Don't take your cheap shots at the I-Bowl ... or Shreveport

     Another year, another cheap-shot bashing of the Independence Bowl ... and Shreveport.

     Before we examine this further, let's make this clear: We don't like it, at all.

     But it is part of the bowl scene, and it happens far too often. However, the latest "analysis" -- by a Brigham Young fan-boy who happens to write a blog -- was a low blow of epic proportions.

     And to see him referred to as a "reporter," that's just wrong, wrong, wrong. This is a JAG -- just a guy -- sitting in the stands, a BYU supporter who happens to reside not in Utah but in Arkansas.    

UAB's football players were happy with their
 Independence Bowl trip ... and victory. (WVTM photo)

     His "observations at the Independence Bowl," and I won't dignify them by giving you his name or even a link to his "effort," was simply sour grapes because his BYU team, despite its No. 13 national ranking, came to Shreveport and fell flat against a much more determined UAB team.

     The cheapest shots were at the "rundown" conditions this guy saw while he was in Shreveport. And, yes, we know they are there. (There are rundown areas, we will counter, in every city of any size. We live in a really nice city, a big city -- Fort Worth, Texas -- but we could take you to some areas you wouldn't like.)

     Yes, Shreveport's Fair Grounds Field -- just down the street on the Fairgrounds from Independence Stadium -- is an eyesore. That's no secret. But what's that got to do with football? 

     Boarded-up business places? Same thought as above. If you go places, they'll be there. What's that got to do with football?

     Enough of that crap. If you read the junk this guy wrote, you will find excuse after excuse for why BYU lost this game, including the Cougars' underwhelming performance. To say that no one has heard of UAB is ignorant; that university's football rise, a resurgence after a two-year hiatus, is a helluva good story.

     UAB's record since 2017: 43-20 record (most victories by a Conference USA team), twice conference champion, three-time West division champ, bowl-eligible all five years, two bowl victories ... and a victory over its highest nationally ranked opponent -- No. 13 BYU.

     We will concede that maybe the nation's No. 13-ranked team deserved a more prestigious bowl trip. But the fact -- fact! -- is that one of the three bowl options for BYU is with the Independence Bowl.

     If BYU didn't qualify for a New Year's Day Six bowl game, or if the Cheez-It Bowl in Arizona did not have an available spot for the Cougars, they were bound to play a Conference USA team in the Independence Bowl. And that's what happened.

     So much for the whining.

     And talk about hypocrisy: Two weeks earlier, our BYU blowhard's blog was titled "Why the Independence Bowl is fine." 

     Here is what it concluded: "... The Independence Bowl has some prestige to it. The bowl game has been around since 1976 and has some prestige to it. The Bowl Game has been around 1976 and has it's own stadium. No colleges play in the Independence Stadium on a regular basis and it seats 50,000 people.

     "Compare that to other bowl games like the Bahamas Bowl, Camellia Bowl or the Quick Lane Bowl and thinks don't sound so bleak. The actual bowl game is a good bowl and has plenty of history."

     (Editing 101: You don't capitalize Bowl Game, and "it's" should be "its." Just pointing that this is no professional writer, or reporter, doing this.)

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     We have seen criticism of the I-Bowl for decades, really. Our friend Paul Finebaum -- once a Shreveport Journal sportswriter -- has done his share. He's still our friend.

     This BYU blog brought to mind the aftermath of the 1983 game (Air Force vs. Ole Miss) and a professional cheap-shot column by then-Denver Post sports columnist Woodrow Paige Jr.     

      It was -- like this year's I-Bowl -- a miserable weather day. That's happened a lot over the years, unfortunately; the ultimate was the 2000 "Snow Bowl" (Texas A&M vs. Mississippi State). A rare Shreveport snowstorm left the field in a white blanket, with TV coverage hard to make out, and it's still being talked about. (Terrific game, though; Mississippi State won 43-41 in overtime.) 

     Back to 1983: Paige, who was at the Denver Post for 35 years and, at age 75, is still a columnist in Colorado and a regular ESPN "mouth," took Shreveport and the I-Bowl apart in a scathing column. Bush league.

     We at the then-afternoon Shreveport Journal were impressed -- depressed? -- by the column that, at editor Stanley Tiner's direction, ran above the masthead on Page One on the Tuesday after Paige's column in the Sunday Denver paper.

     And we also began a week's worth of Journal readers being invited to offer their response/comments to Mr. Paige, with the assurance they we would be forwarding them to him. (As if Woodrow cared.)

     It really was kind of fun, and it certainly helped fill our pages for a week, and maybe even helped us sell some papers. 

     Personally, I wrote a story centering on the two competing teams' athletic directors' views of the I-Bowl, and that included much praise and some constructive criticism from them.

     We left in Shreveport in 1988, but we are interested in what happens there because it is -- always will be -- my home city (so is Amsterdam), and (repeating) we don't like criticism from the outside or inside. 

     To be honest, it is disappointing to see how much criticism from Shreveport-Bossier people I saw on Facebook this week. We know the place has issues (too much crime/too many homicides, questions on leadership, declining neighborhoods, a shrinking newspaper, etc.).

     What is not being considered is that, almost without exception, is that the teams that have been Independence Bowl participants -- the school officials, coaches and players -- have praised how well they are treated during bowl week in Shreveport. That was the case again with UAB ... and BYU.

     Bowl director Missy Parker Setters and her staff and the I-Bowl committee every year during their very best to put on the best show they can. The community has provided financial support, even in tough times, and certainly ticket sales are affected by marginal weather. But the Independence Bowl has persevered all these years ... 46 years.

     Wrote about this on this blog nine years ago. Here is the link to that one, and we still feel the same way. Read it, change the year to 2021, and it'll work.  

     https://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-spirit-of-independence.html

      Don't let the BS -- stories, comments, a wayward blog by a non-reporter -- get in the way of what the Independence Bowl has achieved. It remains a point of pride for Shreveport-Bossier.