Did you hear that Sam Bradford AND Landry Jones were arrested for drug trafficking leaving one of the Horsepigs as the starting quarterback for the Sooners this year?
What’s that you say?
You think something that scandalous would have been more widely reported than on a Nebraska fansite message board?
You think it would have been frontpage news and that James Hale would be spending as much time on the air as Dan Rather on election night 2000 trying to explain how the Horsepig is now in position to win the Heisman if it were true?
That’s crazy talk. At least it is if you happen to work for The Oklahoman or if you sired Landry Jones.
For those of you out there who didn’t email me this story, here is what happened: Dorks on an internet message board did what dorks on an internet message board do and inflamed the emotions of a rival fan. I’m not clear how they did it, but having been a dork on an OSU message board, I can imagine the OU fans were probably touting players from their incoming recruiting class as the second comings of Joe Montana, Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice, et al. Then, they probably claimed that every Nebraska signee actually wanted to attend the University of Oklahoma, but weren’t good enough. It happens.
In retaliation, one of the Nebraska fans on the message board (James W. Conradt) wrote an article claiming that the Sooners’ two best quarterbacks had been arrested for drug trafficking and making it look like the article came from The Oklahoman. Sounds like a proportional response to me.
Now a rational person would have noticed that the front of newsok.com made no mention of this, and wondered why this was not on the bottom scroll of ESPN. That same rational person would have then proceded to remember that Sam Bradford and (from all sources Landry Jones were good citizens. Instead, some Sooner fans freaked out, and The Oklahoman demanded that Conradt cease and desist his piece of internet satire.
As satirists, we at TheLostOgle support Conradt’s right to prey on the gullibility of people. If the worst thing that happens when someone makes up a fact is that people temporarily believe the OU football season is screwed, that Van Shea Iven is a girl, or that the new NBA franchise in Oklahoma City is going to be called “Toby Keith’s I love this Basketball Team”, then I don’t see the harm. Right?
“I’m going to prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law,” said Kevin Jones, Landry’s father. “I’ve got deep enough pockets to do it.”
That’s a little extreme if you ask me, but T. Boone Jones wants to defend his son’s name against rogue satirists, he will have to prove that there was reason for those who read it to believe what was said. With just a little research, I learned that former Oklahoma quarterbacks have set a precedence.
Rhett Bomar
Maybe the Bomar/Big Red Sports and Imports scandal did not involve drugs, but it did prove that highly visible athletes who have every advantage are willing to throw it all away for just a few pieces of coin. In Bomar’s case, he took the booster handouts and temporarily cost Bob Stoops eight wins on his official career record, then took his talents to powerhouse Sam Houston State. The good news is that his sense of entitlement did not get lost like his Division I scholarship. When he revisited the state last year, he blasted OSU fans as classless for cheering when he was sacked.
B.J. Tiger
I tried to find a picture of B.J. Tiger for this segment, but the best I could do was this ancient O’Colly article regarding Tiger’s first start in place of an injured Tony Lindsay. In it, one of Tiger’s teammates remarks at how “very calm” the quarterback was in the huddle. There was a reason for that, we would soon learn. The guy was baked out of his gourd.
Tiger played well for half a season before he was pulled over by the campus police. Before they could even get his license and registration, the Cowboy starting quarterback did what came so naturally to him in games and took off running. Problem was: He wasn’t as elusive as he thought and the OSU police officer caught up with him and slapped on the cuffs.
Back at the car, they found several pounds of marijuana stashed in a lockbox in the vehicle.
Charles Thompson
After some injuries to golden boy Jamelle Hollieway, Charles Thompson was quickly ascending into the pantheon of Sooner quarterbacks. Then, he sold some crank to an undercover FBI agent. Thompson’s arrest was one of the chain of events that led to the resignation of Barry Switzer and ushered in the dark age of Sooner football. Come to think of it, the story of Charles Thompson is probably the one Conradt used as a template for the Bradford/Jones hoax.
“If the worst thing that happens when someone makes up a fact is that people temporarily believe the OU football season is screwed,…” “That’s a little extreme if you ask me, but T. Boone Jones wants to defend his son’s name against rogue satirists, he will have to prove that there was reason for those who read it to believe what was said.”
Wrong. It doesn’t matter what the readers believe about the OU football team; it’s what they believe about the players. Since they were portrayed as committing a crime, he crossed the line between satire and libel. The real issue then is were they damaged? Probably not, other than hurt feelings, but this is a serious deal. Just because the internet is pretty much a wide open arena, that doesn’t give this moron the right to throw whatever he wants out there without consequences.
I’m with you in thinking they’re taking things a bit too far, Clark. In all, the ’story’ was up for what - an hour? Then it was quickly proved to be a hoax.
If UPUBCO wants to go after him for copyright issues, then whatever. Jones’ dad should stay out of it. I know it sucks that his son was defamed, but following things up with a lawsuit are just going to further the mind’s connection of Jones/Bradford and drugs. And around here, it’ll definitely create more news - especially when local media is still reporting on the scrotum-grabber case.
I think if it just gets reigned-in now, Bradford and Jones will go on to be known for being good quarterbacks with a blip of ‘what was that thing that happened a few years ago?’.
