News-Record.com

It's not my intent to look into every athletics department at this moment. It's my intent as information becomes available we will do some work. When I see something in the paper we will investigate.

-- Guilford schools Superintendent Mo Green, talking about the system's investigation into recruiting high school athletes.

Now, if we can get some other public officials to be as responsive.

The prospect of school system attorneys reading through thousands of sent e-mails must send chills down some spines. That the attorneys are doing it prior to the release of the e-mails to the newspaper and television station and anyone else who asks must turn the chill into a deep freeze.

While many people think that e-mails are private, they aren't when they are sent or received by public employees. As someone said, an e-mail is as private as a post card. City Council's e-mail page advises that: Any e-mail sent is subject to the public records law and will be made available to the media. This communication is not confidential.

We asked for the e-mails as we followed this story and rumors of the system's investigation last week. And we've already heard from Northern supporters that we're dealing in rumors and smear campaigns.

More is going to come out, even without the e-mails, which we don't expect to get until next week. There are parents and students to be heard from. School board members have been more silent than they should be. Superintendent Mo Green is familiar enough with the issue; he dealt with a high school recruiting controversy in his days at Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools.

Not good, but worth cleaning up. And why stop at Northern?

The NCAA, which has rules that run counter to the direct interest of their audience -- fans! -- is going to have to come into the 21st century sooner rather than later.

The NCAA has "rules" about blogging live sports events. The rules, aside from being anti-fan, are impossible to enforce with any consistency as any fan in the stands can post information about a game -- including photos -- whenever he or she likes.

Now, they are sending cease and desist letters to people on Facebook prohibiting them from exercising their right to free speech.

This time it's a case of an N.C. State student's Facebook page encouraging a Raleigh high school basketball player to come to State.

The NCAA's position seems to be that they are protecting youngsters from the evils of influence. Perhaps they need to tune into a few episodes of Friday Night Lights to see what influences high school athletes need protection from.

With the advances in technology, anyone with the proper tools can publish anything, whether it is "unauthorized" video of a basketball game taken with a camera phone or a Web page exhorting recruits. How is the rule monitored? What, really, will they do to violators? What will they do to them when they number in the hundreds and thousands?

It's time for the NCAA to reconsider its rules.

We have chased rumors of athletic recruiting at high schools for years. Frankly, I think recruiting students to play for "your" school has been an open secret, even as it is a violation of state High School Athletic Association rules. Everyone suspects it is done, but the rules are hard to enforce and abuses hard to prove. Especially when it isn't considered a priority.

We have occasionally had success in pinning down the rumors so that we could publish fair and factual stories. One of those stories was Robert Bell's about Northern High School last month. It presents a picture of a lot of smoke around the basketball program. But the athletic director and the school principal stood by the program and the coach. Bad move.

It apparently started did not start a school system investigation, though. Fast forward to today.

School system officials confirmed today that Northern Guilford High School principal Joe Yeager and athletics director Derrell Force have resigned.

The school system also said it's "in the midst of an ongoing investigation regarding high school athletics eligibility and other issues."

We first heard whispers about the investigation and personnel changes at the school yesterday. Several reporters began running down leads, hitting brickwalls and off-the-record comments. We feared this would turn into one of those stories in which officials would take action on a Friday and leave town. After all, a week-long spring break started today.

To their credit -- and thanks to the reporters' tenacity and persistence -- that didn't happen.

We'll see where the investigation leads.

Update: Today's newspaper story.

Thursday update: As this story is unfolding now, it is clear I was wrong in connecting Robert Bell's first story about Northern with the current investigation and suggesting a causal relationship. Wasn't one.

Mark Binker posts a photo of the UNC flag flying outside the General Assembly building in Raleigh and ponders:

I am sure if Duke or some other institution of higher learning elsewhere in the state brings home a national championship they'll be accorded the same honor.

Some front pages:

Update: Made the Newseum's Top Ten front pages for the day, too.

The Tar Heels' win means that we put into effect our plan to publish a poster page Tuesday morning.

