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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1988)
Opinion The Battalion Monday, Nov. 21, 1988 p 9 g e Lights! Camera! Action! The saga continues The plot thickens. Act I, Scene I: Former A&M fullback George Smith and Dallas Morning News reporter Doug Bedell collaborate on a potential book. During eight hours of taped interviews Mr. Smith, an honora ble man, claims several improprities re gard! ng NCAA rules and his relationship with Professor/Head Coach/Superior Being Jackie Sherrill, also an honorable man. Among Smith’s allegations are his be ing paid several hundred dollars for doing Prof. Sherrill’s yardwork (Talk about some serious weed-eating.) and for not selling his complimentary game tickets at inflated rates (an honorable thing for an honorable man not to do), and his receiving of free plane tickets for flights to his hometown of Atlanta and “hush money” from A&M Assistant Coach George Pugh, another honorable ' 1 i JE; -1 Anthony Wilson Opinion Page Editor Act I, Scene II:The honorable Mr. Sherrill, doing his best Houdini, disap pears from the face of Aggieland Fri day. Of course, he made a cameo ap pearance in the A&M locker room for a team meeting at which he didn’t, I re peat didn’t, tell his players how to de fend him in response to the media’s questions. But Mr. Sherrill (did I mention that he was an honorable man?) did not feel the need to defend himself to those dis honorable, muckraking, two-percenter media scoundrels. Nor did he feel the need to coach his team against those lowly Horned Frogs of TCU — too many distractions, don’cha know. I guess he was afraid that after the game, TCU Coach Jim Wacker would forego congratulations to say, “Nyahh, nyahh!” Act I, Scene III: The once-and-for- ever honorable Mr. Smith receives a phone call from the spouse of the equally honorable Coach Pugh. And lo and behold, Georgie Porgie (Smith, not Pugh) changes his story and refuses to stand behind his previous comments. He was overheard telling A&M’s Direc tor of Public Information Lane Ste phenson, “Damn the eight hours of au dio tape, the sworn statement and the Federal Express envelope stuffed with $500 on the inside and Pugh’s return address scribbled on the outside that I gave the News, man. Full speed ahead to the polygraph.” Act II, Scene I: The big game. Assis tant Head Coach and Defensive Coordi nator R.C. Slocum, the man sent in to mop up the Frogs, leads his team onto Kyle Field for the traditional rendition of “The Spirit of Aggieland.” Three hundred and eighty-six photographers, each carrying three cameras with lenses the size of canned hams, gather round Slocum as he goes into his hump. (Nope, no distractions here.) The Aggies easily beat the Frogs 18-0. And despite the controversy of a loom ing death penalty for the A&M football program, none of the players are wor ried. It’s fine when seniors John Roper and Dana Batiste say that; they’ll be toil ing in the National Football League next year. But when sophomore Bucky Rich ardson says, “It had nothing to do with us” and “. . . We can’t worry about it,” you have this burning desire to break out the semaphore flags and spell it out — “YOU MAY NOT BE PLAYING FOOTBALL FOR A&M NEXT YEAR. THIS SHOULD BE A CONCERN, BUCKY!!!” Act II, Scene II: The big press con ference. Dr. William Mobley begins his statement with a brief rundown of the 112-year history of the Texas Agricultu ral and Mechanical College. An airhorn is sounded to awaken the media when he begins to say something of substance. He doesn’t have time to answer any questions — an important social func tion awaits his arrival. do not Hop. 'ToLepoTH those WHO Po. l(P’AQ0]t& Do NOT CPEAT UE -STEAL Nor toitratsl those who do. Jackie ifconfid :ials and | he turn* brmer t :ontinue In a r he Dalk ie had r >ach S ;ruitmen E500 sh CAA i Smith re lay at a Bade tht ie was j Doug Be Ml By Trumpets sound and George Smith, the hardest working man in literature, enters the room. The basis of his statement: “I swear I was lying!” Mr. Smith, ever the honorable kind of guy he is, says the only reason Jackie, an honorary honorable guy, gave him money was because George was having a hard time sans degree and he and Jack have this father-son relationship. (Gee, my dad never gave me $300 for mowing the lawn.) Mr. Smith, who also happens to be the hardest working man in blackmail, fields reporters’ questions with the grace of a retarded