One thing I get a lot in this job is people guessing about where my allegiances are. Or what my secret agendas might be.
Some Kansas fans think I bleed purple. Some Kansas State fans believe I must be drinking Jayhawk water. And pretty much all Wichita State fans think I’m anti-WSU.
The truth is I have only one team for which I cannot be objective and that’s the St. Louis Cardinals. I could not take a newspaper job in St. Louis and cover the Cardinals. It would be too difficult.
But I can cover Kansas, Kansas State and Wichita State without the hindrance of am emotional connection.
It wasn’t always that way. As a kid, I was as big a Wichita State basketball fan as you could find. My father and I had season tickets, Row 23 in Section R in the old Roundhouse. I went to every game for 10 years during the era of Dave Stallworth, Nate Bowman, Kelly Pete, Dave Leach, Warren Armstrong, Bob Elmore and Cal Bruton.
I have a degree from Wichita State. My son attends Wichita State. I like and enjoy a lot of the coaches, players and athletic department staff at Wichita State. I have friends who work inside the department.
But I am capable of retaining my objectivity when it comes to the Shockers. And it’s not difficult, just as it’s not difficult for Kansas and Kansas State.
I hope readers expect that from me. I hope the people who write or call and tell me I should be more positive about the local teams I cover are a minority. It’s not about being positive or negative, it’s about being fair and accurate.
I have trouble thinking of a coach or player I have written about in 31 years on this job who I didn’t like. I could probably count them on one hand. These people are hard-working and, for the most part, honest. They’re doing a very difficult job and they usually understand that when I write something critical of them that I’m just doing mine.
Being a columnist is the best job you can have in the newspaper business, but it doesn’t come without scrutiny. I’m one of those people who welcomes scrutiny. There have been times when I have written something, only later to be convinced by a reader that what I wrote was unfair or unfounded.
People are passionate about sports and I welcome that passion. I feel the same way. But my passion is for the sports, not for the teams. Except, of course, for the Cardinals.