In the end, I imagine OU will step in at some point and strongly discourage Jones’ dad from filing a lawsuit.
The only reason this story became news in the first place is because the Oklahoman made an issue of it. The only reason they made an issue of it is because it involved the Sooners. If this involved any other team in the state I doubt the coverage would be this hard hitting.
I’m with Matthews. Consider the source of the article. Oh wait, maybe that is why the Oklahoman ran with the story, considering that it seems as if message boards are their number one source of information for their columns.
I would not even have known of the article if it were not for the Oklahoman’s continous coverage of the issue. I only ran across it in the first place by seeing a link to the Oklahoman’s story on a porn site, uh I mean message board.
I guess if you cant sell papers with the current news, the next option is to create some news.
“T. Boone Jones”… I spit my drink out laughing. I am now going to steal Clark’s line whenever one of my buddies try to pay for something or buys me a soda pop.
Soonerken… you wouldn’t mind it one bit if this had happened to Colt McCoy. Yeah, drug use isn’t very cool, but it could have been a broke back mountain thing. Would that have more acceptable to you? Or was it just the fact that some players on your team (forgive me, I presume you like the sooners, ken) got made fun of?
Satire and “sarcasm” are our friends. They make us laugh. I like to laugh.
To preface, The Sooners aren’t my team.
Hey, I’m all for satire and sarcasm- even bad satire, for which this would certainly qualify, but somewhere out there is a line. I’m not really sure where it is, but I have a pretty good idea of when it gets crossed. In order or speech to fall outside the 1st amendment, the statements must be shown to be false (they were, by the guys own admission) and that the person making those statements knew they were false and acted in reckless disregard in making those statements (well, that’s pretty easy to determine). Another defense might be that the statements are so outrageous that a reasonable person would not believe them, which unfortunately, you demonstrated with the litany of QB’s in the state of Oklahoma with questionable citizenship skills. If you want to call Van Shae Iven a girl or make fun of Barry Tramel’s speech impediment or his wardrobe, that’s fine, but don’t copy the NewsOK masthead and attempt to pass it off as a real story, even with the little journalistic credibility that carries.
I imagine that the Oklahoman made a big deal out of it because it used their fine paper in the hoax. That and the Gyalord Family name on the stadium (me no-likey).
What if someone used the Lost Ogle site as a template for some hoax like this? Wait you guys would probably like that.. what about if someone.. no you would like that too.. you guys are some sick f….
I love you guys!
The reason why the Oklahoman got into it is because the guy copied a NewsOK template and posted the hoax story in the duplicate NewsOK template. Radio stations in TX thought they were real stories and went on air with the news.
This is why this got escalated so fast and became so serious in such a short amount of time along with a cease and desist from the Oklahoman.
I think I have a pretty good sense of humor, but the joke was over the line.
On the other hand, if Bradford continues his current course, he’ll become an even bigger deal, and he’ll be the subject of even worse rumor-mongering.
As for Landry’s dad, I think he came off sounding pretty petulant. I measure it this way: Traber loved what he said about his deep pockets. Therefore, it must be overboard.
Just remember one thing,
Every week some thug on the football team gets arrested for drugs or drinking.
This guy got the incident right but the wrong person (Phil Loudhart or whatever his name is).
What ever to that Norman thug who stole gas? Is he back on the team because he gave Bobby the key so he could steal gas?
Don’t you think its generally a smart move for a news organization to protect its logo and all that?
If a satirist has to censor himself because radio hosts will report it as fact, then no satire could ever be shared. I mean, look at Jack and Ron’s “New of the I’ll Be Damned” which is basically them reading the Weekly World News Report as if the articles were serious. Jim Traber and Al Eschbach were reporting that the Hornets were on the verge of getting Kevin Garnett two years ago. Radio reporters are morons.
In this case, I imagine the Texas radio personalities reported the story even though it didn’t pass the “smell test” because they wanted to believe it was true.
Why wouldn’t the Texas radio hosts have maybe, oh I don’t know, double-checked with OU to see if it was true? This whole thing is ridiculous!
How can a joke-of-a-newspaper take a message board so seriously? Right-wingnut feel good stories are very rare these days, so any tiny distractions are hyped up.
Hookarian: You are correct that I’m a Sooner fan, have been forever. But, that’s not the point. I’d be condemning this activity regardless of whether it’s Bradford/Jones or Zac Robinson or anybody else. (Except maybe Tony Romo, he’s got Jessica Simpson to console him.) I like a good joke, enjoy satire, etc. as much as anybody else but there’s a line which was crossed here when the target is a couple of 19-20 year old college kids who bust their butts for the fans, make huge amounts of $$ for the school, and don’t get paid for it.
The fact that it has now been revealed that this guy works in the Texas IT department just adds to the intrigue. Maybe it’s a long delayed payback for Switzer spying on them years ago.
Satire is best left to the professionals . . . you know, people who can afford to employ lawyers on a full-time basis.
So does this mean that the Daily Oklahoman is taken seriously now?
“Satire is best left to the professionals . . . you know, people who can afford to employ lawyers on a full-time basis.”
So, Landry Jones’ dad can be a satirist?
That’s T. Boone Jones, to you, Mr. Matthews. His pockets are, evidently, deep enough to be a satirist if and when he so chooses.