One of our goals here at StLSO Media Watch is to occasionally provide another perspective, a contrarian perspective, on the St. Louis sports scene.

The Kevin Carter benching provides us with just that opportunity.

For those of you not paying attention, Rams rookie head coach Mike Martz benched Carter, the Rams left defensive end, earlier this season...marking the first time that Carter had not started a game since the Rams moved to STL.

The local media, many of whom have contributed to this publication, have joined forces with Martz and the Rams...decrying Carter's perceived "lack of effort" in light of his contract status (unsigned after this season).

To say that the local (and even some national) talking heads and typists are down on Carter is putting it mildly.

The criticism was so withering that last week, Carter and his agent felt that a public response was necessary...and brought forth stats which they claimed to prove made the case that Carter's early 2000 season performance wasn't all that different from his past year's efforts.

Keep in mind that many of the very same folks who are now criticizing Carter were proclaiming him to be the second coming of Deacon Jones...as far back as 1996 (his sophomore season).

We at StLSO didn't see it that way.

And, in November of '96, we wrote as much here.

Oh, the local criticism we took for those opinions, because at time the Rams public relations machine, as well as the local STL media, were in general agreement that Kevin Carter was on top of his game.

This despite the fact that at least one pre-season national publication printed comments from an unnamed scout that were critical of Carter...

Now the World that revolves around STL says that Kevin Carter is a dog.

Again, we don't think so...and the truth lies somewhere in between.

Our view? Kevin Carter is a better-than-average football player who needs first-rate motivation and good players around him.

In other words, Carter isn't as good as advertised last year...and probably is not the type of player around which a defense can be built.

But he's not as bad as advertised this year, either.

Like a good steak, Kevin Carter is medium.

But compelling opinions are never medium, are they?

Therein lies the problem faced by those who report on sports.