Our View

Published 4:02 pm Wednesday, May 14, 2003

By Staff
Time for Price, supporting cast to leave spotlight
The recent events surrounding former University of Alabama head coach Mike Price has made for some interesting headlines in state newspapers and even better gossip in hometown coffee shops. With the coach's fall from grace, it seemed there were several people more than willing to use him as leverage to better their own situation. To a large extent media outlets encouraged this reaction.
Citing unnamed sources and aliases, reporters fulfilled the public's craving for information about this story with little regard for accuracy or confirmation. Now, instead of questioning Price's behavior, which is a legitimate concern, we are left to question the validity of the things we have been told by newspapers, magazines and broadcasters.
The basis for the story has always been Mike Price, his behavior and how it relates to his status as a coach of college-aged athletes. Reports about the sordid details of what happened in Pensacola are nothing more than sensationalism. The surrounding cast of characters in this drama certainly deserves very little in the way of notoriety. Surely, time has run out on their 15 minutes in the spotlight.
In our view, it is time to move on to the next stage of this evolving story. The damage has been done and it is time for those involved to vanish into the shadows of history. The media and the public should help them do that by moving on themselves.