I’ve noticed for some time that New York Times sportswriters miss few opportunities to mess with Texas, UT that is. Watch the Marcel Dareus’ game-changing tackle of Colt McCoy, then read the NYT writer William C. Rhoden’s description of the play.
Rhoden’s description:
On Texas’ fifth snap of the game, Dareus, a 6-foot-4, 296-pound sophomore lineman, made his first game-changing play, flattening quarterback Colt McCoy, who bounced off him as if he’d run full speed into the side of a mountain. It was McCoy’s last play of the evening.
Dareus did hit McCoy hard. But McCoy wasn’t flattened. He kinda sits down on some other players. It helped that McCoy wasn’t moving full speed, and he wasn’t moving toward Dareus, who just happened to hit a nerve, so to speak. Rhoden just makes stuff up to glorify Dareus and mock Colt. Want more evidence? Read on.
UPDATE: One of the NYT hacks who is always belittling the Horns is Thayer Evans (see below). Charlie at NetVictories.com points out that Evans is an Oklahoman who was a freelance OU beat writer. That explains a lot.
Here’s is NYT reporter Lynn Zinser’s bit on Mack Brown’s salary:
Do pause and consider that Texas just gave its head football coach, Mack Brown, a raise to $5 million a year. The university carefully explains he is worth it because he is taking the Longhorns to the Bowl Championship $eries title game for the second time in five years, that the money will come out of athletic department revenues and is not crippling the budget of, say, the engineering school. But lost in that is the fact that under the pompoms is supposed to be a nonprofit educational institution, one that recently raised tuition and voted to freeze the pay of university presidents, but whose football coach is now envied by oil barons.
NYT’s Thayer Evans on UT’s supposed lack of toughness:
There has been plenty of questioning about the toughness of Texas in advance of Thursday’s Bowl Championship Series title game.
Pete Thamel on UT/Nebraska game:
But because the Longhorns needed two critical penalties to set up a field goal as time expired in their 13-12 victory over Nebraska, one big question is certain to be asked: could Texas Christian or Cincinnati leap past the Longhorns in the B.C.S. formula?
Back in November, Thamel based a critique of Texas on former rival A&M coach Dennis Franchione’s comments.
“Texas has got a good football team, but I don’t know if we know how good for sure,” Franchione said. “They’ve had no tests out of conference, really.”
These are just the recent ones. I began noticing the little slights some years ago. I don’t have the patience to search back through the NYT’s archives, but you get the point. There have been some favorable reviews and a few superlatives, of course. But by and large, UT is just not the NYT’s favorite school.
But, as I often say, one of the great things about sports is its meaninglessness. No sport caused the climate crisis, and no sport will solve it. Athletes are inspiring. Athletes can be disappointing. But civilization doesn’t rise and fall on game results, and despite the constant thanking of God by winning athletes, it’s very doubtful the Lord of the Universe gives a damn. But we can all shout and scream. We can yell at umpires and referees (I excel at this and am quite proud to say I was thrown out of my first baseball game as an 8-year-old batboy).
Spectator sports allow the meaningless spending of a little aggressive energy. Then it’s over. So, I see no need to ask the NYT’s for fairer coverage of UT. I was just feeling the need to spend a little more of that energy in the wake of the national championship game.