Your thoughts on this one?

"Caesar's wife must be above suspicion."

It's like this. Knowing what I know, I personally would not say someone who did this was acting unethically, and I'm very curious as to where any of the editors were on this. But donning the team's uniform (not colors, and not a t-shirt, but the full team-issued gear) at a public event, at a stadium packed stadium full fans at an event with scores of photogs, puts you at risk of having your credibility challenged.

Now, if you've got a body of work behind you that says otherwise you can probably defend yourself adequately, but you dressed up in team gear will always be out there in the public domain.

Caesar divorced his wife not because he knew she was cheating on him, but because there were rumors to that effect in the public domain in Rome.

"Caesar's wife must be above suspicion."

EDIT: to fix quote

 

Is Caesar writing for the Post or the News these days?

 

When the SIDs came with golf shirts,
I took one;
I cannot be bought.

When the SIDs came with bottles of booze,
I took two;
I cannot be bought.

When the SIDs came with free tee times,
I did not say no;
I cannot be bought.

When my ME called for me,
I did not answer.
How could I?
I was half-drunk playing golf in State U gear.

(apologies to Holocaust victims)

 

i would be interested in seeing one (or all the columns/articles) written by these coaches. All I was able to find were brief mentions in two of the stories of the day (Columbus LE and BHam News) about Saban reaching out and naming lots of honorary coaches which also included faculty and staff.

 

The Rome News-Tribune.

 

Huntsville had a column on being an honorary coach, but nothing (unless I missed it) about "lots" of honorary coaches

 

Slappy, did Huntsville mention whether or not their writer wore the gear?

rb

 

The Detroit Free Press had a blog about being a Michigan State honorary coach.

 

I believe it did...

TUSCALOOSA - Finus Gaston, one of Alabama's senior associate athletic directors, couldn't help it.
He looked at me, decked out in my team-issue coaches' outfit, pointed and laughed.

 

That's what I'm thinking. No way would I ever let 2 people see me wear the colors and logo of the team I cover, much less let 92,000-plus -- not to mention coaches and players -- see me do it.

Our paper declined when given this opportunity several years ago.

Also, the "it's not an important game" argument does little for me. Would you show up for the team banquet as an honorary presenter wearing the school's colors and logo, on shirts provided by the school?

 

My point is this: I think we often get too caught up in what people think of us based on things other than our body of work.

It doesn't matter what fans expect from you. All that matters is what you do. If you allow an experience such as this to change the way you do your job, then no, you shouldn't accept the invitation. If you don't, though, and you look at it as nothing more than a way to get a little more info, a way to write a decent column/story and a way to build a little better relationship with the people you cover, I fail to see the problem.

Obviously, you don't want to be strolling around on game day with a team jersey on. But at the same time, I think readers are smart enough to understand this situation when it's explained to them.

The only thing that bothers me in this situation is that all of the beat writers weren't asked to participate. That, to me, creates more perception problems than the fact that a few guys threw on a coaching outfit and had a little fun for a few hours.

 

I guess my point is this: A few weeks ago the sports anchor at a local TV station wore the school shirt and was the MC on the field for the spring game, and more than a few people here jumped on him when I posted about it. I recall people saying things along the lines of he was killing his credibility, and others saying well, that's TV, and once you realize it's not journalism, you'll understand.

Seems like we're cutting print guys more slack for putting on the school colors. I know they weren't doing live P.A. for the team, but they still made it look, for a day, like they were "part of the team." Are we going easier on them because they don't work in TV? Aren't we letting them do what we laugh at TV folks for doing while we rip them, saying, "See? TV sports has no credibility."

Any move we make toward letting fans continue to think we should be homers is a move in the wrong direction, in my opinion, even if it's a tiny move. But I hope they had fun -- they won't have much of that covering Nick Saban's program.

And don't think there's not a sense of a subtle psychological victory in Saban's mind. I mean, when is he going to put on a Birmingham News or Tuscaloosa News shirt for a day?