rhinocerous. For example: When asked why he thought he could get away with the lies in a book, he deftly answered, “Next question.” He may not have gotten a bachelor’s at A&M, but he did get an education in Sherrill’s school of public relations. The only thing missing from this event was an itsy-bitsy car containing all the clowns who arranged the confer ence. The attending reporters leave trusting Mr. Smith and the University about as far as they can spit bowling balls. And now a rundown of the cast of characters and their possible fates: Jackie Sherrill — Mr. Sherrill, an hon orable man, has acted strangely throughout this ordeal. One would think he is attempting to cover up a murder, rather than an infraction con cerning football, a form of entertain ment milleniums from real life. Sherrill has a veritable plethora of options from which to choose, three of which are: ’ A.) Come out of hiding, defend him self and answer all the unanswered questions, such as “If you were simply loaning George Smith money, why did you send cash instead of a check?” and, “Why have you refused to stand up to these accusations if you are innocent?” He would then have to decide whether to carry on as coach or resign in the best interest of the team and the University. B. ) Live up to his word and resign as he said he would if something else went wrong when A&M received its penalties in September from the NCAA. C. ) Take his act to the pros where paying players is perfectly acceptable. Dr. William Mobley — As University president, Dr. Mobley must take com plete control of the situation, have A&M’s internal investigation completed ASAP and make an immediate decision concerning Sherrill’s fate. And to drive the point home, he should also advise the system’s Board of Regents to strip Sherrill of his professorship. George Smith — Watch and be amazed as Mr. Smith, an honorable man, laughs all the way to the bank. A television movie will be made of his esca pades starring Mr. T as our hero. Mi chael Dukakis will win an Emmy for his emotional portrayal as Smith’s (T’s) fa ther/coach/mentor. A&M football players — If the death The foll< :ent ever ilations i M foot! 'he Tex ler fire i led allej ofjbreakin] the fool he alle Univei arded lort inch ms that h |0n Sept ractions lives to penalty hits, these men will see comkl in Recruiting War II. Darren Lewisvifcallegati surrender all hopes to a HeismanforbiAs a re junior year because of the adjustmcitlP 1 ' 9 ’ 1 period of learning a new offense. Ho«K ce f on ‘ r 6 from ever, others, such as Lance Pavlas, ant Osgood, Larry Horton and Keith fee, will flourish with more playitflouring t time. Attendance at A&M volleyballakiilliam H skyrockets. land He George Pugh — A&M’s receiver! coach will get his wife to call cc campuses across the country (cc begging someone to give Sherrill's orable pawn a job. So what’s the conclusion? You’ll hatt to continue checking in at the sail! Baft-time on this same Batf-channel find out. Because this story is definiteli to be continued. Anthony Wilson is a senior joimr lism major and opinion page editork The Battalion. Why Battalion staffers must do what they do To put it mildly, the Texas press has been getting a lot of heat recently. Aggies from all over are complaining about the way the recent scandal has been reported. “Sloppy journalism.” “Yellow journalism.” “Printing rumors as facts.” I heard it all Saturday. But special criticism is being focused on The Battalion. I was surrounded by an angry horde of supporters by the Ag gie Diehards’ bus, and all wanted to know why we as a whole — and I indi vidually — did what we did. For those of you who may not have seen Friday’s Battalion, we ran a story based on and attributed to the Dallas Morning News article concerning George Smith and his accusations lev eled at A&M (that he has since re tracted). We ran two editorials that said Jackie Sherrill should be fired and the A&M football team deserved the “Death Pe nalty” if the allegations proved true. I wrote a column stating my opinion on the matter. That is, I believe them, and I am embarrassed and insulted that Sherrill would think we could believe all his talk about cleaning up the program — and even more embarrassed and in sulted that he appears to have been right. Two basic statements need to be made concerning our treatment of the issue: First, to get all speculation out of the way, I and The Battalion stand by every word we have said about Jackie