Daily Campus OUCH

[Mustangs35SMU]

Dont know if this has been posted or not but I just had to post this...This is to good...

http://www.smudailycampus.com/vnews/displa...ce?in_archive=1

[deleted] interference
Conversation with female fans distracts from the game

By The Daily Campus Editorial Board
September 14, 2004

Saturday’s football game against TCU showed a lack of drive on the field, but especially from the sidelines.

When players on the sidelines are focusing on kicking their “game” from the sidelines instead of kicking TCU’s [deleted], something is wrong.

In football, the sidelines are for strategy and getting plays straight, so when the team is behind 28-0 in the third quarter, it isn’t wise to be getting a girl’s number.

Against Texas Tech, the players actively engaged the crowd in the game by using them to their advantage, and for the better part of three quarters, it worked.

Against TCU, however, the Mustangs all but ignored the fans in the stands, who could have served as a great point of motivation. Some of the team’s focus on Saturday seemed to be on our sorority section rather than the actual SMU fans at the game.

The Mustangs are a young team and such behavior can be classified as a rookie mistake. But the coaches should monitor this situation to the best of their ability. As athletes performing on a college level, the players on the team should be focused on the game, whether they’re getting drilled by an opponent or vice versa.

On the other side of the fence, some of the blame should be given to the girls distracting their favorite players during the game. Ed Board suggests they take their Louis Vuitton bags, four-inch Prada heels, Gucci shades and South Beach attire to Chaucer’s after the game. Don’t flaunt it and walk the sidelines like a $2 hooker on Harry Hines.

There’s a time and a place for such actions, and standing behind the SMU bench isn’t it.

Discussing the local hot spots and theme parties of the night is post-game activity. Whether you decide to stay for the entire game or not, make sure your conversations take place after the game and not before you ride off into the night, leaving your team without support.

Ed Board is all for fans cheering on their favorite player, but actively engaging in a personal conversation with said player is more than enough to distract a team that should be focused solely on the opponent at hand and getting a single result in the win column. True fans know this and act accordingly.

Playing sports in college, especially football, is a privilege. If you want to score in your social life off the field, make sure you’re scoring on the field during a game against our school’s biggest rival.

[Hilltopper]

Yeah, that's been posted before, and that's an embarrassing editorial. Never mind the elementary writing; what bothered me was the continuous references to "kicking [deleted]" and "OUR biggest rival," etc. The Daily Campus is set up as an independent entity (or at least it was when I was there). Every time something controversial is written, the standard response is "this paper isn't part of SMU - we are an independent paper that covers SMU." Fine - and that's the way it should be. Since it's written for an SMU audience, there's nothing wrong with writing something about "go out and see the soccer teams" or "here's who did well in Sing Song." But to start cheerleading like this (while scolding players and fans alike) is juvenile at best. Leave the cheerleading to the spirit squads.

[Johnny Rock]

The truth hurts...doesn't it?

[Greenwich Pony]

So wait, I just reread that article. It berates the Mustangs for ignoring the fans at the TCU game, and then berates them for paying too much attention to the fans (or at least specific ones) at the TCU game. Who is the editor or faculty advisor? I regretably cannot say that the DC has ever been a bastion of fine reporting, even for a college newspaper, but content aside, if a reporter handed a story like that to an editor at the NY Times or even the Post, they would have been handed their head.

Personally, I think the players should keep their heads in the game, but this article (like so many others) was just stupid. It's okay to critique SMU, but if you're going to do it, at least be intelligent about it. AFter all, we are supposedly now and "Academic" school.

[rich_alum]

This article is embarrassing to our school. I can't believe they would allow such non-sense to be published.

I'm sure all the big newspapers will be impressed with that piece from his portfolio. what a jacka&&*

[Sir Trolls A Lot]

C'mon rich_alum, I know you got in the DC a few times as an undergraduate. Self hate much?

[FloridaMustang]

What's wrong with this article exactly?