Journalistic Whitewash?

I wouldn't name their names. No way in hell. Mention the incident, avoid naming names. It's high school football, not the White House.

Any reader who really wants to know who they were probably already do.

 

This might just be my anal-retentiveness speaking, but if someone 25 or under gets arrested in my town, I check them on FB, on the master spreadsheet of the HS athletes I have, and in the online directory of a local college. Local State U has a huge problem with student renters wrecking the local neighborhoods, so most residents want to know if John Smith, 18, is from there.

 

I can understand not mentioning players in context of crime but to not mention they did not play in context of game seems like a glaring omission.

TV folks took it one step further. They did not even mention the incident. Ironically two of the kids both had prominent rolls in game televised the week before. Most likely they did not want to anger part of their subscriber base.

This is the way The Patch handled which I thought was about the best:

"Absent from the Blue Wave's lineup were Clay Barker, Darien's main deep threat, and two-way lineman Zack Sherwood."

 

This is never an easy issue... a few years back, we had a situation where a team's last game of the year (game 10) was it's homecoming game. Night after the game, after playoff brackets for the next weekend were announced, star running back (ran for 2K+ on the season) and others "allegedly" got drunk in their limo to/fro the homecoming dance, and ultimately at the dance. They were suspended for the playoff game (turns out quarterback, top receiver/tight end and the state's best running back were not playing the next week).

Long story short, newsroom had to decide: is this an education issue or a sports issue? I'd be lying if i said I remembered "how" we "knew" that the kids involved were these football players (we were tipped), but we did.

So, education issue, you don't run names, and it's a "kids got drunk at prom" story. Sports issue, you run names, but not playing for breaking team rules. Maybe our news dept. should have done their story too, but somehow, it was decided that it was a sports story.

The next day, our big rival paper ran the "education" version, and i believe cited "student-athletes" as committing the infractions.

Moral: anyone who saw both stories figured it out. They were too similar.


Had another story last year that wasn't exactly the same, but still pretty frustrating. Kids go to a party on weekend; kids decide to drink at party; one kid posts pictures to facebook, forgetting he's "friends" with an assistant football coach. TEN players suspended for next game.

Here's the problem I had with this. Of the 10 suspended, one was the "star" quarterback, another a running back, another a tight end, another a defensive back. The rest? linemen or reserves.

I get a tip about this, get to the stadium early, and sure enough, those four "big names" are out. I have NO idea who the rest of the guys missing are. Even if I would have gone through the roster, jerseys change enough during the year, and they don't have names on the back, couldn't have been 100 percent sure.

After the game. I try to level with the head coach, who I have a very good rapport with...

ME: "Coach, I know you can't say "why". I'm not asking "why" they were suspended. In addition to Players One, Two, Three and Four, can you just tell me who did not play tonight, or who it was that was suspended. I know it was 10 total."
COACH: "I can't tell you that."
ME: "The game was on TV. If I taped it at home and watched a replay, I'd be able to figure it out."
COACH: "Then go watch it and figure it out."
ME: "I didn't tape it, will you provide me with a copy of the game?"
COACH: "You're kidding, right?"

I was kidding, actually, at that point, and I'm not naive. I don't blame him at all for not sharing. But I just felt like it was kind of a joke... I had to name the four kids I "knew" simply because they were QB, RB, WR, CB. Odds are, the lineman was a better "player" but because he was born with big bones and some height, and didn't play a "sexy" position, he didn't get named for "breaking team rules." Doesn't seem right. (full disclosure: we had enough certainty that these players were not hurt, and missed because they broke rules, so we named names with the caveat that "QB, RB, WR, and CB were not on the field, not dressed, and not in the stadium. Paper learned that 10 players were to be suspended for breaking team rules, but it could not be confirmed if those four players were among the 10.")

Maybe it's all my fault, i can live with that. But at the same time, I did my best to figure it out and it just wasn't happening. The other six who missed time were never named...

 

Thought this was pretty classy on part of Darien Football team- Letter read at mid field prior to game:

Statement from the Darien High football team
To Coach Marinelli and the New Canaan Rams,

On behalf of the entire Blue Wave football team, we would like to apologize for the thoughtless and immature actions of our ex-teammates on Tuesday night at your high school. We recognize the gravity of what happened and have taken appropriate disciplinary measures to address the problem. We are ashamed by the disrespect that they showed. As a team and school, we do not condone this type of behavior; nor are we proud of it.

In the future, we hope that despite the historic rivalry between our two schools, we can continue to hold the utmost respect for one another. Once again, we are deeply sorry for what happened.

Sincerely,
Blue Wave Football Team

 

Pretty strong column by local sports editor denouncing the actions of players also an interesting suggestion that there is more to story:

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/sports/article/RUDEN-Vandalism-at-New-Canaan-will-be-easier-to-836097.php

"The five Darien players, I'm told, were caught on surveillance cameras, though they were wearing hoodies to conceal their identity. There is other strong evidence regarding other components of what happened that have not yet been confirmed but, if proved true, makes this all the more troubling."

 

Just set up blocs in the town square and pelt them with rocks and garbage, already Or, in another fine New England tradition, scarlet letters?

 

V for Vandalism?

 

Kids have been doing stupid, damaging pranks ever since there have been kids an stupid, damaging pranks.

What the kids did was unacceptable, and they should be punished, but c'mon it's not the first time players have pulled a stupid prank on a rival football team.

No one was hurt. The only person who suffers is the poor janitor who has to clean up the mess, and he gets paid $8 to do just that.

 

In New Canaan?

The janitor makes $160000 a year, has two kids at Colby, and keeps a boat in St. Bart's.

Still has the big big key ring, though, and a barrel full of pine-scented sawdust.

 

Makes sense - their daddy's - many who work on Wall St and assisted in bringing down our economy got off the hook so why shouldn't their kids.

 

They should be punished. I am talking about the tone of "What were they thinking?!" article.

They weren't thinking. They're stupid kids pulling a stupid prank like millions of other teenagers before them.