Sounds like no big deal, I'm sure, but given that the game will end close to midnight Monday and our deadline is close to the other side of midnight, it requires a well-oiled machine. Newsrooms are rarely well-oiled machines.

We need the best photo -- of a celebratory victory we hope -- for the front page. We need another celebratory shot for the poster. Then, of course, Sports will need several good shots. We don't have a photographer in Detroit, which means we'll rely on the wire services, always a perilous gambit.

A well-oiled machine.

Fortunately, our first team will be on the job, pulling the right levers and making the right decisions. I just hate not having our own photo staff there to get the right photos.

Rattle and hum.

Then, with a victory on Monday, it's on to the special section!

Much to the chagrin of our sports staff, we didn't send anyone to Boston or Memphis to cover Duke and UNC in the NCAA's round of Sweet 16. It's a first in the 24 years I've been here. We've sent people even when UNC and Duke weren't in the Final Four.

But those were the old days. In these uncertain times, I wanted to save the money. In looking at the expenses, I decided that we could serve our readers all right by using the wires and stringers. Not as good as home-grown writers, photographers and our columnist, but it would have to do. The world is different. Many readers will have seen the game, seen the ESPN commentary and, of course, visited the teams' Web sites.

Not my favorite solution, but it doesn't seem as if we're robbing readers, particularly as our writers, photographers and columnist stayed home to cover something that is a bit more unique and enterprising.

I admit to being surprised that our colleagues in Raleigh and Charlotte, both of which just had newsroom layoffs, sent at least four writers and at least one photographer to the games.

Scott Fowler at the Charlotte Observer explains why Duke and Carolina were scheduled for the late (10 p.m.) game in the NCAA round this week. He's indignant and he's right.

The scheduling is, of course, a TV decision. Fowler quotes a guy with CBS Sports.

"Duke and Carolina are the most marquee teams in this tournament, and so their games are the most marquee games," he said. "Those late games -- that's your most important ratings window. The West Coast audience kicks in for you. And you want fans to have the anticipation factor. You want the build-up. You don't want people to say, 'Well, we'll watch the first game and not worry about the second one."'

Fowler adds some more info on his blog:

Do you have any idea, though, how many U.S. TV households fall in the Eastern Time Zone compared to the Pacific?

That would be 49 percent Eastern, 15 percent Pacific. That means we're all staying up far later to cater to an audience only 1/3 as large as ours.

For us, like the Observer, when a game ends past midnight, it plays havoc with our ability to get it into early editions. But I also look at it selfishly. It's hard for me to stay up that late.

I was at a dinner with friends Friday, and we talked briefly about the future of newspapers. They were aware of the troubles the newspaper industry is dealing with. It wasn't a long conversation -- what is there to say? -- and we soon moved on to something else.

Later, this story about recruiting students to play at certain high schools came up. It is a story that brought a great deal of wrath down on us from certain segments of the high school sports community. (The Northern coach's thoughts here.)

But based on the conversation among my friends the other night -- all parents -- there seems to be a great deal of anecdotal information about recruiting at the high school level floating about. They seemed to be pleased that the story is surfacing. (None is a Northern parent.)

One asked: "Who is going to do this sort of story if the newspaper isn't here? TV? Blogs? The Rhino? I don't see it."

(Editor's note: Neither these types of stories not the paper are going away anytime soon.)

Tuesday update: Proof! A scientific study on what happened in one community when one of its papers went out of business.

This story belonged on the front page of the newspaper. It's not there because the photography needed the display that the Sports front could provide. But writer Tom Keller nails it in his column.

There are so many people these days -- myself included -- who can't even pick up the newspaper sometimes because the bad news never stops coming. The sports page is supposed to be our diversion, and we feel increasingly betrayed when the athletes we adore thump their chests for more money or more glory or more attention than they deserve.

But the Smith swim team reminds me of all the beautifully unassuming competitors still left in the world, those who play just for the sake of playing and remind us that if you're willing to work and wait, goals you never thought possible can become reality.

After reading this story by Dustin Long, some people were probably wondering -- OK, I was one -- how they could help Jack Hege keep his Daytona attendance streak going...and get a free ticket to the 500 out of it.

