Ed Podolak's Departure May Not Have Been Necessary, but It's Sad Anyway

Look, let's get one thing straight right up front: The University of Iowa did not just discover that Ed Podolak, its longtime radio analyst, liked a good party. Mike Hlas of the Cedar Rapids Gazette confirms that Podolak's good-time proclivities were an open secret in the Hawkeye Nation. So if you think Ed Podolak was forced into retirement because the University didn't like the pictures floating around the internet, please know that it goes deeper than that.

Of course, that doesn't mean that Podolak had to go. While many people are dubious that Podolak actually retired, Hlas says Podolak left of his own volition. That, unfortunately, is what makes an already sad story a little sadder.

According to Hlas, Podolak could have saved his job if he'd gone to rehab, but he chose not to.

Presumably under direction in this matter by Athletic Director Gary Barta, Podolak was urged to seek alcohol treatment and then be welcomed back to the Iowa football radio booth this fall for a 28th consecutive year as an analyst.

Podolak took the other option, to retire from broadcasting at age 61. It truly is something he had already been considering, by the way.

I have little doubt Hlas is telling the truth that Podolak was already thinking about hanging it up. 61 is far from old age, in my opinion, but if Podolak feels he wants to do other things with his time, that's his privilege. The radio gig was far from his only source of income. If he simply chose retirement over rehab, that's a regrettable decision, but it's one he is free to make.

Hlas notes that there's just a touch of hypocrisy in the University's attitude towards Podolak's drinking, given that alcohol flows at many alumni and booster events, and the radio broadcasts are sponsored by a beer company. Whatever. However you feel about alcohol, you can't deny that it's part of the college football scene on most campuses. The students aren't the only ones knocking back a few, either.

What wounds me the most, as a Hawkeye fan, is that the last sensory link to the glorious acscendancy of Iowa football under Hayden Fry is now gone. Jim Zabel, a man whose voice is burned into my brain, was Iowa's play-by-play announcer for 47 years, but his run ended in 1996. Sure, Kirk Ferentz was on Hayden Fry's staff back then. I don't remember him from back then. I do remember that every time I've listened to Iowa football on the radio, Ed Podolak was there. And now he won't be. It's not going to be the same. No matter who they get to replace him, the games are going to sound different.

Any time a group of people face a collective disappointment, a good chunk of that group's energy will go to figuring out who's to blame. Blame, however, is like fruitcake: somehow, it always seems like there's enough for everybody. You can blame the message board poster who first put up the pictures of Podolak. You can blame Jay Christensen, The Wiz Of Odds, who was one of the first big bloggers to put the pictures up. I'll stick up for my homeboy (Christensen and I are from the same home town, though I don't know him) and say that those pictures weren't going to stay hidden for long. The Des Moines Register didn't shy away from publishing the notorious pictures of Larry Eustachy, after all. You can blame internet culture in general for making character assassination our true national pastime. You can blame Gary Barta and the University of Iowa administration for being two-faced about alcohol, believing that it's fine for their booster events, but anybody who wears a university face had better just say no. You can even, I suppose, blame Ed Podolak himself.

Then again, if Mike Hlas is telling the truth, it was entirely Podolak's decision, and nobody's to blame. We're just all a little worse off for it.