ESPN Writer Rips Lupica Via Twitter

ESPN put a new Twitter policy in place this summer designed to urge its reporters to think before they tweet. But this weekend, the policy didn't stop ESPN the Magazine senior writer Bruce Feldman from ripping Sports Reporters panelist Mike Lupica -- then later thinking better of it and deleting the tweet.

It all started with Lupica talking about USC coach Pete Carroll on The Sports Reporters.

"Carroll is in his ninth year there, his record is 89-15, and I swear, they've underachieved," Lupica said. "I really believe SC should have won more national championships than it's won on Pete Carroll's watch."

Carroll has been the most successful coach in college football during his tenure at Southern Cal, so it's no surprise that some USC fans took issue with Lupica saying Carroll had underachieved. It's also no surprise that a columnist at the Orange County Register questioned Lupica's logic, as did the USC blog Conquest Chronicles.

But it is a surprise that Feldman took a public shot at Lupica. Feldman tweeted this:

Mike Lupica sez Pete Carroll's team is "underachieving" Right, cause Carroll's the one who's been livin off his rep & mailin it in 4 years.

That tweet was then circulated on Twitter by everyone from ordinary sports fans who thought it was a funny line, to popular bloggers like Sports By Brooks, to mainstream media luminaries like Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated and Pete Thamel of the New York Times.

Feldman later deleted the tweet from his Twitter profile, and I e-mailed him to ask him why he did it. He replied, "I thought about it last night while watching the game and figured it was out of line."

I also e-mailed ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz, who told me, "It was inappropriate and we've spoken to Bruce and he completely understands."

Personally, I'm with Feldman on the merits: I'd say there are roughly 119 other college football programs that would love to underachieve like USC has with Carroll. But Feldman probably would have been better off leaving that thought untweeted.