Charles Apple

The football coach at Texas A&M-Commerce said he was proud of his team for hoarding copies of the school’s student newspaper last week, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

Coach Guy Morriss is quoted as saying:

I’m proud of my players for doing that. This was the best team building exercise we have ever done.

A student gazes longingly into an empty student newspaper
rack last Thursday. Photo from the East Texan web site.
—

The East Texan of Texas A&M-Commerce reported that Lt. Jason BoneBryan Vaughn and assistant chief of the University Police Department interviewed coach Morriss on Friday, the day after the papers disappeared.

Bone asked Morriss if he had seen the most recent issue of the paper. Morriss replied with negative comments regarding The East Texan.

“I don’t read that crap,” he said.

Bone said he then showed Morriss the top headline on the front page of the edition, which read, “Football players arrested in drug bust.” To this Morriss responded he did not pay any attention to that crap. Morriss then asked for clarification on how taking a free paper was considered theft.

Attorney Advocate for the Student Press Law Center Adam Goldstein said the actions taken by members of the football team are illegal.

Find the East Texan’s story about the missing papers here. Go here to read the original story about the drug bust.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 10:42 am and is filed under College journalism, Industry woes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.