Trust me, there are lots of things I want to say. However, today, instead of defending the teams I love (Southern Miss and Auburn), I am going to simply defend college sports. I LOVE college sports, probably more than any other female around my age I know. I love college football, college basketball, college baseball, and even swimming. I am not going to try to defend particular programs. I am going to defend the college sports programs as a whole.
This past year, the growth of Internet sites has been huge. My grandmother used to say, "Trust none of what you hear, half of what you read, and only some of what you see." People like our favorite in-state radio host, 'journalists' who use twitter, (who is Brooks anyway? I don't really know who Clay is either.) and now it seems a pay for cable MOVIE channel are using things to slander, pick on, and encourage disgusting parts of a rivalry. Even one who works for a major network, but he has an 'agenda', and uses that agenda to pick apart or praise what he wants. It has nothing to do with truth or the sport itself. While some fans of other schools are beside themselves with glee at the struggles of another program, I would like to point something out. The way things are reported in college sports has changed. They went after us, and they WILL go after you. Right now, its funny and easy to join in. When the worm turns, it won't be so enjoyable. And it will turn, because it always does. The lack of integrity in society today has forever changed college sports. Yes, there are things on the schools ends and the players that also lack integrity. It doesn't really seem to matter, though, because whatever angle the 'journalists' would like to make true is accepted as genuine and fact. I don't know WHY this particular trend has occurred, other than the fact that these guys get paid for controversy to be stirred up. In this area, we are so passionate about our schools that we feel we cannot be silent. So, we respond. If we do, someone writes a column in the big city newspaper telling us to 'stop...blah, blah'. If we don't respond, then twitter journalists say, 'ohhh, they can't even respond.' I have been feeling increasingly disturbed by this trend, probably because one of my beloved schools was such a target this past year. If you ARE a journalist who uses twitter or radio or other media outlets and you have integrity, I would be even more furious. I know there are some of you. We need YOU to stand up and take charge.
I was one who after truth came out that the Toomer's trees were really poisoned, I said I would never listen to that radio show again. Lots of people said that. Some people went back to listening, others didn't. I have not listened again. (Sorry, Lee) I kind of feel like some of the fun has been sucked out of it for me. Then I got to thinking, that thought was letting the bad guys win. The bad guys here aren't the players of the other team or even the fans, but the bad guys are these people whose words are thought of as gold. What can be done about it? I don't really know. The point of all of this is, people who love college sports should link together. We need to demand integrity be returned to the area of 'reporting' If you are a fan of a team who has not been a target this year, you won't understand, yet. If your returns to the top, it will happen. You will become the target. Trust me, I don't like to see the teams I love to hate being dragged through media mud, either. There are some people specifically I don't care for, however, the programs as a whole being dragged through the mud, now that bothers me.
I don't know if this is making sense the way I wanted it to, but I felt like I had to say something. Before college sports are completely ruined, we need people who will say and do the right thing.
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