Not a surprise.

From Scott Wolf’s USC blog:

I was informed earlier this evening (Wednesday) that I would be allowed to return to USC football practices after a two-day ban for writing that kicker Andre Heidari underwent knee surgery. Sports editors from the Daily News, Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register spoke with USC athletic director Pat Haden today. Talks continue on the practice policies.

On a related front, it seems Washington also has the same practice policy regarding injuries. Writes Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times:

Here is the policy as distributed to media today:

“As a condition of entry to UW football practices, all visitors and members of the media are hereforth prohibited from reporting on strategy or injury-related news observed during practices. No players or coaches will have any comments on injuries and any such information.”

UW coach Steve Sarkisian also explained the policy to reporters, saying:

“We’re not going to comment on injuries anymore. I’m not. No one in our organization is. It’s just a competitive disadvantage for us when other teams don’t and we do, so that’s going to be the road we take.”

Later Condotta writes:

Obviously, this leads to some gray areas if we see or hear things outside of practice. We were basically told to assume we shouldn’t report anything at the risk of being barred from practice. We were also told not to answer questions from readers or on message boards, etc., about what we may have seen in practice.

In distributing the policy to reporters, a UW spokesman cited other schools that also have similar policies such as Stanford, USC, Oregon and Washington State and said UW feels it has been put at a competitive disadvantage in talking about injuries previously when those schools do not.

My take: As was the case in LA, it looks as if the sports editors in Seattle need to hold a meeting with the Washington AD and SID to iron out the situation. They can’t allow themselves to be bullied. Their reporters need to be able to report the news.