No Access For A Feature

tried the s.i.d. route and got the same "no talk till season's over" bit. the volunteer fire dept. is very, very small and messages have been left. have tried the myspace route, too, but no luck yet. i think it would be a pretty good feature, especially since the kid is something like 6-6, 350 pounds. i can't imagine a volunteer fireman that size. and yes, the kid (well, young man now) is a super nice guy who does all sorts of volunteer work. his hometown is probably only a thousand or so population.

 

Two things.

1. Your column suggestion is great. Talk about a kid, say no comment; talk about another kid, no comment. I love it!

2. I don't need a free speech expert to tell me that what the coach is doing is just fine, legally. [It's stupid and short-sighted, but it's legal.] I know it would be easy to find someone, but I didn't see the need. That was why I mentioned it was a private school. Speech can be even more restricted there. When the coach recruited kids, they likely agree to follow "team rules," and if a coach wants to come up with new rules, that's up to him. Now, if someone wants to whack him for it, that's up to them.

 

Go over the head of the SID and go to the director of public relations for the whole university. Ask him if he wants to allow an already-fired coach and sock-puppet SID to sandbag a story which is likely to be highly positive for the university as a whole.

If that doesn't work, see if you can get Mr. Publisher to give Mr. University President a call, and ask the same question.

 

Mr T,

It's not a matter of whether it's legal/constitutional ... you go to the free-speech expert simply as a bit of writerly flourish for your piece ... ideally you find a player who's in that prof's class (he's taught about free speech but is denied it) ... the nuts of the piece are, in order, 1. the paranoid coach; 2. the put-upon players, innocents in all this; 3. the administrators who might circle the wagons but can't reasonably defend the coach; 4. athletes in other scholarship programs who speak freely; 5. free-speech expert, pure symbolism, the pase de desprecio, that the coach hasn't broken the law but it's clear to all he crossed a line.

YHS, etc

 

And the illustration for the col or story should be a player wearing a muzzle and holding a fire hose.

 

Sirs, Madames,

http://www.wouldyoubelieve.com/cone.html

Portable is my favorite.

YHS, etc

 

OK, as symbolism I buy it.

And I love the Cone of Silence links.

 

BRILLIANT!

 

Google "FDNY" and "Giuliani" and you should get plenty of hits.