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Hawkins has had it with troublemakers

This is irresponsible in my opinion. Inaccurate in several cases as well. The bias is clear in the lead sentence and it goes downhill from there.

Somebody get Simas away from the reporters, please.
 
Just posted this in the Katoa thread:

hwhipple@denvernewspaperagenciy.com, nmassa@denvernewspaperagency.com, dlicko@denvernewspaperagency.com, reynolds@denvernewspaperagency.com, gmoore@denverpost.com, gclark!@denverpost.com, jchavez@denverpost.com, cmurphy@denverpost.com, kdale@denverpost.com, smonserud@denverpost.com, jhenderson@denverpost.com

Hello all,

I hope that I am mis-taken and that you are not about to publish another slash job article on the Univeristy of Colorado Football Team. It is being reported that Mr. Henderson is about to have an article published on the front page of the Sunday Post that re-hashes many issues you all have covered very well over the last several years. It is a well timed article for the recruiting season by a writer who makes it very obvious that he supports a team that does not even reside in this state. Much of what has been leaked about the article is simply a rehash of incidents that have and should have been made public at the time that they occurred. I agree that the University does have a responsibility to address the very issues that have been identified and I believe that they have done so in a very public and transparent way.

Mr. Bohn and the other leaders of CU have done a fantastic job of addressing issues that have taken place within the football team and the other athletic teams at the Univeristy. They have also done a terrific job of reaching out to the Denver community in an effort to expand the reach of CU in Denver. It is really a shame that your paper will again focus on old issues that have already been covered adnosium instead of doing your real job of reporting news. There really are a tremendous number of good things you could write about instead of trying to drag a great University through the mud. I know these are more difficult stories to write about because your so call reporters would actually have to do some research for their stories. If you are really going to publish an article of this type, it is not a surprise that your paper, like all traditional media, is losing ground in the media relavance game. You are again trying to create the news instead of reporting it. I actually felt bad when I heard about the Rocky's financial problems a couple of months ago, but now have lost all pity for it and what will happen to the Denver Post in the future.

If the article is published as is being reported, I will cancell my subscription to the Rocky and will never subscribe to either of your papers again. There are plenty of others who will feel the same way and I will encourage each to take the same action of cancelling their subscriptions.

Thank you for your time.
 
I know one of the sports editors at the post, I just sent her a note voicing my displeasure with the continued crap that her paper continues to crank out on a daily basis. Not that it'll do any good this time, but it might do a little good next time.
 
This was my submission to the forum:

I find the timing of this article highly suspect. Additionally, language and facts support a visible agenda--one that is unfavorable to the CU football program. Finally, the research supporting the article is spotty, and inaccuracies abound.

1. Timing: This article reports no new information and simply serves as a rehash of previous events. Why now? Why would this article appear a mere month before National Letter of Intent Signing day, when many potential recruits are making up their minds regarding their final choice of college? I suspect it is more than mere coincidence.

2. Slant: As noted above, no new incidents involving CU players have emerged, but the article nonetheless wonders would could happen if these players are left unsupervised. Simple fear-mongering and speculation. The lead sentence inexplicably makes the point that CU is left out of the bowl scene for this season. What's the point? The final sentences implies doubt that CU players will conduct themselves appropropriately. It goes without saying that "shame" is a fairly loaded word.

3. Inaccuracies: Mr. Geer was suspended for the Spring Semester, but no games as your paper reported (missed games for knee surgery). Mr. Katoa was suspended for the Spring Semester not the Fall Semester as you reported. He wasn't eligible (NCAA academic requiremens) to play this Fall as a result of that suspension. Dizon had completed playing at CU at the time of his DUI (I realize that your article does include "former CU players, but what's the point?). Similarly, Harris and Jackson were no longer even students at CU at the time of their arrest. Though Sipili was suspended for three games by the coaching staff in 07, the student judiciary affairs committee suspended him for the semester and he missed the entire season. I believe that information was in the article, piecemeal, but did not appear in one single place.

4. Missed opportunities: Little time is actually spent discussing how Coach Hawkins and AD Bohn are dealing with these off-field issues, though the headline would lead one to believe that was the thrust of the article. I'd argue that these issues are handled with maximum transparency and accountability. I can't condone the crimes of these players, but it appears to me that each individual incident has been handled with consistency. Multiple incidents clearly result in dismissal. Coach Hawkins has to sit in the living room with these players' parents and promise his advocacy, and I believe he does his best to support those players until they cross that line. I'm delighted that these incidents aren't swept under the rug and that athletes such as nebraska's Mo Purify, who commit multiple violations, aren't permitted to play at CU.