Each year, Hege buys five tickets, which cost $150 each, for seats just beyond turn 4. He saves two for himself and whoever drives him. The other three are bought by friends. Problem is that this year, he can't find anyone who can afford the tickets, let alone drive him to Daytona.

We didn't publish Hege's contact information out of respect for his privacy. But people have responded to Dustin. Dustin says: I have received about dozen or so calls and e-mails on looking to help Hege out. I just got off the phone with a Greensboro man who is a pilot and is offering to fly him down in a private plane to Daytona.

Dustin is passing the information along to Hege. He's not serving as a clearinghouse; that goes above and beyond Dustin's job description. My guess is that Hege will be in his seat just beyond turn 4 for his 51st Daytona.

Newspapers -- among many other businesses, I suppose -- in Tennessee and North Carolina are mourning the missed opportunities caused by the Titans and Panthers losses Saturday. People caught up in the energy of a team's success like to read about that success. Alot. Just as Panthers gear was a hot commodity before Saturday night, it has all the value of a #17 jersey this morning.

And how many newspapers will we sell touting the success of the Arizona Cardinals? I don't know that we would have gotten a huge boost out of the Panthers going to to Super Bowl, but I know my friends in Charlotte are crestfallen. They even said it in their headline: "It's so very disappointing."

On the bright side, they don't have the expense of sending reporters and photographers to the next game.

Some discussion here on the merits of the Josh Howard story. No, "merits" isn't correct word. No question it's worth reporting on more fully than the news release, which simply announced his sponsorship of a high school basketball tournament. It quotes Howard as saying, "I am excited about being a part of this tournament which showcases the best of the best. This is not just about dribbling a ball but about keeping your grades up and being an all around good student."

It seems natural and appropriate to add some context and to include his recent comments about marijuana use and the Star Spangled Banner.

But is it more than a sports section story?

My answer: it's on the front page in the morning paper, not necessarily because it is important, but because it's one of those stories that makes you shake your head. Yes, he's done some good charity work, but is this the role model we want for high school athletes?

Yours?

P.S. It also includes my favorite quote this morning, coming from the Josh Howard Foundation's PR manager: Honestly, some of the things that have been published have been negative.

The NCAA, that is.

According to Chris Korman of the Indiana Student Daily, Early in the second half of the game, reporters from The Herald-Times and the Indiana Daily Student were asked to stop posting commentary on a joint live blog they were hosting with two other outlets.

After the game, Shutt said that the ACC rule on blogging was probably not in writing anywhere but followed common practice.

Common practice? Where is that common practice?

It's not about practice. We talking about the NCAA and the almighty dollar.

As I wrote back in September: I can go to a game as a spectator, sit in the stands, and blog about it from my Blackberry (if I had one) as many times as I like. But if I'm in the press box someone is going to stand over my shoulder and count? Makes no sense.

Thanks to Steve for the tip.

How much time did O.J. get? Who the heck knows. I do know that it's a wire editor's nightmare.

New York Times -- O.J. Simpson, the one-time football great who was acquitted in perhaps the most-watched murder trial of the 20th century, was sentenced Friday to a minimum of nine years in prison for his role in a 2007 raid on a Las Vegas hotel room in which two collectibles dealers were robbed of a trove of sports memorabilia.

ABC -- O.J. Simpson was sentenced to up to 33 years in prison today, with the possibility of release after nine years, for his role in an armed robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers inside a Las Vegas hotel room.

People -- O.J. Simpson has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, with consecutive terms that could extend his time behind bars 2½ years or more.

Newsday -- Despite a tearful plea for leniency from O.J. Simpson, a Las Vegas judge today sentenced him to 16 years in prison for the kidnapping and robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers.

(Thanks for the tip, JR)

Ever wonder how those Important-stories-of-the-year pieces are pulled together every year? Sometimes editors simply vote. For instance, AP has asked me to pick the top athletes and top sports stories of the year. (Please disregard their bad judgment for choosing me.) Here are APs suggestions. Want to help me vote?

