Dedicated to John McNamara

A very special edition today.

We have lost a beloved member of our community – John McNamara, who covered high school sports in Maryland for several decades, was among those killed in the shooting at the Capital Gazette this past week.

This column is dedicated to him and the four others. The media is a big industry but a small fraternity – and sorority – if you will. When one of us gets shot, we all do. I can’t help but feel compelled to believe that President Trump’s persistent, vile attacks on the media as a public enemy in good part emboldened the suspected shooter in this case.

To me, it signals that the media should even more persistently resolve to do its job better and more boldly than ever.

***

I see where, as part of her platform, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who stunningly upset Joe Crowley for a seat in the House of Representatives from New York, calls for free higher education for all. As a former college professor, for 23 years, I know too many students carrying too much overbearing debt in their lives, burdening their ability to fully launch their careers and their future family lives.

But what if what she wants happens – what if college education does become in good part “free,” or subsidized, if you will? What happens to college football, the training ground for future NFL players? What happens to college sports?

Does “free” higher education negate the advantage of “free” tuition for varsity athletes across the country, one of the biggest advantages if not the biggest advantage college athletes get?

Hello, Bernie Sanders, where are you? Would this socialist-leaning policy be the end of college athletics as we know it? Would high-schoolers be able to go directly to the NFL? They can and do in baseball and hockey and formerly did in basketball, which is still only a whisper away from that anyway.

I do like Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. I like her energy. I like how idealistic and hopeful she is about America. But wait till she gets to Congress and discovers how quickly idealists like her get their ideals sidetracked by the powers-that-be.

Free higher education? So long to college football? Stay tuned.

***

Jameis Winston just can’t help himself. The same way Donald Trump repeatedly tells lies, Jameis Winston repeatedly gets into trouble.

Now he’s suspended for the first three games of the 2018 season because of behavior that the NFL says violated its conduct policy.

It wasn’t like he didn’t get into trouble in college, especially with sexual assault charges, among other things.

Like I always say to a good friend of mine whose significant other always has and always will put video-gaming ahead of his devotion to her: leopards don’t change their spots.

Ever.

Hello, Mike Glennon, Tampa Bay calling. Again.