January 28, 1999
January 28, 1999| Letters to the editor
Unobjective and unintelligent Is Justin crazy? Unobjective
and unintelligent
This letter
is in response to Mike Boteilho’s article entitled, “All we are saying
is give Greeks a chance.”
Mr. Boteilho presents us with his first example of why he believes Greek life is good for ASU: Greeks make campus life far from dull by providing the much-needed “Thursday night parties.” Unfortunately, I kept reading after this revelation. He continues with the well-known and already heard community service argument. Sure, I agree that Greeks volunteer and serve Boone and ASU, but plenty of non-Greeks do service work, too. They just don’t ask for recognition every time they commit a “selfless act.” And if the members of sororities and fraternities were only concerned with volunteerism, I doubt they would spend so much time memorizing the Greek alphabet, singing silly songs, making t-shirts, and taking tests on all the new sisters’ full names. The part of the article that really irked me and that inspired me to write this letter was actually the way he referred to sorority members as “pretty girls” four times in the short article. Then he had the nerve to say that he enjoyed their presence on campus simply because he can witness “50 or 60 pretty girls eating lunch.” This doesn’t sounds like he respects them. His argument must be that sororities are obviously harmless: the “girls” are so pretty! Too bad he would “rather see 50 or 60 pretty girls making out together in the food court.” Sexist adolescent fantasies have no place in the university newspaper. Now, I didn’t really have intentions of making this letter anti-Greek, mainly because I’m tired of the bickering, so I will end with a suggestion: Greeks should write their own articles standing up for themselves. Maybe they would be more able to persuade ASU’s non-Greek population that Greeks aren’t so bad after all. Mr. Boteilho failed miserably at that job and made himself look pretty bad in the process. I would suggest he not send that particular article home to Mom. Crystal Masters
Is Justin crazy?
Well, it looks like your illustrious Sports Editor, Justin Griffin, has done it again. Once again, he has failed to look at the real facts, and has just written an opinion on what he thinks he knows. I am referring to his remarks in the Jan. 21 issue of the newspaper, concerning Chris Chandler and the Atlanta Falcons. I would first like to point out, being an Atlanta native, that there were never signs that said, “Go Braves, and take the Falcons with you.” Whether this is a weak attempt at humor, I don’t know, but it is not based in fact. Secondly, maybe Justin’s assertion that the Apocalypse is near is not too far fetched, because I never thought I would hear anyone call a Super Bowl pitting two 14-2 teams against each other a “K-Mart Super Bowl.” Let’s go over the facts on that one, something Justin obviously failed to do. Only once in the 16-game era have 2 teams with a better combined record met in the Super Bowl. That being when the 15-1 49ers met the 14-2 Dolphins in Super Bowl XIV. Never have the two leading rushers in the NFL met in the Super Bowl. Add four 1,000-yard receivers and two of the leagues best defenses and that makes for a quite intriguing Super Bowl. I guess Justin was just playing NFL word association with the name “Falcons,” and not really watching or researching them. That would definitely explain his asinine comment that Chris Chandler is not a Super Bowl caliber quarterback. Did he actually watch him play against the Vikings? First, the NFC championship game-Chandler was 27 of 43 for 340 yards and 3 touchdowns, all 3 of which required perfect placement on his part to thread the Viking defense. He also led a game-tying, 2-minute drill that would make John Elway envious. His success on the field, however, goes past this game. Over the last two years, he is the number two rated passer in the NFL, trailing only Steve Young, who, much like Chandler, floundered for years in obscurity in Tampa Bay before becoming the heir to the 49ers dynasty. Over the past 5 years, although not always playing in the best places, St. Louis, Houston, etc., he has still had an 89.5 QB rating. Not too shabby. Not only that, he brings much needed intangibles along with his impressive skills. Over the past two years, including the playoffs, the Falcons are 20-3 in games he starts in and finishes, and only 3-7 in games he doesn’t. What Justin fails to realize is that the reason Chris Chandler’s early career was so lackluster and injury prone was the teams he played for. The list reads like a quarterback’s worst nightmare: St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Indianapolis, Houston, and Arizona. It’s kind of hard to be successful at quarterback when you spend half the time flat on your back. Ask Vinny Testaverde or Steve Young. My last issue with Justin’s critique of Chandler is the not-so-subtle way he questions Chandler’s mental and physical toughness in his reference to the incident late in the game where Chandler tripped on the Astro-turf and got up limping. If Justin had watched the replay (which he probably didn’t), he would have seen that Chandler slammed his exposed knee on the Astro turf, basically the equivalent of concrete. This is not something you hop right up from, but Chandler did, contrary to opinion, recover in the next few minutes and throw the game-tying touchdown pass to send the game into overtime. In closing, I know a lot of people, not just Justin, are upset that the Vikings and Broncos aren’t facing off this Sunday, because the Vikings were deemed a better team, and still are by some, than the Falcons. You could use offensive stats or record to support this claim, but remember one way to judge who is the better team: When it all comes down to it, they can “put the nail in the coffin.” The Vikings couldn’t; the Falcons and Chris Chandler did. Go Dirty Birds. Eric Race
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