I believe CU's program is heading in the right direction, despite your attempts to suggest otherwise.

Shame on you for your petty agenda.
 
I have to say, I thought the article would be much more damning than I think it is, based on the Katoa thread and the above comments. Perhaps I have not forgotten the shellacking we took under Barnett, when literally every other day you could count on a BS story hitting the national press.
 
DallasBuff said:
I have to say, I thought the article would be much more damning than I think it is, based on the Katoa thread and the above comments. Perhaps I have not forgotten the shellacking we took under Barnett, when literally every other day you could count on a BS story hitting the national press.
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It was worse than I imagined it would be. So brutally slanted. The GB press was a simple feeding frenzy that became increasingly sensationalized. This was an unprovoked attack.
 
i think posting all the kids' photos was unnecessary. I agree with Walrus in that Simas could do better for us/him by being less free with his choice of words.
 
The Walrus said:
Somebody get Simas away from the reporters, please.
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I don't think he said anything bad, do you mean just get him out of the spotlight or what?


What was the purpose of John writing this article? What an effin douche. (pardon my language but this pisses me off)
 
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drew6236 said:
I don't think he said anything bad, do you mean just get him out of the spotlight or what?
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I thought this was a pretty damning statement:

"Maybe it was because he was a little too lenient on us," Simas said. "He's always strict and directed us to do the right thing but it never stuck because we never saw any real consequences handed out."

But my remark also referenced his quotes last year in which he admitted to doodling in class and day-dreaming rather than paying attention. True? Probably, but saying such doesn't demonstrate a lot of media savvy.
 
drew6236 said:
I don't think he said anything bad, do you mean just get him out of the spotlight or what?


What was the purpose of John writing this article? What an effin douche. (pardon my language but this pisses me off)
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:lol::lol::lol:

Drew, meet 96 Buff. 96, this is Drew.
 
Down here in SEC country the locals really get behind their teams. Alumns, businesses, media, and even the government. I dont understand W(hy)TF Denver and the Front Range cant do the same. I dont know if its the out of state transplants that root for teams where they came from? Is it that the sports fans are so diluted with so many options of Pro teams, let alone college teams, that they really dont care unless their alumns? Is it that there are so many other things to do in area that Sports are just one option on how to spend your time? It's probably a combination of all, so it seems like no one will help the Buffs, and that only if they are winning on a continuous basis will the locals, let alone the nation, even care. It's a ****ty position to be in.

Thoughts?
 
As a journalist I am very curious why he chose to interview Simas who really has no connectiong to all of this other than he was academically inelligable. Why not mention that over the past year FSU has had over 50 athletes serve some sort of suspension. Why not mention that Nebraska "diciplines" its players for abusing a woman with a 2 game suspension.

I also noticed the severity of the incidents. Most were alcohol related. Take for example FSU again, they cheated and at CU that means you fail the class which makes you academically ineligable and the University has the option to suspend/expell you. At kNU they hit women (an offense I consider worse than underage drinking) and there is no mention of that. As a writer, I found the piece very flawed and very poorly written and researched.
 
Buff fans here is my take on the artical after reading it over several times (two imes to many as it turned out):

I say Hawkins should be commended for making much needed changes to the program. He appears to be a class act and his actions, as far as this matter is concerned, will pay off big dividends. I remember the Husker program had a problem some years ago with player related actions and Coach Osborne responded accordingly. One change he made was the creation of the "player led unity council", which in turn solidified the team for years to come. Be patient, Hawkins knows what he is doing.

As far as the newspaper artical goes. I say, don't get your panties in a bunch over this. The newspaper is reporting apparent facts (I am not that close to the program so what do I know). Even if the paper didn't get carried away with this issue. I say, who cares! Remember, they are in the business of selling trees gound into pulp that is flattened with ink in them, which is supposed to be something to behold. Sometimes the stuff they produce is worth reading, more often its not.

Don't let a newspaper reporter or two get the best of you. Let the issue die. The CU football program, the players, the coaches and the fans need to rally together and become one team (one unit).

Good luck with recruiting this year! Well not to much luck, just enough to make a run for first place in the B12, right behind the Huskers.
 
jjbuffs13 said:
As a journalist I am very curious why he chose to interview Simas who really has no connectiong to all of this other than he was academically inelligable. Why not mention that over the past year FSU has had over 50 athletes serve some sort of suspension. Why not mention that Nebraska "diciplines" its players for abusing a woman with a 2 game suspension.

