The truth is, most rumors just hot air
Sit around these offices for a while, and you?ll hear something about everybody in town.
Rumors, allusions, insinuations and outright lies fly through this building on an hourly basis, and they have for the six years I?ve been behind this desk just as I?m sure they did for the 120 years before I came to town.
Sometimes, the stories we?re told actually bear fruit, and uncover the sort of goings-on which result in a newsworthy story. But more and more often, we find out the tales that come in are taller than Chris Weitzel on a set of stilts, standing on Shaq?s shoulders.
And brother, that?s tall.
Case in point: The rumor I heard just days ago, about the huge fight at the Boyd Christian High School basketball game.
Right off the bat, let me tell you that there was no fight. I know this, because ace sports reporter Dale Stubblefield was on the scene at the Broncos? gym during the game in question. Although sitting through game after game, night after night, might cause a slight sense of boredom, I seriously doubt he was lulled into such a state of semi-consciousness that he missed a fight that was described as ?starting on the court and spilling over into the stands.?
As it turns out, as far as I can discern, a player was elbowed hard, had to leave the game, sat out a while then came back. No punches, no shoves, no ejections ? and no truth to the rumor.
While we?re clearing things up, here?s case in point No. 2: No coach ?threw a chair? at Eastside earlier this season.
Days after a county league game, a friend of the department came in with this story, saying he?d heard second-hand that after a particularly lopsided contest, one of the coaches in the girls? game had been so upset, they had gotten up from the bench and pulled off an impressive Bobby Knight impression.
Once again, however, Dangerous Dale was at the game in question. And when asked, his reply was one of amazement. ?When she jumped up, she accidentally caught her heel in the chair, and it fell over behind her. Do you think that?s what they were talking about??
Best we can figure, that?s exactly what ?they? were talking about. And by the time the story got from Campaign to College St., knocking over one?s chair had been blown incredibly far out of proportion.
Back in the fall, rumor had it that the entire football coaching staff had walked off the practice field. Less than 45 minutes after they had called an end to that day?s practice session, some player made it home and told his parents, who called the school system?s office. That led to a call to school administrators, who had to come back to the locker room to find out there was no walkout. Instead, the coaches had decided to show their disappointment in the day?s practice effort by calling an early halt to drills ? it?s a move copied by every program, on every level, at some point in every season. But it was blown so far out of proportion the school board was brought into play to investigate.
It just goes to show you can?t believe what you hear, and you certainly can?t believe what someone else tells you they heard. And before you finish reading this piece and thinking I?ve just called everyone liars, remember to keep from blowing that out of proportion, too.
I?ve only called a few people liars, not everyone.