Every Sunday, the Daily Oklahoman sports section runs a trite little feature that they like to call "Collected Wisdom." In it, they give some legendary sport figure the space to share a note or two of wisdom that they have gathered over the years. This week, they featured perhaps one of the "wisest" people ever, former University of Oklahoma baseball coach Larry Cochell. In case you forgot, Larry resigned from the University of Oklahoma for this:
Cochell was speaking with play-by-play announcer Gary Thorne when he called Dunigan (an African-American) over to praise him for staying in school. When the freshman returned to the field, Cochell told Thorne, "There's no n----- in him." The network informed the school that Cochell used similar language in an interview with ESPN analyst Kyle Peterson.
Yep, our state newspaper decided to run a feature called "Collected Wisdom" on a fool that makes hillbilly off-the-record racists remarks. But don't blame the Oklahoman, because according to them, that incident only "allegedly" happened:
He resigned as the Sooners' coach three years ago, after ESPN reporters alleged he used a racially insensitive remark off-camera.
Seriously, how does The Oklahoman get away with stuff like this? Not only did they give Larry Cochell a chance to share his wisdom with us"“and then claim he only "allegedly" made the remarks"“but the article itself is absolutely terrible. Check out some of his wise thoughts:
I'm a big football fan. We went to the Oregon game, and we'll go to Seattle this fall.
My health is good. I have it under control. I have some blockages, but with medications it's under control. I have tests every six months.
Great stuff, huh? I'm going to sleep better each night knowing that Larry Cochell is going to Seattle in the fall. Maybe next week they can have Dave Bliss tell us where he likes to go shopping, or let Kelvin Sampson tell us his favorite cell phone plam. Those guys are as wise as Larry Cochell, right?
