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.
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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.
Mail subscriptions are $17.44 per semester, $34.62
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Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-1 111.
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BLOOM COUNTY
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