A bit of a prelude to all of you for the following article: First and foremost I am a former football coach with no formal training in the art of journalism. However, I can assure you that the great Dominicans at Fenwick High School did their very best to ensure that if all else failed, I would have the ability to construct sentences and even to put a few in sequence to form a thought or idea.
My career in the newspaper business consisted of delivering the Chicago Tribune and Chicago American to the fine residents of 18th Street between Western Avenue and Damen Avenue on Chicago's near west side (now in the language of the yuppie - the lower west side). Unfortunately that career in the newspaper business was cut short by an unruly, large collie somewhere near Hoyne Aveneue.
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Poor judgment caught in photographs posted on the internet has Clausen and three teammates under fire.
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Never call a collie, Lassie!
With that being said I want to continue, once again as a former football coach who is now employed to opine on a subjects near and dear to his heart. Yet another caveat: I know about Notre Dame quarterbacks. Because of the generosity of the wonderful Priests of the Order of the Holy Cross and a legendary coach named Holtz, I was given the privilege of observing and participating in Notre Dame football from an honored position. Prior to becoming Jarious Jackson's surrogate godfather, I was the self appointed president of the Ron Powlus Fan Club. I still claim both of these titles and could not be prouder.
It was once written that the two most difficult jobs in all of sport were, first, the head football coach at Notre Dame followed by the current quarterback at Notre Dame. I have no reason to doubt this assertion. And with the honor of these titles comes the responsibility to live up to the expectations of the Notre Dame family, as well as college football in general.
Will there be scrutiny? Will there be criticism? Will there be adulation? Will any and all of the aforementioned at times be unwarranted? Yes, yes, yes and yes.
But there comes a time when fairness must enter into the equation, fairness by those who earn their respective livelihood to report upon such matters. Perhaps fairness can be construed as a relative term by those who do this type of reporting. I am a neighborhood guy as Chicago as they come. The polyglot that I called home was also called home by some of the finest athletes who never had the privilege to don a collegiate jersey. These guys paid bills; became husbands and dads. They came back from the Far East and started lives. Yet no matter where we traveled or what we did there was always that call home to see what was in the sports section of The Trib.
Nothing has changed for me. Every Sunday and on most weekdays, I get over to Walgreens to get that same Trib. Hey! I delivered it.
Recently that once great pride that I took in the journalistic fabric of my town has let me down. I call to your attention an article by Brian Hamilton in the The Trib on Tuesday, August 5th, that caught my eye. The title of the article: "Clausen faces another alcohol-related probe." The subtitle reads, "Web photo puts Irish QB, teammates in crosshairs."
My friends, guys from my old neighborhood, you read it correctly - "Web photo." You talk about a stretch. A Chicago Tribune reporter has gone to a web photo for an alleged impropriety.
As we move forward the fourth paragraph of the article reads, "The pictures are not dated, and while there is beer on the table in front of the players, the photos do not show the players actively consuming alcohol."
My friends connect the dots. Then what is the purpose of this story? Undated photos? No one actually consuming alcohol?
And, "Jason McIntyre, owner and operator of The Big Lead, said Monday that a reader passed along the pictures last weekend (enter the distant third party).” McIntyre said he has "absolutely no idea when they were taken."
And for me the final salvo in the article of making reference to a player being suspended for solicitation is a total disregard for any reporting of "NEWS." News - as in new! Not as in an undated photo of a possible school infraction.
And since you write for the paper I delivered, I had your back. But this week, I am just an old football coach who happens to write. It appears that there is some type of agenda, and today I am just a bit less proud of having thrown your paper on so many snowy porches a long, long time ago.