Sherrill and the A&M football program today and Friday. I firmly believe the allegations re ported by the Dallas Morning News Fri day are true. If true, I believe the A&M program deserves anything the NCAA is capable of dishing out, including the “Death Penalty.” In fact, I’m more sure of it now than I’ve ever been. I believe Sherrill should be forced to resign, and I don’t think the ax should stop there. I believe fans of Texas A&M football, perhaps without knowing it, are taking “innocent until proven guilty” to mean “innocent until confession.” They are not giving the News any credit for intel ligence or ethics — after all, this is rec ognized as the best newspaper in this part of the country by almost everyone who knows journalism. I believe deep in their hearts, most of them believe the story but are just un willing to admit it. After all, even with out any proof, the story is pretty believ- Hal Hammons Sports Editor able. And the News supplied ample proof. Secondly, there needs to be some clarification about our peculiar situation here at The Battalion, being journalists and Aggies simultaneously. There seems to be a wide-spread mis conception among Aggies everywhere that The Battalion — “the school news paper,” as they are given to call it — is especially to blame, since it is shooting down its own school. Many of the Aggie Diehards seemed to assume I didn’t like Texas A&M be cause of the stand I took. One, in fact, offered to buy my ring from me. He as sumed, I suppose, I didn’t really care whether or not I owned one. My response told my story in five words: “I’m proud of my ring.” And I am. And proud of Texas A&M. I haven’t regretted a single min ute I have spent in College Station since defecting from Austin more than four years ago. I am not, however, proud of the foot ball program. I am not proud of the football coach. And I certainly am not proud of three Cotton Bowls and four wins over the University of Texas that seem to have come by reprehensible means. I see no intrinsic conflict between be ing an A&M student and being a re sponsible journalist. If anything, the tendency would be to slant the news to ward A&M. And I fight the urge every day. I do not see why it is un-Aggie to speak out against the school’s existing problems. There is absolutely nothing unprofes sional, unethical or illegal about print ing allegations that have not been pro ven. That’s the case with every law of the land. If someone has been accused of a crime, and evidence or circum stances make the accusation plausible, that is news. Especially if it is a person of stature such as Mr. Sherrill. Why should we think that an NCAA violation allegation — not even a crimi nal act — involving someone whoisre' ceiving so much of Texas A&M’s mow should be treated with kid gloves? There is nothing wrong with a new paper going to press with a story of ttii nature. Not even The Battalion. In fact, we of all news media shouli print a story like this. We print new that is of interest to our readership.On; readers, for the most part, are Aggies Obviously this story has significance k Aggies. Once and for all, let me say in pnfi what I have said hundreds of times vet bally: We are The Battalion. We are a new paper, with the purpose of giving out reading public the news. Just like an> other newspaper. We are not a branch of the Sports In formation Department or A&M’s Offo of Public Information. It is notourrt- sponsibility to support the team througli thick and thin. And we will not shirk from our re sponsibility to tell the facts — good® bad. If you don’t like the facts, don’treaii The Battalion. Hal Hammons is a journalism gni 1 uate and sports editor for The Battal ion. The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Lydia Berzsenyi, Editor Becky Weisenfels, Managing Editor Anthony Wilson, Opinion Page Editor Richard Williams, City Editor D AJensen, Denise Thompson, News Editors Hal Hammons, Sports Editor Jay Janner, Art Director Leslie Guy, Entertainment Editor Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspa per operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial board or the author, and do not necessarily rep resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, fac ulty or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within the Department of Journalism. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday and examination periods. 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