wesleyrp Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Hello, I just got done responding to a classless article referring to band/marching in a very dorrogative fashion, thought you'd like to see the link to resopnd yourself. I will also post below what I wrote to the column writer as well. http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/11844867 Thanks, Wes Perkins BK '97 '98 PS.. Here is what I wrote to him.... Mr. Dodd, Hmmm how do I start? I guess I'll make the statement first of all that I played football, basketball, tennis and ran track in school as well as other activities. Like yourself, being a professional athelete was not in the cards so you found something you liked? Being a journalism geek... You know they are the writers/camera toting dorks/dweebs that only could talk to someone if they were taking a picture or asking how to spell their names. Dates, forget about it, you're obviously just someone who could write something because you couldn't talk face to face and had to hide behind your pen...... Steriotypes???? Yeah, and I bet none of these things describe you, but they get on your nerves anyway, because your job and profession means something right? Well so does mine, because you see, in addition to being an athelete growing up I also loved being in band and low and behold I became a band director... Your tarnishing of band and steriotypes are flat out chickensh@#... I bet you wouldn't go say what you did im the article to the directors of the groups you talked about, but you can write about it and hide behind your pen or keyboard or whatever.... You know the sad thing is that you don't see that a marching band has always tried to hold rank and not let people through... It dates back to the traditions started in military bands and military blocks as well, you don't break ranks because you never know when someone may be trying to do something to a member... Case in point, in a Louisiana a University band from a Texas school was marching in the stadium when the fans jumped out of the stands and tried to break into the bands ranks to toss eggs/throw rotten oranges/dirty diapers at the group.... It is for safety that you don't break ranks... Would you go up to a football team that is on the line of scrimmage and try and break throught the line and say.... ummmm I gotta get up to the press box, cause I'm a reporter and I need to cut through???? Hell no.... So why should you expect that you would do the same to a band.. They're on that field to get into formation and march... If you were writing a story would you allow me to come grab your computer and say, I need to to check my e-mail right now, I've got important business to take care of.... of course not, it's all the same!! You are ignorant because you make remarks of what you do not know... If you think all marching band is bad I invite you to come and sit with me at a future Texas State Marching Band Championships or come to the professional marching Circuit know as Drum Corps International (by the way the same parent organization that Bobby Knight used to take his Indiana basketball teams to watch in order to learn work ethic/discipline) and I bet you'll see that not only are the groups good, but they're doing things that are extremely athletic... College band is college band, most are there to watch football and play they're instrument on the field to represent their school, but there are no competitions and therefore they act a little differently than say a profeesional marching group or HS marching band. It is dangerous to disrespect a very large group of people that are in the US and across the world, because musicians and "Band Geeks" make up a huge portion of sports fans, and they intern...ahem... read your articles! On the main point of your article, is it sad that an unfortanate incident happend to a student athlete? Yeah, but you could go out tomorrow and get struck by lightning or be crushed by a tree that happens to fall at that right moment... What are you going to do, sue GOD? or sue the person that last touched the tree? Come on, injuries and freak accidents happen... Should the cart be in a different place? Sure, but let me ask you this??? Is their another profession you liked and maybe could have done besides being a writer? Because this young man while tragic in the sense he got injured like this has his whole life ahead of him and should be looking forward to going to school, earning a degree and finding something that he can do to have a good life... Instead you're feeding the movement of SUE FIRST society that refuses to be able to put things behind you and learn from it... Everything happens for a reason and what we do after those life altering incidents defines who we are... Let me tell you a great story brought out by a great reporter in a sports magazine... A young man at Louisville U. has a degenerative spianl condition. He never let that affect him.. Though he cannot walk, he wanted to be in the marching band. His father goes to every Louisville football game and marches in step as his son plays trumpet, if that is a band nerd, then we all should be so lucky!!!! Sincerely, Wesley R. 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84BDsop Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Should'a reminded him of teh Cap Reg incident a few years back....and THAT was deliberate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 I'm not going to bother, but I'd tell him that he'd be crying like a baby after a week of rehearsal with most corps, and leave it at that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2000Cadet Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 I highly doubt this guy is gonna care what people have to say about what he wrote. I am sure a lot of people watching the game had the same sentiments he did. It sucks, but it's reality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huntington Mallets Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 ugh.....I'm in Marshall's band.....wasn't a pretty sight during that game, the whole situation was unfortunate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_S Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Unfortunately, this article is a classic example of what journalism has become in the internet age. It's called "moving the needle". Here on DCP we just call it trolling. Imagine marching band supporters as a hornets nest. Well, Dodd picked up a stick and gave that nest a good poke. Now he's got activity, and attention, two things this article hasn't earned but gained simply by being inflammatory. The very best resolution would be if no one gave Dodd any attention, and he was left shouting into a vacuum. Unfortunately that hasn't happened, and all the complaints he's receiving are nothing but rewards to this bully. Just look at the insult he lobbed toward a member in one of the threads at the bottom of the article. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyII Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 ...seriously? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearz Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Great letter. I might have suggested that breaking ranks can be very dangerous if someone doesn't know you're there and calls for horns up. But then again it might just knock a little sense into him. He's an idiot...an a##hole and his writing reflects it. If he had taken any other stance where he examined the need for more space, for oversight of safety issues or anything like that, his letter would have been just fine. As it stands he puts his ignorance out for all the world to see. I think a letter like that might make his employers wonder why they give him a paycheck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmroth1 Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 I suggest if someone really wants to make an impact communicating to this loser than a letter should be sent to the president of CBS sports with a large petition for his removal. Otherwise he probably couldn't give 2 craps about what anyone has to say and maybe were waisting our time talking about it anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j.morgus Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Just look at the insult he lobbed toward a member in one of the threads at the bottom of the article. Yeah, that was really original. I might suggest that Mr. Dodd does something that is exactly the opposite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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