[rant on]
You know, nobody likes a whiner/complainer.
That's why I'm really reluctant to make postings like this, because it's basically whining/complaining on my part.
But sometimes I get good and mad and have to vent.
Where I live, there are basically two newspaper choices: a good-sized local and the larger Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
I'm a fan of the New York Times crossword, ergo I go with the latter choice.
I'm also a sports fan. I really enjoy good sportswriting.
I consider the penultimate newspaper sportswriter to be the late Bill Connors, who wrote columns for the Tulsa World for many years.
Connors supported the local teams, of course. But he did so without much homerism. Example: he frequently roasted dirty OU coach Barry Switzer, despite the fact that he always spoke highly of the team as a whole. He also lambasted Brian Bosworth, one of Switzer's proudest.
What Connors was loath to do was whine.
Bad calls? Horrible officiating? Cheating? Sure, fans of the Sooners, the Cowboys, and the Golden Hurricane would speculate such after losses, but not Connors.
Bill believed in a team's being able to overcome outside adversity and win despite strange circumstances.
When BYU won a national championship in 1984 after a victory in the Holiday Bowl over 6-5 Michigan, the complaining was long and loud from sportswriters all over the country. But I recall Connors being philosophical about it, pointing out that all that OU (or USC, who defeated OU in the Orange Bowl) needed to do was WIN EVERY GAME, and the national championship debate wouldn't be a debate at all.
Bill, when I read Wally "Bad Call" Hall's rants at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, I miss you. A lot.
Hall has managed to become the head of the sports department at the newspaper.
(deep sigh)
Hall uses his column to campaign for things he believes strongly in. Among these tenets are:
- The Arkansas Razorbacks have very seldom lost any game in which bad officiating and/or cheating didn't take place.
- The SEC is the strongest conference, not only in college football, but also in any sport that has ever been played. Had any SEC team been involved in a contest of tlachtli, rest assured that it would have been the other team who was sacrificed to the gods (unless, of course, bad calls or cheating were involved).
- Former Arkansas AD Frank Broyles is a sweet, sweet man who simply overstayed his welcome just a bit. His infallible policies were all like those of the Pope, to be revered and never questioned.
- The SEC is the best. Any other conference is a sad pretender.
- Individual teams from other conferences may be viewed as non-pathetic, if they have recently played the Razorbacks or any other SEC team and squashed them. Of course, this is in the extremely rare event that bad officiating and/or cheating was not involved.
One of Hall's latest rants involves whining about Oklahoma being chosen as Big Twelve South champion over Texas (Texas destroyed Arkansas this last year, proving that they are the lone non-pathetic Big Twelve team). Hall's rant, like those of practically everyone else, ignore the fact that it was a THREE way tie for the conference crown that also involved Texas Tech, who BEAT Texas. Not feeling sorry for the Red Raiders, Wally? Of course not! They didn't beat any SEC teams this year!
The whine that set me off today was written about (trumpet blast, please) SEC (thank you) quarterback Tim Tebow, who would have won the Heisman Trophy this year if 154 voters hadn't left him off of their ballots.
One question, Wally, shouted because (sorry about that, but) I'm angry:
HOW MANY VOTERS LEFT SAM BRADFORD OFF OF THEIR BALLOTS?
That fact was conveniently left out of Wally's column. But hey, any time a non-SEC player wins a big award, there are obviously shenanigans going on in the background, right?
Wally Hall is likely a wonderful, generous, all-around nice guy in person. I've never met the man.
But his profession is sportswriter. He is also the head of a large newspaper's sports department.
I believe that calls for a certain amount of impartiality and/or objectivity.
And if that is true, then the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has the wrong man at the sports helm.
[rant off]
