USC Football Publicity Stunt?

I came across this story during some research today - a USC student sports writer tried out for the USC football team to get a first-hand experience for an article he planned to write about what it was like to try-out for the team - - and ended-up actually making the football team. This guy hadn't played football since a bad experience as a child playing Pop Warner and now he is a member of one of the greatest college football teams. The story has received a good amount of coverage (like this article here ). Here is a link to the story from Ben's own perspective.

It's a great story, and I hate to be the cynical voice (really not me at all), but for some reason I can't help myself here. Maybe its my profession - as a Director of Public Relations perhaps I'm trained to sense manipulation (or opportunities to manipulate a situation) - and after writing that it truly sounds awful. But I have to say - its true.

So my point here is this... couldn't this just be a publicity stunt for the USC football team? It's already won them a good amount of media attention (Sports Illustrated, Major Daily Newspapers, Broadcast outlets, etc.). By letting this writer join the team, and make him feel like he's one of the gang, the football team has an "in" for some very cool first person journalism... This guy is an excellent writer, he's got the underdog appeal nailed, and he now is getting the kind of experience that people truly want to hear about = A recipe for some darn good reporting.

Regardless of whether this is a stunt or not, its really neat, and I look forward to reading Ben's coverage of the experience.

(And to the PR people who may have "thunk-up" this stunt - Brilliant, keep up the great work)

Go Trojans!