Page 2/The Battalion/Thursday, October 8, 1987
Opinion
Football strike makes sport a travesty
I’ve never been
much of a
professional
football fan, but
curiosity forced
me to tune in to
Sunday
afternoon’s
games. What a
travesty.
I don’t feel
sorry for the
striking NFL
DA
Jensen
players, but it is obvious that a lot of
other people do. Take, for example, the
sportscasters assigned to cover the
Sunday games.
The headline in USA Today
proclaimed “Announcers take duties
seriously” when referring to the
announcers’ preparation for Sunday’s
games. It may be true that the
announcers tried to learn the new
players’ names, but that’s where the
serious duty apparently stopped. I wish
the headline was true — but from what I
saw it wasn’t.
The announcers took every
opportunity to slam the strike-breaking
players. They attributed every fumble,
every incomplete pass, every error, to a
lack of skill or experience. They didn’t
point out that many of the players had
practiced as a team for less than a week.
Some players arrived only days before
the first game. This is not the
announcing seen during a “normal”
NFL game. A lot of objectivity was
thrown to the wind, for nothing.
There was a lot of talk about the
striking players’ side of the story.
Viewers weren’t told that these players
are striking for increased benefits and
free-agent status. These are being
lobbied for despite the fact that the
players already are paid exorbitant
wages.
Mail Call
Color is only skin deep
EDITOR:
A very close friend of mine recently had a brief encounter with prejudice.
She was talking on the phone with her Bonfire Buddy, and he made some
racial comments. She could not understand why he was making these
remarks without even knowing if she were black or white.
Why is man so blind that he cannot see color is only skin deep? One
should not judge a man by the color of his skin, for skin is only a covering for
what lies inside of man. What’s inside a person is what makes them good or
bad. It is a fool who likes someone only because they are like them. Our
differences make us special. Not one race is superior! God made us all equal,
and equal we should be.
My dad has always called me gullible and naive, but I don’t think I will
ever be able to understand why someone cannot like another person because
the color of their skin is different, their religion is different, or their race is
different. Prejudice is the result of ignorance. I thank God for blessing me
with parents who taught me to accept people for what they are, and I pray for
those who cannot do the same, both black and white.
Kim Edwards ’90
accompanied by five signatures
A shocking statistic
EDITOR:
I was shocked and horrified after reading in the Oct. 2 Battalion that
more than 84,000 abortions were performed last year in Texas alone. It
would seem that people have lost all sense of decency and any compassion for
the unborn. The number is a staggering figure and a mournful occurence.
Our society continues to deem permissible those acts that once were
thought unthinkable. Now it condones the murder of thousands of unborn
children each year.
Most ironic is the fact that there are solutions to unwanted pregnancy
other than abortion, adoption being one. Any choice would be better than the
deprivation of the most valuable gift: life.
Yale St.Clair
Stop your bellyaching
EDITOR:
I will graduate from this fine institution in December, and since I’ve been
here, I’ve read nearly 770 Battalions. Within these august pages have
appeared hundreds of letters condemning the traditions of A&M. Some of
these letters were no doubt valid in their claims, but most bordered on
ridiculousness. Well, the straw that broke this elephant’s back appeared on
Oct. 6 and was titled “Wanted: Inoffensive Stories.” My remarks are not
directed at insulting Mr. Provines or those who signed his letter. Rather, this
is directed at all those past and future letter-writers who point out “injustice”
in all of its insidious forms:
STOP YOUR BELLYACHING!!!
The truths are:
1. “Tradition” is not a dirty word.
2. Texas A&M is already a “world-class” university, renowned the world
over as a great school.
3. It won’t destroy your lifestyle to observe simple A&M traditions like not
stepping on the MSG grass, standing up for football games, or saying
“Howdy!” to strangers.
4. Half the world’s problems could be solved if people tried to get along
with each other and were more tolerant.
5. The Corps of Cadets is a positive influence on A&M.
6. As Milo Bloom pointed out in Bloom County one day, moral purity is a
worthy goal, but it is unattainable in an imperfect world. Censorship of
anything, besides being un-American, is not the answer.
The point of all this is if you see a real problem, speak up and offer
constructive advice. If something insignificant offends you, try to ignore it.
Besides being totally harmless, some of the “grode stories” are pretty funny.
Lighten up, self-appointed saviors of Aggieland. Be proud of your school. I
know I am.
Greg Martin ’87
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters
for style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and
must include the classification, address and telephone number of the uniter.
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Sondra Pickard, Editor
John Jarvis, Managing Editor
Sue Krenek, Opinion Page Editor
Rodney Rather, City Editor
Robbyn Lister, News Editor
Loyd Brumfield, Sports Editor
Tracy Staton, Photo Editor
The fans support the strike. I haven’t
figured out why, but they do. It seems
they are not willing to let new talent
infiltrate the sport. Thousands of tickets
were returned this weekend by faithful
NFL fans. They were urged to boycott
the games, and they did. The sacrifice
was needless because there were some
interesting games played Sunday. The
fans, had they seen the games, might
have been surprised at how much
unutilized talent exists outside the
league.
