[NU Sports] More piling on

[cherron604 at aol.com]

Today the Tribune's Rick Morrissey jumps on the pile:
 
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/cs-060202morrissey,1,2977030.column?coll=chi-sportsnew-hed
 
What he is basically saying is that the boosters in attendance were jerks, not thoughtful compassionate people like he and RW (people who know the real importance of sport).
 
This raises several questions:
 
- Was Rick Morrissey even at the announcement ?  Unlikely, since some other Tribune staffer wrote the original story.  If not, did he base this column on his reading of the Tribune story ?  Or was it planted by RW or someone else on Central St to help cover for RW's crude remarks ?  Or is it just the typical knee-jerk column, written in a fit of self-righteousness, based on no first-hand knowledge whatsoever ?
 
- For anyone who was at the announcement - who exactly interpreted the crowd noise during the Demos video to be "jeering directed against Joel Howells" ?  Could it have been jeering directed at a coaching staff that has ignored the kicking position for a long time ?  Or was it even jeering at all ?   When did the brilliant Randy Walker or Rick Morrissey get degrees or specialized training in interpreting (or even recognizing) "sarcastic cheering" ?
 
- We need an eyewitness to try and describe the cheering, and unless comments were made specifically targetting Howells, who can say who or what the targets of the allegedly "sarcastic cheers" were ?  From what I have read, the only individual to implicitly or explicitly connect Joel Howells to any of this was RW himself, not anybody in the crowd that he later belittled.
 
Unless any of the "sarcastic cheering" was explicitly targetted at Joel Howells BY NAME (indeed, the video was supposed to have been of Demos, and no video of Howells was shown, to my knowledge) then no one can state WITH CERTAINTY that such cheering was directed at anybody other than the people in the room (i.e. the coaches) or the individuals on the screen (i.e. the new recruit).   Since the latter makes no sense, any sarcasm "sensed" in the room (by that master of sensing sarcasm, RW) must have been directed at the coaching staff.  Since sarcasm involves tone and nuance, it by definition cannot be directed at anyone not able to sense that tone or nuance, can it ?
 
And while we are on this topic, why didn't any of the high-priced staff on Central St figure out that this circumstance might have lead to uncomfortable "sarcasm", and maybe spared the audience the videos of the kicker, which probably did not add much substance to the announcement anyway.  (or perhaps save the media (and the world) from the uncomfortable prospect of RW speaking off the cuff)
 
Chuck Herron   Tech '85