IS FOOTBALL ABOUT MORE THAN THE WIN-LOSS RECORD

If football truly teaches young men about life and that is the justification for its prominence in our schools then Charlie Strong should have every fan in America pulling for the program he is instituting at the University of Texas in Austin. And every high school athletic director across this nation should be able to count on that same kind of support.

Here is an excerpt from Coach Strong’s most recent press conference. He is sticking with what he is doing even though it has cost his team nine players. Players that could have remained on the roster and helped win games …. But at what cost? Here is some of what Coach strong said,

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“The blue print of this program has been and always will be the change in helping direct the lives of young people. I'm sorry that another player had to be dismissed, but when you're told something over and over again...

We continue to develop young men. We will continue to ask them to follow our core values, which all of them have been brought up on. They understand what the core values are. When you are asked to do something and you are part of a team, and when you don't do it then you affect the whole team, and you affect the whole program.

Young people want discipline in their lives, and it's our job as a coaching staff to make sure that we provide him with discipline. I always look at it like this - right now, they are laying a foundation for 10 years from now. That foundation is the house they are going to live in, the wife they are going to pick to marry, their children and how they're going to provide for them and how they're going to raise them. If that foundation is provided for them now, 10 years from now they'll just be able to lean back on it and look back and say 'That's the life that I want to live.

Any time a player is dismissed from this program it hurts me because we are here to help young men. We are not here to run young men off; that's not our job. We're here to help them, and it just bothers me. When you're given an opportunity, you want to make sure you have every resource and everything available to help them be successful.

I always look at it - sometimes you see someone that has given so much and achieved so little and then someone that has given so little and achieved so much.

I'm not hard at all. Those guys have more fun around me then they will ever have around any coach, and that's just the atmosphere that I provide for them. I give them a lot of chances to get it right because I want them to still be successful.

When you say you're going to do something, it's just like your own child, they're going to challenge you. Now when they do challenge you, then what are you going to do about it? It's not so much the program, it's just that young men sometimes want to make a decision where they feel like it is their prerogative to do whatever they want to do. It just can't happen here.”

One sports commentator defended the Longhorn coach and his program this way:

“If you watched this press conference, you can tell Coach strong is deeply upset. He wants it more for these guys than they do for themselves. Some of his values, which I've read and heard described as "strict" or "old fashioned" or "intolerant" or "meat-headed" are, in fact, the basis of a functioning civil society. Basic respect for women, don't steal, don't carry guns for cheap street cred, don't lie, don't let your life be ruled by drugs or alcohol such that you can't live up to your responsibilities.”

YOUNGBLOOD AND SHAUBERGER, TWO PEAS IN A POD

It has been called to our attention by those who are willing to suffer a constant barrage of twisted liberal articles and comments so they can check the “car wreck blog” to see if anyone they know has been hurt in an accident that Allen Youngblood has joined Eddie Shauberger in the continued irrational bombardment and assassination of Sheriff Bobby Rader’s reputation.

Why Youngblood has decided to devote so much of his time and energy and blog space to slinging mud on Rader is as difficult to understand as it is to try and figure why ANY BUSINESS would advertise with someone who is attacking a very popular public official. But we have taken note that the irrational, suspicious attacks on Rader’s character that started with Eddie Shauberger have now been continued by his former classmate, Allen Youngblood.

Shauberger still awaits trial for allegedly sexually raping/assaulting his adopted daughters and for various business problems linked to the business he owned years ago. While we have repeatedly asserted we have no insight into his guilt or innocence, we continue to be in the dark on how him knowing the law was after him related to his unabashed devotion to the re-election of the failed sheriff, Henry Patterson. Shauberger spent hours and days dogging his friends and their wives to vote for Patterson. He tried blackmail and every other coercive device he could conjure up as he forfeited friendships and declared war to try and defeat Rader. We don’t know why.

But we do know Youngblood has now joined the effort.

TIPPING OUR HAT TO THE LOCAL PAPER

There is no doubt one of the most popular public responses to news stories is to blame the media. We have done it ourselves and done it with no regrets. The media, television, newspapers, and radio stations are guilty of having a point of view and allowing it to color its “news”. We prefer and are unusual in the fact that we are very open in where our ideology and our preference lies – the conservative wing of the Republican party. But most media make the unbelievable claim that they merely “report the news” and their own bias is not reflected in their reporting. Hogwash!

With that said and with nothing but kudos intended, locally we want to recognize the closest local media to fulfilling the goal of news with no spin is definitely The Dayton News and The Cleveland Advocate. Both local papers are run by Editor-n-Chief Vanessa Brashier. Vanessa does a great job putting together a newspaper that covers most of the community interests and all the other things a reader hopes to find in a good newspaper. It is a massive, never ending undertaking with publishing deadlines and story after story to cover. She is aided currently by another excellent writer, Casey Stinnett and a small staff. Both the newspapers are a credit to the community as they help us feel closer to each other and more aware of our surroundings and specifics about our neighbors lives.

So what is the catch? Why compliment local media? At times we have been no holes barred negative about media. The answer is simple. At times we have wanted the media to report things they should know about and readers would want to know. And at times, we have viewed events differently.

But we are freely giving compliments to Ms. Brashier and her papers because she puts out a really good local paper week after week. We have learned that all though we all have bias, these papers are making every attempt to serve the public and not their self interest. Unlike competitors, Ms. Brashier’s advertisers can know when they spend their hard earned money and place an ad in one of her papers, no one should feel the paper is so uneven and out of balance politically that they have to hold their nose to fork the dough over.

So here is to you Vanessa. Casey. And staff. Keep up the good work. We will surely criticize you again, but you have earned our respect and we want everyone to know it.