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Monday, August 25, 1997

Are nation's media guilty of piling on against Cowboys?

By Gil LeBreton

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

FORT WORTH - Even with the fingerprint ink still damp on their hands, the Cowboys had been quick to point fingers at the media, which they think are being intrusive and grossly unfair.

This time, though, the Cowboys are right.

Somewhere along the way, somewhere between Erik Williams' smashed grillwork and Barry Switzer's travel bag, there are media folks who've forgotten that the Cowboys are a football team, not a daily segment on "Hard Copy."

The incident that finally roused my sympathy - yes, sympathy - was the so-called trashing of the St. Edward's training camp dormitory. Newsmen around the country saw the words "Cowboys" and "urine" in the same sentence, I suppose, and immediately sketched the story in for the front page.

Meanwhile, on the sideline at the Washington Redskins' practice, receiver Michael Westbrook mugged a teammate, Stephen Davis, and began raining fists upon him.

Guess which story was given equal, if not higher, billing in many of the nation's newspapers the next day?

You bet your surveillance camera it did.

The news from the Redskins' suburban Virginia home on Saturday was that the club would be fining Westbrook $50,000 and a couple of apologies. Coach Norv Turner had already suspended Westbrook from the team's final preseason game, played Thursday in Miami. And as further evidence that Chief Justice Turner is, indeed, a hanging judge, he has announced that Westbrook - gasp - will not be allowed to start in the team's season opener.

Apparently when Norv left the Cowboys, he took the club's penal code with him. Or maybe it's on one of those charts that the coaches on the sidelines carry.

Let's see ... first-round draft choice assaults spare-part injured running back ... hmm, that'll be a fine and no real suspension. Case dismissed. No film at 11.

After practice on Saturday, Turner told reporters, "We're in the middle of the process. There are a number of other steps to getting this resolved."

Norv did not elaborate. Reportedly, the club wants Westbrook to undergo counseling. But, other steps? Get serious.

Norv needs to win. Turner drafted receiver Westbrook in the first round and is paying him $18 million over seven years. And Norv knows that a portion of his neck is linked by ball and chain this season to how many touchdown passes Westbrook catches.

NFL justice comes in varying degrees. But know this: Rare is the team that will impose any discipline that it feels could cost it a ballgame. Which is why Nate Newton will play for the Cowboys next Sunday, even with a sexual assault accusation hanging over his head. And also why backup and victim Stephen Davis likely will be gone from the Redskins long before Westbrook ever will.

Around the country, however, that doesn't seem to be a provocative issue. They want to know all about those "out-of-control" Cowboys and the urine.

On the day of the Westbrook attack, three out-of-town radio stations called and asked if yours truly would come on the air and talk about the Cowboys "trashing their training camp." A writer friend from New York called and said he needed help because he was doing a big piece on the "outlaw Cowboys."

He didn't seem to like what I told him, that the club seemed to be as well-behaved as any they have had in four seasons. He didn't like my premise, that the wire story coming out of Austin sounded a lot like a private school/training camp host that was looking for leverage in upcoming renewal negotiations. That it was only one camera that was tampered with and that the old carpeting in the dorm had a funny smell to begin with.

"What sort of gun was it that Switzer had?" my friend asked, interrupting.

In Green Bay, Wis., police arrested Packers defensive tackle Gilbert Brown after a domestic disturbance that left Brown's now-former girlfriend shaken and bruised. Brown, who reportedly outweighs the woman by about 240 pounds, is alleged to have thrown her over the living room couch at the height of an argument.

Oh, you missed that news item? I'm not surprised.

You must not have heard, either, that the Redskins' Westbrook was charged with reckless driving a couple of weeks ago and has to appear in court next month. You probably missed the item, too, about police chasing the Redskins' Terry Allen, with Allen's car clocked at 133 mph before it spun into a tree.

Yet, let's examine the Cowboys' recent police blotter: The dorm mess. Switzer and his gun. Newton and his old girlfriend.

Compared to the past two years, this is kindergarten stuff. On the grander national scale, this is material for the back pages.

Just imagine, though, if the Westbrook-Davis incident had occurred at Cowboys camp. Ted Koppel and "Nightline" would have rushed to town.

The Cowboys roam our area as celebrities. In return for the adulation, they pay a heavy price in terms of scrutiny and privacy.

But that's here. Around the rest of the country, while people are focusing on Michael Irvin's neck jewelry, they're missing a round of other intriguing stories.

And that's not entirely fair, as the Cowboys have been trying to tell us for these past seven months.

(Gil LeBreton is a sports columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Write to him at: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, P.O. Box 1870, Fort Worth, Texas, 76101.)