Gregg Doyel Does An Impressive Ron Burgundy In Sorry Caitlin Clark Apology Column

Long before Gregg Doyel developed what seems like a cringe crush on Caitlin Clark, he became a great sports columnist at the Charlotte Observer in the 1990s, later at CBSSports.com and, since 2014, at the Indianapolis Star.

Doyel, who is in his mid-50s and a father of two sons, won the Associated Press Sports Editors No. 1 columnist in the nation in 2014, ‘17, ’19 and '22. He has won 16 top 10 awards from APSE - the Oscars of sports writing - since 2007 with eight of those for columns. 

RELATED: Gregg Doyel Exchange With Caitlin 

RELATED: Gregg Doyel Apologizes

It was Doyel who was not afraid to ask LeBron James a tough and extremely timely and pertinent question during the 2011 NBA Finals between James' Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks. Many other writers, at the time, were fawning over the still budding LeBron before any of his four championships.

"Three games in a row for you in the fourth quarter - not much," Doyel began to LeBron after game three of the finals with Miami up two games to one. "That's moments when superstars become superstars. Seems like you're almost shrinking from it. What's going on?"

LeBron James had a more pertinent exchange with columnist Gregg Doyel during the 2011 NBA Finals than Caitlin Clark did Wednesday at a press conference. (Getty Images)

Wow. That proved to be as pertinent a question as OutKick's Dan Zaksheske's two to LSU women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey about the national anthem and South Carolina women's coach Dawn Staley about men as transgenders entering the women's game during the NCAA Tournament recently. Particularly since Miami and LeBron had just won again. Doyel also showed a tremendous amount of guts, particularly since LeBron's team had just won.

"You should just watch the film again and see what I did defensively, and you ask me a better question tomorrow," James told Doyel in front of the world. 

Gregg Doyel Has Been Ridiculed For Being Right

And Doyel paid for it as he often does as the defensive and weaker NBA writers attacked him as Zaksheske was attacked by the same crowd on the college women's side. But, like Zaksheske, it was proven that Doyel was on to something. LeBron ended up averaging just 3 points in the six fourth quarters of the series won by Dallas, four games to two, including zero in a game four loss.

Since then, LeBron realized he has to play offense at critical moments, too. And he has been much better on offense late in NBA Finals games, which is largely why he won the NBA title the very next year with Miami and again in 2013 and again in Cleveland in 2016 and with the Lakers in 2020.

Doyel wasn't quite on his game as he was in 2011 or as he usually is while at Clark's introductory press conference on Wednesday with the Indiana Fever, which picked her with the first selection of the WNBA Draft first round Monday night. 

Caitlin Clark shows off her new Indiana Fever jersey at a press conference in Indianapolis on Wednesday after the Fever made her the first pick of the WNBA Draft on Monday night. (Getty Images)

He started off well by trying to welcome Clark to the Fever and the town of Indianapolis, where he is a sports authority. When called upon early in the presser, he made a heart shape with his hands as Clark would always show her family at games while becoming an iconic superstar at Iowa. 

"You like that?," Clark said smiling.

Gregg Doyel Was Wrong This Time

"I like that you're HERE," Doyel said with enough self-importance to drown anyone near him. And if you close your eyes and listen, he sounds exactly like Will Ferrell's Ron Burgundy in the 2004 movie, "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy."

"I like that you're here," Doyel droned again, as if speaking for the entire state of Indiana. 

Actor Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy before an "Anchorman The Legend of Ron Burgundy" premiere at The Museum of Television and Radio in New York City in 2004. (Getty Images). 

"I'm kind of a big deal," I expected Doyel to say next, which is one of the more oft-repeated lines from Ferell in the movie. "People know me. I'm VERY important."

Clark, playing along and being friendly as usual, explained the heart gesture.

"Yeah, I do that at my family after every game, so, it's pretty cool," she said.

"Ok, well, start doing it to me, and we'll get along just fine," Doyel said.

And a nation cringed as it's not a good idea to make borderline-at-best sexual references at press conferences. But the second part is more Burgundy. Like Caitlin Clark NEEDS to get along with Gregg Doyel. He may need to get along with her, but not the other way around.

AMES, IA - DECEMBER 6: Caitlin Clark #22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes reacts making a heart with her hands after the Iowa Hawkeyes won 67-58 over the Iowa State Cyclones. Clark became the 15th player in Division I women's basketball history to reach 3,000 points for her career when she broke 3,000 points with a three point basket in the game at Hilton Coliseum on December 6, 2023 in Ames, Iowa. They Iowa Hawkeyes won 67-58 over the Iowa State Cyclones. (Photo by David K Purdy/Getty Images)

Considering the backlash that followed for Doyel, he responded with an apology column under the headline, "Doyel: Caitlin Clark, I'm so sorry. On Wednesday, I was part of the problem."

First of all, the headline writer should have made it clear what Doyel meant by "I'm so sorry." Is he sorry as in an apology? Or is he a sorry person or columnist? Believe me, many would go with the latter.

But as you read his column, he is apologizing. But like only Ron Burgundy could.

Gregg Doyel May Have Set A Guinness World Record

Perhaps never has there been a more self-absorbed apology column - or column in general. They tell you in Journalism School to avoid writing in first person, as in using "I" or "my," etc. a lot. And that is broken more now than ever in effective ways by the good ones. In Doyle's column, however, there is no other person than his first person. He may have set the Guinness Book of World Records mark for most references to himself.

There are no less than 49 uses of the word "I, myself, me, I've, my, I'd" and "I'm" in what is just a 500-word column.

He uses variations of "I" or "my" seven times in one paragraph, for example, and five times over one 18-word stretch. It's truly remarkable. Ron Burgundy would be proud.

"I'm devastated to realize I'm part of the problem," Doyle begins. "What happened was the most me thing ever."

And here comes a Burgundy line:

"I'm sort of known locally," he writes.

Caitlin Clark gives her heart sign to her family - not columnist Gregg Doyel - after an Iowa game this season. (Getty Images).

Finally, we get to this in his very last sentence:

"Caitlin Clark, I'm so sorry."

Clark was clearly not upset on the outside from watching her face when he made the cringe comment. She is "kind of a big deal." She did Saturday Night Live Saturday night, was the first pick of the draft Monday night, and is soon expected to sign an eight-figure deal with Nike.

Meanwhile, if the very talented Doyel could just rewind and erase his comment, surely he would. Then I (sorry) wouldn't have had to read his column - which won't win an APSE - for this column, which also won't.

What Doyel should've done was ask what Zaksheske would have asked had the WNBA granted OutKick a credential for the WNBA Draft. That would've been a question to Clark about her opinion on men becoming women to play in women's sports.

That would have been much more pertinent and newsworthy than what Doyel did.

(Let me know what you think by emailing me at glenn.guilbeau@outkick.com or commenting on X @SportBeatTweet.)