Letter to the Editor

Dear Sports Illustrated,

I was just wondering when it is that I should expect your magazine’s expose entitled “Why Florida Should Drop Football”?

Or maybe a story about how Joe Paterno has lost control of his program in his old age?

Maybe an extended feature on USC and how they should rightfully be stripped of a national title and Reggie Bush of his Heisman?

Or how about a piece on Oregon, everyone’s pre-season darling, having to boot their three best athletes for player-conduct and legal issues (including one on national television)…in less than a year?

After all, this is the same magazine that once ran its sole text-only cover story about why Miami

should do the same (does the photo to the right ring a bell?). This is, after all, the same magazine wherein Rick Reilly once wrote “Miami may be the only squad in America that has its team picture taken from the front and the side”. This was after a series of arrests that stained the reputation of the university. Your cover story was about a Pell-Grant Scandal that shamed everyone involved. It was about an institution that clearly lost control.

Now, you have a UF program that has had 28 players arrested (as of now, but who knows what the number will be next week?) in Coach Urban Meyer’s tenure. The same Meyer that your publication wrote a glorified puff piece about last season (that I am sure has been copied and sent off to every UF recruit by the UF Sports Information Department) in which he is lauded as a...gulp...disciplinarian. Well, maybe if you criticize one his players, but certainly not if you actully play for him. Tim Tebow is worth 12 covers in less than four years (according to the SI Vault) so that your magazine can once again tell us how awesome the young man is (not to take anything away from him), and yet this arrest-streak isn't worthy of some attention? So much for journalistic objectivity.

Now you have Penn State, one of the “Blue Bloods”. The way college football is “supposed to be”, lead by the legend, St. Joe Paterno, who always does things the right way. ESPN seemed to notice the bad things going on in Happy Valley a couple of years ago when they ran an Outside the Lines feature that stated the following: As of Summer 2008, 46 Penn State players had been arrested and faced 163 criminal charges…since 2002. No cover story for that? Oh wait, I forgot, we're not allowed to insult Joe Paterno. How dare I?

Now you have USC, the current glamour program who people have labeled the “West Coast Miami”. Well, first of all, Miami won 5 titles in less than 20 years. USC has 1 in the decade since they climbed back out of their dormant period. And what’s interesting is that they won’t even have that 1 for much longer after it was ruled that Reggie Bush was receiving illegal benefits and was ineligible for that championship game, during which he gained 149 all purpose yards. Reggie Bush, the biggest college football star between Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow, was ineligible to play for that championship game and his entire Heisman Trophy Campaign the following season... and the coaches knew about it! And yet, no cover story? Let’s just say that if it had been Clinton Portis and the 2002 Rose Bowl in question, it probably would have made the cover.

Now you have Oregon, who kicked off LeGarrette Blount for the season after he punched a Boise State player in the face in the aftermath of their 2009 Season Opener. Except, for the season just meant until they needed him to help wrap up a Rose Bowl berth in their Rivalry Game with Oregon State. What would happen if Miami let a player back on the field after openly assaulting an opponent?

SIDENOTE: We found out in 2006 after the FIU brawl. A brawl, I might add, which was started when an FIU player threw Miami’s walk- on placeholder to the ground and stomped on his helmet (people forget this, but that’s the great thing about YouTube). Miami suspended 20+ players for their next game and fired the head coach at the end of the season. And yet, this sent the press howling for not just a suspension, but once again for the program to be dropped.

Blount’s situation would have probably been explainable if it had been isolated, but it wasn’t. Since, Oregon has “booted” star running back LaMichael James and Heisman Hopeful quarterback Jeremiah Masoli from the program for varying degrees of trouble with the law (and in Masoli’s case, repeated trouble with the law). I place booted in quotations because I don’t actually think either of them is gone from the program for good. And yet, no cover story?

And let's not forget Florida State's massive cheating scandal of 3 years ago, Tennessee's annual contender-status for the Fullmer Cup (named, not ironically, after their former coach) which charts player arrests; hell, even Duke is getting in to the act lately. Maybe if the SEC is really looking to expand the Blue Devils would be a good fit.

Now you have Miami. Since hiring Randy Shannon, the program has had one arrest. It was a misdemeanor charge that was dropped. The player, Robert Marve, served a suspension for the season-opener, which would have been his first career start. Marve transferred at the end of the season, ostensibly because of playing time. Many close to the program say that it is really because Marve could not deal with Shannon’s disciplinary system. In times like these, it is weird that this is refreshing.

And yet, no cover story? No puff piece about Miami, of all programs, becoming one of the Top 10 programs in the APR Report every season while also improving on the field? This isn’t Duke or Vanderbilt we are talking about, but Miami. At Miami, they actually win (although admittedly not as much lately as we have grown accustomed to)!

You know, forget the cover story. I don’t want your jinx to hit my program. Instead, I will happily sit and wait for you to print a retraction of your story; better yet, a correction. Maybe an update? I don’t really care. I just want your magazine, the most highly respected sports publication there is (by many, not me, although I am a subscriber), to finally own up to this double standard. And until you do, look forward to getting this exact same letter in your inbox once a week.

Sincerely,

Dan Stein

University of Miami, ‘09