Honestly, I think the reason for this attack was because ESPN/ABC was contemplating not renewing his contract so he picked an easy and high profile target. He knew it would ruffle the feathers of one of the biggest fan bases in the country and everyone would be talking about it making HIM relevant for a little while prompting the big boys to renew his deal. Just my opinion.
I don't know the particulars of Reilly's contract, but do you have any evidence for this, or is it pulled from your ***? Because the ESPN folks know how this works, too, and they're not idiots.
He's not going to somehow trick them into thinking he's relevant by writing a provocative column and wracking up the hits, and thus securing a new contract. I mean, they decide how much play his stuff gets on their site, which heavily influences the number of people who'll read it. And, while he is a bigger name than, say, Mark Schlabach, anyone else in their stable would have gotten just as much traffic with the same words written about the most popular program in college football. They'll re-sign Reilly or not, but it's got little to do with this.
That said, you're probably right that Reilly was just looking for something to contribute to college football pre-season coverage that would get people talking. In that regard, he succeeded, didn't he? We've been talking about it all week.
