Media Bowl Gifts

Well heck, now I'm confused and don't know what to do.

A bowl sponsor just sent us a small box of snack food. Should we return it or just not eat it and stare at it forever?

And no, I'm not just making that up. I just walked into the office and there's a box of snack food in the sports section sent from a bowl sponsor.

 

Not wading through all of this, but wouldn't an uncle or cousin appreciate anything with a logo on it? Take it and give it away.

What is the harm in that?

And I could never, ever have enough pens.

 

Don't think the point was that you COULDN'T do it, but that you could do it ... better.

 

Well, now you need to write a 2,000-word column on how great Tostitos are. Since you took their snack, you better make sure it's on the cover of the section as well.

 

OK, thinking about this some more today. I am sympathetic with those who say the safest and wisest course of action is to take nothing. I don't think they're "holier than thou," they're just more risk-averse when it comes to perceived conflicts of interest.

Here's a thought, though. Suppose the "gift" didn't come with a logo. Suppose it's just a non-descript, but nice, shirt/satchel/whatever. To my mind, that's dicier than the logo-ed stuff. At least with the stuff with the logos, no one can accuse you of trying to cover up.

 

I don't think that anyone who chooses to not take one of these gifts is holier than thou. I'm talking about the looking down your nose attitude that those people have exhibited on this thread. SF has had the most sane takes on the matter.

 

I've been a top-25 football voter in the past. East Carolina once sent me a frozen turkey in an attempt to earn my vote. It made a nice meal at the local homeless shelter; they were obviously trying to curry a favorable vote and there was no way I'd be keeping that turkey.

OTOH, I still have notebooks from the Far West Classic, the Fiesta Bowl and the Pacific-10 Conference I regularly use (the Pac-10 one even has a built-in calculator, which is great), and a gym bag from the old Jeep Eagle Aloha Bowl. It's my belief the donors of those gifts weren't trying to purchase favorable coverage, so I kept them.

And I generally sleep pretty darn well at night, even moreso since I only have two more nights as a full-time newspaper journalist.

 

Live dangerously. Keep it.

 

If you pay the $5.00 to send it back, it might make you hate ESPN like a sickness. If you keep it, you might love them more than a Ukrop's cupcake.

What to do?

 

It looks like ESPN is trying to recruit Moddy away from the competition. First it's notebooks, then mouse pads. Next thing you know he's driving a new SUV. In the meantime, he's busy finding out which players have nice girlfriends so he can figure out the subject of his next feature.