Maybe the most serious supporters of
the strike were not even aware they
were showing support. The automobile
and beer industries pulled their
advertising from the networks. This
indicated to every person watching that
they were not willing to support football
as an industry and risk annoying their
own unions. This suprises me because I
think the strike-breaking players are
like a new product. Just think what
these companies would do if the
consumers refused to try their new
products.
The advertisers wouldn’t have fared
that poorly if they would have run their
ads. Network viewing didn’t drop much,
so I guess they made a bad call.
What does all the support mean to
the strike? I think the answer is obvious
considering the fact that the owners are
not willing to negotiate the
unreasonable demands of the overpaid
players. The strike is not doing the
players much good.
Management is holding out on
resuming negotiations, and for a good
reason. The chances of the strike lasting
much longer are sl'm. Union members
are slowly distancing themselves from
the union and crossing the picket lines. I
guess it’s hard to give up more than
$60,000 per week like Buffalo Bills
quarterback Jim Kelly is forced to dob)
the strike.
Greed, or financial need as the
players call it, is finally starting to take
its toll on the nasty strikers. There is a
lot of talk from a lot of players about
crossing the picket line. The complaint!
about financial hardship — from
players who are making millions of
dollars — are numerous. 1 guess I
shouldn’t expect some of the playersto
have money management skills since
some don’t even have language skills,
The strike won’t last much longer,
but even if it did I wouldn’t be sorry.
I’ve enjoyed seeing other people gettbt
opportunity to play professional
football, even at the expense of the
“real” players.
D. A. Jensen is a senior journalism
major and a columnist for The
Battalion.
wmm
1 WAS
% /
TALKING
ABOUT THE
FOOTBALL
STRIKE.
m
Bruno eats scab-loving fans
and then spits out their bones
A sma!
picked up
cer on tht
dog is bev
the Brazo
workers t
bers on it
99-?
The tli
like a seve
all Nortl
descriptio
As one
another
woman w
cocker sp
tags.
For the
their r<
turned tc
don’t alw;
ating owi
the pets <
tags.
Brazos
ivailable ;
,nd the s
xtended
ency vete
Patty A
or Brazo;
iuttags.
Strays a
hree days
then they
imals to be
If the a
■out eff
ict the
which som
ertified l
ore an an
More tli
are receiv
reason or;
The ani
tm
My name is
Bruno
Thudpucker, and
I play middle
linebacker in the
NFL. I’m mean,
I’m lean and I eat
quarterbacks and
spit out the bones.
A lot of you
nickle-and-dime
scab-lovers out
there are saying
Lewis
Grizzard
that me and the other pro football
players got no business going on strike.
Nobody tells us what we ought to do
and what we ought not to do because we
are fam-a-lee and are the meanest
mothers in the valley, too, and we’ll put
a fist through your windshield or your
face, whichever you want, scab-lovers.
You think we got it soft, right?
Well, we don’t. You take me. I had to
scrape through college on a measly
thousand a week I got from that oilman
who adopted me as his son when I
signed for my scholarship.
Our quarterback got two thousand a
week from his new daddy, and he was
driving around in a Mercedes
convertible. All I could afford was a
Corvette.
Then, when I signed with the pros, all
my agent could get me was a half million
a year, a chain of convenience stores,
and a cheerleader a week.
I could hardly scrape by what with
the payments on my Mercedes, my
truck, my Harley, my condos in Palm
Springs and Maui, my boat and all them
paternity suits.
You ding-bats probably think it’s easy
playing pro football, but it ain’t. You got
to go to practice every day for three
hours and then play on Sunday, and that
usually takes until four in the afternoon.
And then you got to talk to them nosy
reporters and take a shower, and
sometimes it’s six before I get over to
Scooters for a few beers with the boys
and cracking a few of the customers’
heads for staring at me.
Road games is even worse. Before I
got to be a star and got my picture in
Sports Illustrated knocking some
quarterback into next year, I had to sit
back in the tourist section on the
chartered plane.
And one time we are out in LA.to
play the Rams, and the suite in myliott
didn’t have one of them mini-barssol
had to send the bellman out for beer
Plus, my TV was on the blinkandl
missed rasslin’ and the starlet m
lined me up with didn’t bring anycoit
with her and I had to pay our trainer
double for a hit for me and whatever
her name was.
Like I said, us ballplayers goingoe
strike ain’t none of your business. If' 1
weren’t for us, what would you do^
your Sunday afternoons, hangaroip
with your wife and kids in that
doublewide you live in? Godownto®
laundromat and watch clothes spin
around in the dryer?
Listen, you pencil-neck geeks,yo'
need us or your life really would be
miserable. So shut up about us goin
strike for what we deserve or I’llcoi#
over to your house and kill your dog
That’s all I got time to say. I got to!
down to the picket line and throw
eggs. Plus, we got a Fellowship of
Christian Athletes meeting at four
Copyright 1987, Cowles Syndicate
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breath 1
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