Sun-Times freelancer scolds high school basketball team

There has to be much much more to the story we don't know.

Unless Travis, the writer, is the dad or the HS coach of the coach or something like that -- some figure of already-known respect and stature -- if I am a member of the team, especially the captain, after he gets about a sentence and a half into his manifesto, I stand up and say, "Uh, excuse me, Urkel, who the fuck are you and who let you in here? Now we played like shit, and guess what, we know that, we get it. WE WHO ACTUALLY PLAY BASKETBALL, we who run the sprints, we who lift the weights, we will solve it ourselves among OUR OWN TEAM, which you are not a part of, and we don't owe you one fuckin' thing, so why don't you take your fuckin' ass right back out in the bleachers and go back to seeing if you can peek up the cheerleaders' skirts?"

As far as the Sun-Times is concerned: you gotta cut bait.

 

Members of the team are going to know who Urkel is?

 

This is not really the issue. The issue is a freelancer seemed to feel like he needed to give the team a lecture. What an ass.

 

Too much of this story doesn't make sense.

Where was the coach, or even better, the entire coaching staff?

What the fuck is wrong with this guy? I've known plenty of fanboy sportswriters, but none would rip the team in the locker room like this.

What's with the video guy posting it on Youtube, then taking it off once Romenesko talked to him? Did he post it on Youtube, not expecting it to be a big deal? Why would you post it in the first place, then?

 

COMMUNITY JOURNALISM!

 

I can report that Clyde is a LONG-time stringer covering the Public League for the Sun-Times. I can also report that he has served as a coach on at least one occasion --- because I was the coach who lost to him.

At least 15 years ago, we were the opposing coaches in a City/Suburban all-star game of graduating seniors. We didn't do much coaching. Mostly we just recruited the players and scheduled the substitutions. But my team lost to Clyde's. Totally the players' fault because my brand of encouraging words and casual clapping was superior to his. Though maybe he offered a speech like this and it paid off that night, which is why he tried the speech again this time.

 

You would have thought the Sun-Times had learned its lesson with the Peter Anding case back in 1992. Not saying there are any parallels about sexual exploitation, as was in Anding's case, but this nonetheless seems as though another S-T writer, freelancer or not, has stepped all over the line.

For those not familiar with the Anding case: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-09-27/news/9203280084_1_sexual-assault-videotaped-encounter

 

Which is exactly that issue.

 

How the hell did the S-T hire someone who was out on parole? That seems like something that would have come up on any basic background check -- even in the early 90s.

 

Maybe he should have lectured them on going to class.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/25901547-419/curie-forfeits-all-wins-and-cps-title.html

 

Yeah, black kids who were never born when Urkel was on the air know who he was. The term is still synonymous for 'dorky fucker wearing doofy glasses.' If nothing else they get told by their parents.

It's kinda like 'Waldo.' These days, how many people have really seen one of those Waldo pictures?

Stunning, truly stunning.