Members of the Texas A&M-Commerce football team are the chief suspects in a mass theft of campus newspapers in Commerce, Texas.
According to the East Texan Texas A&M-Commerce’s student newspaper, all campus racks of the paper were emptied between 7 a.m and 8 a.m. on Feb. 25
An investigation revealed video evidence of football players taking the newspapers from campus racks. The issue of the newspaper featured a front-page headline reading “Football players arrested in drug bust.”
You can read the full story here.
I wish I could say that stealing college newspapers is a rare thing, but during the past four years, Daily Tar Heel has faced stolen newspapers twice. In 2007, a story about hazing at Sigma Chi fraternity prompted the fraternity to steal around 10,000 papers from campus bins. Earlier this year, a story on a swim team recruiting party resulted in the theft of 600 papers by a few team members.
In both cases, the parties responsible came forward and issued an apology to the DTH. In both cases, the papers were returned. In both cases, the paper went back to fairly covering the responsible parties.
The football team at Texas A&M-Commerce needs to do the same.
Do the players think that anything will happen other than the story mushrooms (out to newspapers around the nation)? Have they heard of this thing called the internet?
What does it say about these players that they were busted several times for drug-related incidents, and their reaction is not to maybe cut back on the hash but steal newspapers? Not even the “Animal House” guys stole newspapers.
And Morriss, the coach, has transcended his title by his comments. He enters the realm of farce, mockery, and sham.
What other media covers his team consistently? If Texas A&M-Commerce has tremendous success, who does he think will write about it? His response to the incident wasn’t to have a talk with his team about responsibility and being an adult, but to ask how it’s a crime to take a free newspaper.
Never mind that the entire campus didn’t get to read papers that day. Never mind that there might have been pertinent information in that newspaper for the rest of the university.
And above all, never mind about taking responsibility.
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