Morning News? Caldwell Got it Right
by October 15, 2001 12:00 am 117 views
It was good to see The Morning News give proper play on its sports section front to the news that six arrest warrants were recently issued for Brandon Holmes. The University of Arkansas sophomore running back apparently failed to appear four times for Fayetteville court dates that stemmed from seven traffic citations he incurred during the summer.
The Springdale paper broke the story Sept. 29 with three articles, including a column by Sports Editor Dana Caldwell. It came out the same day the Razorbacks lost 34-23 at Georgia, where Holmes started and rushed for a touchdown.
We’ve all made immature decisions, and traffic tickets themselves are small potatoes. But not bothering to show up for one court date — much less four — is a far more serious offense. It demonstrates irresponsibility, arrogance and a lack of respect for the court.
That behavior must have been acceptable, however, to UA Coach Houston Nutt. He criticized Caldwell during the postgame press conference. According to reports, Nutt said he tries to teach his players “to do right every single day,” and he couldn’t understand why the newspaper would bring up the story.
What the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal doesn’t understand is why Nutt didn’t use this as an opportunity to teach his entire young team something about actions and consequences. We suspect that if Arkansas wasn’t so desperate to win a game that Holmes might have been benched, even if only for a half.
Predictably, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette‘s follow-up story was buried 10 pages into its Sept. 30 sports section. But you can bet that if the D-G had the scoop it would have appeared on its sports front — most likely atop a Wally Hall column filled with his trademark bad similes and apologetic paragraphs for all things Nutt.
The only thing wrong with Caldwell’s column is that he felt obligated to explain why his section was practicing real journalism. Given the oceans of ink spilled daily in worship of local celebrities like Holmes, college players and their coaches ought to be able to handle a little criticism — much less accurate basic reporting.
The message sent by playing Holmes should be almost as embarrassing to the program as its half-filled facility in only the second game at Reynolds Stadium after $106 million worth of renovations.