Several members of the Jacksonville Jaguars have been arrested in the past 15 months, and the Jacksonville Times-Union ran a front-page story on those arrests last week. Many readers criticized the paper for that story. "A little bit racist," is how Brenda Bellard-Harris described the package, which was dominated by color photos of five black Jaguars on the front page. A small photo of a white former Jaguar was inside.I strongly disagree with anyone who thinks newspapers (or blogs, for that matter) shouldn't publish negative news about the local teams. If a newspaper is going to publish stories about the Jaguars' performances on the field, the same newspaper shouldn't look the other way when Jaguars get in trouble off the field.Interspersed among the race-related complaints were others from fans seemingly perplexed over how the newspaper could do such a thing to the home team.
"Are we doing a negative on our team?" asked Dick Sadler, a season-ticket holder.
"It is sensationalizing," said Tom Miller. "I've had two phone calls from friends who asked, 'Did you see the garbage on the front page today?'"
On the other hand, I can understand why readers found it troubling that five black Jaguars were pictured on the front page, while a white former Jaguar was in a smaller photo on an inside page. That former player was Rich Tylski, who was charged with child abuse last year. Those charges are at least as serious as anything any of the current Jaguars have been accused of, and if Tylski (pictured above) is worth being mentioned at all, he's worth being shown on the front page.
The most troubling part of all this, of course, is that these stories are available for the paper to write. If fans don't like opening up the paper and seeing news about local athletes getting arrested, they should put the blame where it belongs, on those athletes themselves.
Previously at FanHouse:
Khalif Barnes Arrest Video Shows Eerie Calm
Jaguars' Khalif Barnes Calls Cop 'KKK Devil'
Another Jaguar Arrested with a Gun
A Jaguar I've Never Heard Of Gets Arrested
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
the nfl is becoming a second nba in terms of its athletes misbehavior. you can thank prop 48 for allowing these "student athletes" to be exposed on college campuses long enough for the pros to see them and sign them to pro contracts. before prop.48 there were cases of abuse, but not to the extent there are now. GO NASCAR!
Maybe the reason is b/c the white dude is a FORMER player and the others are CURRENT players. Why it always gotta be about the race card.
The politaclly correctness of the print media (and all media for that matter) is sickening. I assume the black players pictured on the front are currently on the rosted for the team, while the white guy played last year. The point being, that the focus is on the current trends, and while child abuse is bad, it is dated in this case. People need to spend less time crying about seemingly unfair practices because members of their race messed up. And just because its 5 blacks, it has to be racism. Grow up!
TYLISKI BROKE THE HANDS AND LEGS OF HIS ADOPTED DAUGHTER, YOU WHITE APOLOGISTS!! HE'S AN ANIMAL!! LOCK HIM UP AND THROW AWAY THE KEY!! APOLOGISTS!!
"Former NFL offensive guard Rich Tylski and his wife were accused of hitting their adopted daughter with a belt, slamming her head on a table and other abuse that left the girl with broken bones in her hands and leg."
It's disgusting how the media has kept this monster Tyliki's abuse against his preteen daughter quiet for almost a year and even now, with this supposed expose, continue to shunt his crimes off to the back pages while sensationalizing the relatively less significant DUI arrests of other players.
The child abuser Tyliki lives in Jacksonville and committed his horrendous abuse against his adopted daughter while masquerading as an "All Pro Dad" in that city, so if the Times-Union wants to exploit criminal behavior for profit, they should start by putting his @ss on the front page.
If Rich Tylski is indeed guilty of child abuse then he should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. The race issue is simply the newspaper's view of what sells or their see what their readers want.
Yeah yeah, same ole song. And if stupid Tylski hadn't done what he did, we would think of some OTHER reason to scream RACIAL! Did the players do the crime or didn't they? Did the paper print anything that wasn't true? If you can't handle the Truth then pickup a copy of the Enquire for that's about the grade of news quality your REALLY interested in. With the exception of their one sports columnist who cries race in his columns more than once, they are just printing the truth, like it or not.