Nice story on Arkansas prep football player and a display of sportsmanship

Without ever actually saying what happened. It's easy to accept responsibility for some undisclosed act. Makes it much more difficult for people to be able to tell whether or not you've actually reformed, or whether you just say you have. Also makes it easier to dodge the consequences of the action.

Maybe I'm too cynical, but I'm not buying this kid.

 

I had a couple problems with the first story - despite its length and it confusion the heck out of me in the early going - namely who were the other football players in the accident. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out. You have a roster, four are missing, that's who they are.
The other thing was the kid Morgan and what he got suspended for. You can ask around and find out. Not difficult.
Good story, poor execution.

 

I'm pretty sure the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported the names of all the kids injured in the accident. So either this guy just didn't find it newsworthy enough to put in the story or just was lazy all together. And yes, without knowing what he was suspended for it makes it hard to decide how you feel about the situation.

 

I didn't take the quote to mean the kid was hoping that taking a knee in that situation would make people take a look at him.

I took it to mean he hoped to attract the attention of colleges by playing well enough over the course of the season.

 

First story calls the school Yellville-Summit on first reference and then Yelleville-Summit after.

Citizen journalism!

 

Yep!! The future of our once-proud industry.

 

I started to read it, but realized I can just wait until Rick Reilly writes about it, so I only have to read 800 words, 250 of which will be tortured metaphors and similes.

 

Greetings all.

I am the author of this story, and decided to take on a few of the questions asked here about the story.

First, my website is owned by Rivals.com who is owned by Yahoo Sports. The version of the story that was put on the front page of Yahoo.com was not my original story. A national writer took parts of mine, added some things to it, and published it under my name so I would get the publicity.

This brings me to something else. I absolutely HATE the kind of publicity this thing has gotten. I'm happy my website is now known, but I hate that it came at the expense of a young man who lost his life.

Both of these teams play in one of the smallest classifications in Arkansas, and Cave City (Morgan's team) is in their third season of varsity football. Between that, and the death and injuries for the Yellville-Summit team, neither team had a lot of kids to substitute.

The kick was not supposed to go to Morgan. We have had a lot of rain, and all of our fields across the state of Arkansas are tore up. The kicked was supposed to kick a short kick on the kickoff so the ball would be recovered and downed, leaving it to the Cave City offense to take a knee or two to end the game.

Instead, the kickers foot slipped, and the kick was a line drive right to Morgan. He was trying to run the clock out, and when he got to the five yard line, there was still about 25 seconds to play. He took a knee, and then his offense took a knee to end the game.

Morgan got into some trouble, and the Arkansas media decided not to print what it was. It was an off the field issue, that with a little canceling, could be corrected. He has gotten that canceling at Cave City, and has turned it around.

The media also agreed not to release the names of the injured student athletes. We did not want people bombarding their families or the hospitals asking for interviews, etc.



Thanks!

Luke Matheson
Publisher
ArkansasVarsity.com

 

Luke,

Thanks for stopping by. I'll assume, in your first post, you meant Morgan had received "counseling" as opposed to "canceling."

I can't say I agree with the "media" deciding to withhold accident victims names to protect them from interviews, but I do thank you for at least coming by to answer stuff.

 

That's what I get for being in a hurry to post something, and not using spell check. ;D

 

Eh, it wouldn't have caught it anyway because canceling was spelled properly.

 

Just be glad I can spell at all, I am from Arkansas you know!