Athlete of the Year -- Male:

Michael Phelps, Eli Manning, Kobe Bryant, Padraig Harrington, Lewis Hamilton, Jimmie Johnson, Rafael Nadal, Usain Bolt, Francisco Rodriguez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Bode Miller

Female:
Dara Torres, Stephanie Rice, Lorena Ochoa, Nastia Liukin, Danica Patrick, Jelena Jankovic, Venus & Serena Williams, Candace Parker, Shawn Johnson, Yelena Isinbayeva, Lindsey Vonn

* Giants stun Patriots, ruin New England's perfect season, with Super Bowl win
* Chinese keep first women's gymnastics gold after being cleared of underage athletes charge
* Brett Favre retires, unretires, forces trade to Jets; then leads New York resurgence
* Boston Celtics complete NBA's biggest one-season turnaround by beating Lakers for title
* US men's basketball wins Olympic gold medal for first major title in eight years
* Tiger Woods has knee surgery following US Open win, can't practice until 2009
* Ireland's Padraig Harrington wins the British Open and PGA Championship
* Tom Brady injured in opening game, leaving NFL without one of its biggest stars
* After 46-hour rain delay, Phillies beat Rays in five games to capture World Series
* Swimmer Michael Phelps wins eight gold medals at Beijing Games, setting new medal mark
* Americans snap Ryder Cup drought, beating Europe for the first time since 1999
* Jimmie Johnson wins third NASCAR title, tying mark set by Cale Yarborough
* Sprinter Usain Bolt wins three golds, sets three world marks in Olympic track and field
* Cyclist Lance Armstrong says he will come back to racing in 2009
* Twice-beaten LSU thumps Ohio State to win college football's national championship
* Economy: Downturn hits baseball attendance, NASCAR sponsorships, LPGA Tour, among others
* Lady Vols win Tennessee's second straight women's basketball title, routing Stanford
* Big Brown wins two legs of Triple Crown but pulls up at Belmont; steroid use causes stir
* Underachieveing Spain beats Germany in Euro 2008 final; first title for Spanish since 1964
* At 23, Briton Lewis Hamilton becomes youngest and only black F1 champion
* Rafael Nadal upsets Roger Federer at Wimbledon, ends Federer's record stay at No. 1
* Danica Patrick becomes first woman to win a major open wheel race, the Indy Japan 300
* Kansas defeats Memphis in a classic NCAA men's basketball final
* As young stars emerge around the NHL, Detroit beats Pittsburgh for the Stanley Cup
* Hall of Fame lineman and longtime NFL players union chief Gene Upshaw dies
* Baseball owner George Steinbrenner officially gives up control of the New York Yankees
* After congressional hearing on Mitchell Report, feds investigate whether Clemens lied about steroids
* Champ Car World Series merges with Indy Racing League, unifying American open-wheel racing

Some East Carolina football fans, justifiably proud of their school for winning back-to-back games against ranked opponents, squawked that the Sunday Sports section didn't herald the team's achievement loudly enough. A quick e-mail sample:

You would think when a college football team in your state pulls off one of the biggest back-to-back upsets in the history of this state (North Carolina) that a newspaper for a city of 250,000 would plaster the headlines with the story. Not the Greensboro News & Record.

Last week's sports headline after the Va. Tech win was a front page story on N.C. A&T beating a nobody. Then you would figure when it happens again, surely ECU would be plastered all over the front page. NO NO! ECU had a small caption in the top left side of the front page. What gives?

True. ECU is big football news and the team is now ranked #14. No slight was intended.

But the school is 160 miles away from Greensboro, and the two stories on each Sunday that got greater play had much more interest locally. A&T's victory snapped a 27-game losing streak. And on Sunday, the front-page package was about the NFL season kickoff and the Panthers' prospects.

Passionate sports fans make political junkies look like pink-cheeked freshmen when it comes to scrutinizing newspaper coverage. When they feel passionate about a school, they let us know about any slights they see in our coverage. That's good. We like passionate people reading the paper.

As ECU continues to win through the season, we'll pay more attention to them. But Vince Lombardi to the contrary, winning isn't the only thing. Proximity to the bulk of the newspaper's readers helps.