I also noticed the severity of the incidents. Most were alcohol related. Take for example FSU again, they cheated and at CU that means you fail the class which makes you academically ineligable and the University has the option to suspend/expell you. At kNU they hit women (an offense I consider worse than underage drinking) and there is no mention of that. As a writer, I found the piece very flawed and very poorly written and researched.
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All great points. Why not comment over at the DP (DP...that's funny!)?
 
given the author's known proclivity for fellating herbie husker via print adoration, we can only shake our heads and laugh at this hack job.

perhaps if the author were to do a little research and compare/contrast the number and type of transgressions, and responses to these trangressions among various similar programs, he might be surprised at the results. while CU is not perfect and we should all strive to be much better, compared to our peer institutions CU is a freaking collection of choir boys. check out the happenings in lincoln.

of course, that type of research would require he separate his lips from herbie's tiny flaccid unit long enough to use his feeble ostrich-sized brain. instead, it is easy to take the cheap shot.
 
Frankly, the article wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I still don't like Henderson and the timing was piss pour. I still believe he is a 'braska shill writing for a Denver paper. But I took positives from it.
 
DBT said:
Frankly, the article wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I still don't like Henderson and the timing was piss pour. I still believe he is a 'braska shill writing for a Denver paper. But I took positives from it.
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Really? How can you draw any positives from that article?
 
I loved the fact that Henderson felt the need to take some jabs at CU like a stand-up comedian in the first few paragraphs. Thanks John.:huh:

The article as a whole is very suspect. The timing, the plastering of kids photographs in the paper like they are all terrible people, and the brushing over of major problems at Iowa/Penn State (a quick one paragraph mention).

Overall, the thing I can't get over is that Henderson wrote it. After multiple glowing articles he wrote about Pelini and NU during the season, he decides to do this one month before signing day. Pathetic.
 
valdezj said:
Really? How can you draw any positives from that article?
Click to expand...

If you really, REALLY look hard between all the bull**** jabs about how leaving the CU players with time on their hands may be a bad thing based on things that happened a year ago, the gratutitous reference to a 20 year old hatchet job on the program (oh, btw, **** YOU Rick Reilly) and the ridiculous comment that the list of violations "isn't pretty", followed by the shocking, true crime tales of underage drinking and a couple drunken brawls (both TOTALLY unheard of on any college campus :rolleyes:) - well, buried in the somewhere is a story that Hawkins has been cracking down and incidents have been on the decline.

I'm sorry, but if he wants to say there have been NO similar incidents at Wyoming, and only 1 at CSU over the last year, I think the column width would have been better used on whether alcohol laws and underage drinking are being monitored on those campuses. Does he really want us to believe nobody on either team has been drinking in the last year? Nobody got in a fight? Or simply that they weren't caught or charged?:rolleyes:

Mostly, my problem with this article is that it used the too familiar tactic of "somebody did something bad at CU, therefore all their teammates/ex-teammates are all thugs and must be controlled somehow". The mug shot lineup, the comment about how leaving CU football players unsupervised is a bad idea. It's all the same ****ing ****, repackaged to hide a complete lack of underlying dirt to rehash... :sad1:
 
valdezj said:
Really? How can you draw any positives from that article?
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I think it points out the positive steps that Hawkins and Bohn are taking to ensure that nagative behavior stops. Their team concept is great. Dividing the team into 9 man accountibility groups is a great idea. The players are also seemingly taking accountibility. Simas is being pushed by his teamates to tow the line. I like all of that. I believe CU is going to be a model for dealing with players.

On the other hand, the timing of the article is suspect as is the motivation of John Henderson in writing it. The innuendo in mentioning CSU and Wyoming is BS. The mention of Bernard Jackson and the other guy is unfair. But what I take from the article is that Dan Hawkins is not going to take anymore negative behavior from his players.
 
Junction said:
I'm sorry, but if he wants to say there have been NO similar incidents at Wyoming, and only 1 at CSU over the last year, I think the column width would have been better used on whether alcohol laws and underage drinking are being monitored on those campuses.
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Speaking of which, if I'm not mistaken, I believe Wyoming is a "wet" campus...Can anyone confirm or deny this. I had a friend from high school who went out there for a year and claimed that was one of the reasons he went. Perhaps he was full of poo poo.
 
drew6236 said:
Speaking of which, if I'm not mistaken, I believe Wyoming is a "wet" campus...Can anyone confirm or deny this. I had a friend from high school who went out there for a year and claimed that was one of the reasons he went. Perhaps he was full of poo poo.
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Can you still buy 3.2 beer in the basement of the UMC at the bowling alley/arcade?
 
