Letters
Conference Call
How can you even ask if the Pac-10 is better than the SEC? The SEC has more national championships, better recruiting, bigger stadiums, drunker fans, harder schedules, more Top 25 teams, better rivalries and the defending national champions, and it produces more NFL starters. Compared with the SEC, the Pac-10 is a footnote.
Kade Batey, West Monroe, La.
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At least USC (Ground Rule, Sept. 24) plays traditional top Division I-A teams, such as Nebraska and Notre Dame, out of conference. Florida and LSU play Florida Atlantic, Middle Tennessee State and Troy, among other cupcakes.
Jeff Liebhardt, Minneapolis
Broken Code
I am a Patriots fan, but Bill Belichick's signal taping offends and disturbs me, and I am appalled by the attacks on Eric Mangini for reporting him. The "coaches' code" (PLAYERS, Sept. 24) is voided when one coach flagrantly cheats. Mangini's only alternative was to let Belichick continue to compete against the Jets with an illegally obtained advantage.
Eric Maloney, Seattle
The Lions and the Packers had previously caught the Patriots in the same act but merely confronted them without reporting it to the NFL. It is now quite apparent that observing the antisnitching "code" did nothing to resolve the problem. Further, Belichick was stealing signals from one of his former assistants! To suggest that Mangini displayed disloyalty to a former colleague in light of Belichick's behavior toward Mangini is, at the very least, highly disingenuous.
Timothy G. Uhrich, Pittsburgh
Mike Coolbaugh
After reading S.L. Price's piece on Mike Coolbaugh (A Death in the Baseball Family, Sept. 24), I am sobbing my eyes out. My heart goes out to his wife, Mandy, and his two sons. It also goes out to Tino Sanchez, who will have to live with this guilt. If Price's story does not make you tell your wife you love her and hug your kids, then nothing will.
Rob Scaccia, Ballston Spa, N.Y.
Please let me know where my family can send a gift to the family of Mike Coolbaugh.
Joe Groholski, Menasha, Wis.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Donations can be sent to Mike Coolbaugh Memorial Fund, c/o Spirit Bank, 1800 S. Baltimore Ave., Tulsa, Okla. 74119 (UPDATE, page 28).
Overstating the Problem
In your story on sports in New Orleans (Two Years after Katrina, Aug. 27), you quote Ron Gearing, athletic director for Orleans Parish schools, as saying, "We're averaging six or seven murders a day, so failure is not an option." This would calculate to 2,200 to 2,600 murders a year. In fact the New Orleans police reported 111 murders through July 31.
Ron Wattigny, New Orleans
EDITOR'S NOTE: SI regrets the error.
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BILL FRAKES