Seems as if the NCAA is cracking down on blogging at football games. Again. Goofy.

We have blogged during games, but don't have any immediate plans to do it this week. Given how many games are on television, I'm not convinced it is worth the effort.

Still, I don't see the point of the NCAA's rules. I can go to a game as a spectator, sit in the stands, and blog about it from my Blackberry (if I had one) as many times as I like. But if I'm in the press box someone is going to stand over my shoulder and count? Makes no sense. But then again, this is the same group that enforces recruiting violations.

Sports columnist Jay Mariotti has quit the Chicago Sun-Times.

Just back from Beijing, where he covered the Olympics, Mariotti said in a phone interview that he decided to quit after it became clear while in China that sports journalism had become "entirely a Web site business. There were not many newspapers there." He added that most of the journalists covering the Games were "there writing for Web sites."

Mariotti is contentious so other factors may be involved. (He's staying as a commentator on ESPN, so he's not entirely moving to the Web.) Yet, there is some truth in what he says. And not. (The Olympics is a weak example in making the argument that sports is entirely a Web business. When the events happen 12 hours early, the Web is the best place to get the info. That doesn't happen in the world of American sports -- or Chicago sports -- often.)

Still....

Many sports fans go directly to the Internet to check scores, get in-depth reports and chat/argue about their teams and players. For them, particularly the intense ones, the newspaper doesn't add much. Sports is a natural for the Web where opinions and interaction are easy and abundant.

But there are many more casual sports fans -- I'm one -- who are interested in sports, but not so much that we haunt the Web sites. The newspaper's sports section provides an overview and taste of that day's action and topics; I can go online to get more, if I want, which isn't that often.

It's the challenge that newspapers must address, and many are: As the audience has more choices, how do we help people get what they want when and how they want it? For some, it's digital; for some, it's paper. For many, it's not much. The point: It's not either/or; it's "and."

Steve Smith slugs Ken Lucas.

"I feel like what happened was a blessing in disguise," Lucas said. "This is something I think has brought this team closer together."

A new team-building exercise!

Discussion around here this morning concerned whether we should have done more on the front page with Tiger's U.S. Open win yesterday. (More? I should say, something, anything.)

Many North Carolina papers played a photo of Tiger raising the trophy at the top of the page in what we call a skybox. A nice photo of Tiger and Rocco Mediate was the centerpiece on the front of the Charlotte Observer. A look at the front pages around the nation shows others played it as the main photo on the front page, too.

We didn't. We originally planned to put it above the nameplate in the skybox, but went instead with the three returning Carolina basketball players. That story broke 45 minutes or so later than the Open and wasn't televised live on NBC. I thought it was more local and might attract more casual newspaper buyers than the Open.

But the Open wasn't just a golf story. It was a compelling spectacle: an injured Tiger gutting it out, a gritty challenger who seems local, given that Rocco won the tournament in Greensboro twice, and drama, drama, drama.

Instead, our A1 centerpiece was about people trying to unload their SUVs in the face of high gas prices. A fine story and photo -- and local, too -- but not necessarily memorable in the way the Open story and art could have been.

I'm thinking I made a mistake. You?

Tom Keller, our new high school sports reporter has started big with today's basketball special and a new blog called the Locker Room about -- what else? -- high school sports.

He interviews his toughest critic in his first post. And then shoots some video of last weekend's basketball showcase for his second.

Pay a visit.

For Tar Heel junkies, we have gathered our season's worth of UNC coverage in one place, beginning with a nice sights-and-sounds slideshow of the Eastern Regionals. (All the photo galleries are there, too.)

Just to get you ready for Saturday night.

Are there as many empty seats in the Coliseum when the ACC tournament is played in Greensboro?

Sportswriter Jim Young predicts the ACC tournament results. I won't tell you his outcome, except to say that he doesn't seem to have the guts to drive the lane on Hansbrough.

But he welcomes your feedback.

So there you have it. And it's out in the cyberspace for eternity now. I expect to get emails mocking my picks up until the year 2045. After that, I'm closing out my account.

