Corder Appears on LeBatard and Discusses Colorado’s ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Culture

by Kyle Golik

“I’m a fan of all sports, you name it, I enjoy it. I specialize in NFL, MLB, and NCAA football,” reads the bio of Steve Corder of Athlon Sports. Corder, the journalist who potentially broke the story about alleged misconduct at Colorado, should be noted as a fan, not a journalist, despite what his bio suggests. In today’s world of blogging, where anyone can create content for small sums of money, many believe they are journalists until a significant story lands in their lap. This describes Corder to a T, as was evident during his appearance on Meadowlark Media’s The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz.

LeBatard, who has always been on the edge in the media, sometimes seeks out stories that mainstream outlets won't pursue, and he took a gamble on Corder.

There comes a critical juncture where, in my opinion, Corder fell short. When LeBatard asked about the vetting of his reporting and why people should trust it, Corder responded, “I don’t know if there is a reason why they should trust it. I just know I have talked to these kids, these young men, they’re scared, they’re worried about repercussions whether it is by players who are no longer there or players that are there. So, I am doing what’s right and what needs to be done.”

While Corder ended his response strongly, he seemed to lack confidence at the beginning and that was a major flag. I don’t doubt Corder got the information from sources; my concern is more about how he substantiated it. LeBatard asked Corder briefly about it, and Corder said that he talked to one, and it led to another, and another.

Sometimes stories break like this, but what wasn’t clear to me was the strategy used to substantiate it beyond referrals to other players. Did Corder step outside the referral chain and find someone else to corroborate the information he was receiving? When you are dealing with allegations that are seismic like these, your testimonies have to be absolutely concrete. The tactics Corder leveraged to harden them were never really answered well to me.

While watching Corder, it made me think back to Sara Ganim.

Ganim, a more experienced journalist than Corder, was working the local beat for The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, PA). It was Ganim, who unearthed the connection between former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky and his The Second Mile charity's involvement in a pedophilia ring. Her reporting, which involved gathering facts and enduring months of backlash, was ultimately vindicated when prosecutors found evidence to indict Sandusky.

For her efforts, she received a Pulitzer Prize for her courage. I can tell you firsthand that after her initial report, Ganim was considered persona non grata in central Pennsylvania for the long haul.

No matter what abuse she took, she stood by her reporting more confidently than Corder did on LeBatard.

I would think Ganim had the tougher hand dealt to her, Corder has similar heat as well. I would argue that Ganim had the tougher hand dealt to her, although Corder has faced similar heat. Just look at X (formerly Twitter) when my colleagues Mike Farrell and Scott Salomon covered Corder’s news . They were met with varying degrees of vitriol from fans who blindly support Deion Sanders no matter what.

In the end, I hope Corder continues to cover this story. So far, the gun allegations seem to be a stretch, given the gap between Corder’s suggestion that they are significant and the circumstantial evidence of a gun being present at a fishing retreat involving Sanders and Travis Hunter, which Corder alludes to on LeBatard. I feel Corder has not convinced me that these issues are actually happening at Colorado. I give Corder the opportunity to prove me wrong, like Ganim did.

Not many people believed Ganim at first; there was a time you could argue that Jerry Sandusky was more popular than Joe Paterno at Penn State. How could Sandusky ever do this? The more Ganim dug, the more the ugliness emerged. Corder has to keep digging now. He is no longer just a fan who enjoys all sports; he is a journalist with a significant scoop and needs to continue validating his current story.

Just how Sanders responded to CBS reporters (one of CBS’s subsidiaries is Athlon Sports, Corder’s outlet): “CBS, I’m not doing nothing with CBS. Next question. It ain’t got nothing to do with you. This is above that. It ain’t got nothing to do with you. I’ve got love for you. I appreciate you. I respect you. It ain’t got nothing to do with you. They know what they did.” Sanders knows the truth, and he understands that Corder is either trying to validate his claims or risk being relegated to the sidelines and simply being a fan, as his bio suggests.