Henderson is a dickhead. The timing of this article is weak and the photos of the players is even more absurd. Did this nebraska knob do any re-search on when some of these happened?

SCrew him and the post,if I was bohn,I'd tell the post to **** off and ban them and any of there people at cu games.


It makes it worse that it's a nebraska shill doing this crap, look in the mirror henderson you stupid f**k.
 
Duty done. e-mail to henderson sent - reply to article posted.

Hawkins isn't the only one who has had it with troublemakers. There isn't a supporter of CU's football program who is happy when any current or former Buff sullies the name of the program by getting in the papers for the wrong reasons.

Buff fans have also had it with troublemakers in the media. Responsible journalists have an obligation to provide fair, balanced and timely reporting of news. Not much here is fair, balanced, nor timely.

This article states that 13 players ran afoul of the law. Names and photos are provided for 12. Of the 12, only 5 are currently on the roster. Of the seven who are not on the roster, 3 committed their crimes AFTER leaving the team. The other 4 have been removed from the program or have voluntarily left as a direct consequence of their actions.

All of the individuals listed are accountable for their actions, have been punished, and continue to be punished. This punishment includes having their crimes published and re-published again and again.

For the five players who are still on the roster, Hawkins has made it clear that 1) Felons do not get to play. Not one player on the team is a felon. 2) "Once may be a mistake, but twice is behavior." I have no doubt that any future run in with the law by Geer, Sipili, Katoa, Adkins or Kaynor will result a swift dismissal from the team.

"Troublemakers" Nate Vaiomounga, Jake Duren, Christopher Perri and Kai Maiava displayed unacceptable behavior and they are off the team. They did not live to any higher standard. They messed up and they are gone. This is a clear display of institutional control at work. This is the standard that Hawkins and Bohn have instituted. Good for CU.

As for Jordan Dizon, Lional Harris, and Bernard Jackson - all were off of CU's roster when their crimes took place. What kind of responsibility does a coach or university have to monitor and influence behavior once that player leaves the program? Once someone is gone from the program, the coach and the school has no legitimate institutional control to impose. I question why these players were even mentioned in the article, other than to sensationalize it and maximize the myth that CU is a lawless place where anything goes. This is unfair to the hundreds of current and former team members who play by the rules.

The timing of the article is suspect. It is a strange editorial decision to post this article now. There is no new news presented. This is yesterday's news. If high journalistic standards were at play, this article might have been presented November 18th, 2008, following Nate Vaiomounga's November 17th arrest. Or the article might wait until the next CU player ends up in the police blotter. Or it could have run after the Nebraska game, when CU's off season began. Instead, the article waits for almost two more months over a period of time where nothing newsworthy happened.

The CU community is all too familiar with the tactics of undisciplined reporters who are not above sensationalizing a story in order to sell a few more papers.

My hat is off to CSU and Wyoming. It is heartening to see that there are programs out there that do avoid troubles associated with alcohol and violence among their current and former team members. Perhaps those schools can be investigated and the Denver Post can inform us about the measures that their administrators and coaches have in place that are responsible for such a wonderful accomplishment. Measures at CSU and Wyoming can be compared and contrasted to those at CU. Additionally, there are other schools out there like Alabama, Missouri, and West Virginia that might learn from CSU's and Wyoming's wisdom. A pretty good resource for tracking crimes among football programs is located at: http://www.sportsargumentwiki.com/index.php?title=Fulmer_Cup.
Check it out.

John Henderson, if you can deliver this story, you might just make a positive name for yourself in the profession. Think of the hundreds and thousands of athletes out there who might benefit from such a display of responsible journalism.
 
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Skiddy, I just read that response over there...that was fantastic! Really, really well done.

Repped!

EDIT: Won't let me. Apparently I rep you every day.
 
Liver said:
given the author's known proclivity for fellating herbie husker via print adoration, we can only shake our heads and laugh at this hack job.

perhaps if the author were to do a little research and compare/contrast the number and type of transgressions, and responses to these trangressions among various similar programs, he might be surprised at the results. while CU is not perfect and we should all strive to be much better, compared to our peer institutions CU is a freaking collection of choir boys. check out the happenings in lincoln.

of course, that type of research would require he separate his lips from herbie's tiny flaccid unit long enough to use his feeble ostrich-sized brain. instead, it is easy to take the cheap shot.
Click to expand...

excellent use of porn imagery... rep to you liv' :lol:
 
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