Robert Bell heard from a reader who, I guess, didn't care for our coverage of A&T basketball this morning:

"I am so sick and tired of the Greensboro Daily News' obvious bias when it comes to your so-called sports coverage. Whatever happened to objective reporting? And not just in the stories but in the placement of stories. Any journalism 101 class teaches that a newspaper should be fair to both sides. When will you learn that? There are more Carolina fans living in this area than any other team. Your bias should be toward Chapel Hill."

All stories are not created equal. In Sports coverage, games, teams and sports are not created equal.

That's what I would have told this letterwriter (second on the page) had he asked. He was upset that during one eight-day period, we published stories about men's college basketball games on the front page of the Sports section, but not women's games.

It would be easy to dismiss this inconsistency as trivial. But sexism, in any form, is not trivial. It diminishes our understanding and appreciation for the hard work women do in our society, at every level, and perpetuates ideas of inequality that cannot be a part of the N&R mission. Your trained journalists know better.

We weigh a number of factors as we decide where to play stories. We know that there is greater interest by our readers in college basketball and football than, say, baseball or soccer. We know there is greater interest by our readers in male sports. We know there is greater interest in teams that are closer to Greensboro. We know there is greater interest in teams that are winning. We know that some days there is intense competition for space on the front page; on others a scissors, rock, paper contest is the best we have.

There are exceptions. For instance, this season we are giving more ink to the Grimsley girls basketball team than the boys because the girls are undefeated. Same with Wake Forest's men's national soccer championship despite some complaints. As the UNC women marched through the NCAA tournament to the championship game last year, we increased our coverage.

I live in a house with three female athletes. I understand the issue of equality in the gyms and the playing field. But requiring equality in news coverage based on gender? Sorry.

Less than 24 hours ago, WFU Coach Jim Grobe was on the Two Guys Named Chris radio show. Chris Kelly asked him about offers he may have gotten to coach elsewhere.

"So far nothing's hit me over the head and told me I should be leaving," Grobe told them.

Twelve hours later, reports came out that Grobe had agreed to coach at the University of Arkansas.

Was he telling the truth Wednesday morning -- he apparently interviewed in Fayetteville, Ark., Tuesday -- or is it possible that sometime in those 12 hours he had suddenly gotten so interested in the Razorbacks that they produced a contract, notified everyone who needed to be told, and signed him?

We've gotten used to and even accepted politicians, entertainers and, I guess, coaches shading, spinning and neglecting the truth. I have written about Bob Dylan and his wonderfully open statement: "The press? I figured you lie to it."

The problem is that they aren't only lying to the press; they're lying to everyone who reads or views the report. I can't understand the upside. I can understand someone changing his mind; I do it with some regularity as I'm presented with more information or have the chance to think through an issue.

Perhaps all the speculation will be wrong, and Grobe will announce he's staying today. The spin will be interesting. But I am always surprised that there isn't more negative reaction to the outright falsehoods coming from the mouths of public figures.

Update: We're now hearing he is not going.

Related: Rob Daniels speculated yesterday morning about Grobe rumors at SportsExtra, as did the guys at Radio Free Sports.

Robert Bell's high school free agent story evoked a lot of e-mails and some attention elsewhere.

Greensboro Sports includes some other cases of students transferring from one school to another for sports. I don't know the source of his information, but he names names.

The Prep Insiders at the Charlotte Observer uses the story to talk about Charlotte-Mecklenberg, "the transfer capital of the N.C. high school universe."

We have a story tomorrow today on the initial reaction of some school board members. Suffice it to say that it is unclear if the board is going to do anything about the apparent abuse of the system.

Today's story by Robert Bell about athletes transferring from one high school to another to get into a better athletic program has more angles than a Moravian star.

It's about students who love to win at sports. It's about parents who want to do what they think is best for their children. It's about fans who want winning teams. It's about fans of weaker teams watching their teams get even weaker. It's about a process that is designed to help students expand their academic options. It's about a school district with a more restrictive policy than other school systems that permit open enrollment.

Mostly, though, it's about a system that is clearly broken and being exploited.

The question is whether the school board will do anything about it.