illustrated. I'll never have a cooler assignment than going to the NU Rose Bowl as Rick Reilly's reporter. (When I found out about the assignment, I celebrated like Eriq La Salle during the intro to "ER.") It hardly mattered that Reilly didn't use a word of my stuff in his story.

The Tribune hired me in '96. I covered Lou Holtz's last team at Notre Dame and Bob Davie's first, the White Sox and Cubs for six years and then landed the national college football beat in '04. I recently added golf. So now I'm pretty sure I have the best two beats at the paper.

LTP: Actually Teddy, if you had the NU beat then I would agree! I'm going to start with hoops, despite the fact this is indeed a football-first blog. The pain factor has been epic this season, but at the end of the year this may very well be the best "body of work" candidate we MIGHT have had for the big dance if not for several second half collapses. Granted, we're lapping up the Ohio State win right now, but let's assume we don't go to the postseason next year, which would likely spell the end of Carmody (his contract expires). Give me the profile of the coach it would need to get it done at NU. How long would it take and whether or not a gimmick system is necessary to succeed at NU.

TG: Hmmm … is there an offspring of John Wooden who'd be interested? Actually I'd really like to see Bill Carmody succeed. He's a terrific guy with a shoot-from-the-hip vibe who really knows his Xs, Os and, presumably, every other letter of the alphabet. Obviously he slacked off in recruiting for a while, but the freshman class is strong. Carmody needs to unearth a few more Craig Moores – and teach every player how to make free throws.

LTP: This may be a good feature for you. NU football has clearly gone a long way towards ridding the pre-1995 stereotypes. Clearly there is still some hangover effect from ignorant and marginal football fans, but how could it be that we've set a new bar of acceptable success in football, but have failed in hoops. The academic standards are presumably the same, so why wouldn't it be easier to turn the corner in a sport in which you need fewer recruiting wins to be impactful than the other?

TG: I've had the "it only takes one player a year" debate with tons of friends. I tell them there are legit reasons why it is way, way harder for NU to develop a strong hoops program. And it's all about recruiting.

Let's say you're the 75th-ranked hoops player in the nation with the grades to get into NU. That'll mean you're also being recruited by Michigan, Illinois, maybe Stanford, possibly Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Cal, etc. What's your goal in college? To play in the NCAA tournament and make the NBA. OK, NU has never busted the bracket and sends more kids to Oxford than the league. So it's a tough sell. And then what if the kid visits when only 3,000 show up for a game at Welsh-Ryan?

In football, you can take a two-star kid (hello, Pat Fitzgerald) and he can develop into the nation's top defensive player. You won't find a 17-year-old basketball player who can make the leap from Z to A. So it's way more challenging. But not impossible.


LTP: Man, you have had that debate before. We'll save the academic requirement debate for another time. Onto Northwestern attendance. It has been my cross to bear on LTP and you actually ran a major story with nice, colorful pie charts the day before the dreadfully attended Michigan State game (when we were 5-0!). What is your theory on the marked decline since 1998? In addition to another 9-win season, what else will it take for Ryan Field to be regularly filled with purple?

TG: Yes, it's an embarrassment. Again, there are reasons, starting with the fact that NU lost a generation of Chicago-area football fans when it was a national joke on the field. Whatever the causes, new AD Jim Phillips is determined to fill the stadium more regularly. If the Blackhawks can turn things around in less than two seasons, so can NU – if the team is good and the school is willing to spend more dough on marketing.

LTP: You're a true journalist as evidenced by your willingness to repeatedly call out the Big Ten when you feel it necessary (despite your Big Ten roots). However, I've got to know about your NU football rooting interests. How into the Cats are you and how do you consume them knowing you're usually on the clock?

TG: That's an interesting and somewhat complex question. From my home-office, where I proudly work in my pajamas, I look straight ahead to a framed poster dubbed "A Season to Remember" that has a beautiful, wide shot of our purple in Pasadena. To the right is a blowup of the '95 Darnell Autry Sports Illustrated cover (ed note - eerily enough I have the same SI cover to the right of my computer).

I've been to a bunch of hoops game this season and do feel a little weird outwardly rooting for the Cats. After nearly 20 years in the biz, if you count my time at The Daily, I'm way more accustomed to not cheering.

Bottom line, I want to see the Cats do well, largely because we do it the right way and have outstanding people at the helm … Phillips, Fitz, Carmody and allow me to mention the dearly departed Randy Walker.

But I would challenge anyone to find even a hint of favoritism in my writing. In fact I've heard from NU higher-ups who didn't like my recent list of NU's toughest defeats or the slant I took when I compared the then-undefeated '08 team to the '95 Rose Bowlers.

If people want me to be a homer, they'll be disappointed. I think NU is already fortunate in that the Cats are a feel-good story when they win and largely ignored by the media when they lose. I think some accountability is healthy.

LTP: Again, as I mentioned to you before the interview I've got some debating to do with you on the toughest defeats. Anyway, talk about the purple mafia factor in your current world. How often do you use the NU factor and/or come across it on a day-to-day basis?

TG: I've got to say, being an NU alum really is a source of pride, except the part about having a dean at Medill who makes up anonymous quotes.

The Purple Mafia thing probably helped me land at the Trib, which then had sportswriter alums Andy Bagnato and Bill Jauss. It's also a plus when I'm bonding with big-wigs such as Christine Brennan, Mike Wilbon and Rick Telander or BS'ing with Big Ten Network guys like Tim Doyle and Chris Martin (ed note: don't forget Revsine!).

LTP: How has the local and national media perception (ie. Your colleagues' perceptions) changed (if at all) in the past year with the success. What will it take for the Trib to actually give NU top billing in its football coverage?

TG: It'll probably take NU selling out Ryan Field without the help of 25,000-plus Ohio State fans. Bringing in a good non-conference opponent also would help. I'll show some tough love here, but if NU beats Miami (Ohio), Towson or Eastern Michigan next year, so what? I wish I could make a case that more Chicagoans care about NU football than they do ND and Illinois. But I can't. So it's page 3 for NU barring a big home win and/or Rose Bowl run.

LTP: Your favorite all-time NU FB moment not including Rose Bowl is…?

TG: Easiest question I will ever answer: Northwestern 54, Michigan 51. Nov. 4, 2000. Thank you, Zak Kustok.

My No. 1 hoops moment also came against the Big Blue: Cats 97, Michigan 93 – an overtime victory that sent Ricky Byrdsong's "Walk on the Wild Side" team to the NIT. My buddy Kip Kirkpatrick jokes about holding Jalen Rose to 33 points in that game.

LTP: Indeed if we could only battle the atmosphere from that amazing day. By the way just look at that score - NU put up 97 and I can still hear the joint jumping. That was amazing. I'm still partial to the obscure, but fun Cedric Neloms buzzer-beater from 40 feet against the Illini in 1992.

LTP: Your all-time favorite NU FB player and why.

TG: I favor the NU players who were not your typical overachieving white guys. Loved D'Wayne Bates and marveled at Hudhaifa Ismaeli. But I'd go with Len Williams, a tough mofo who was an outstanding run-pass QB for NU in the early '90s.

LTP: NU 2009 Defense…the best since….

TG: Sunday night's episode of "The Simpsons."

LTP: Thanks for dropping by to shoot it straight. There are a couple of topics we'll need to have you back so we can dive deeper into the subject matter. Until then, have fun on the Tiger circuit and we'll see you in Indy!