Slant & Go: Some stories aren't getting told

(NOTE: This column ran in the Sept. 25, 2005 edition of The Hammmond (La.) Daily Star).

SLANT-N-GO
By Fred Batiste

Three weeks have passed since Hurricane Katrina cut a swath of destruction, despair and calamity through southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The Saints and Tulane sports have been scattered throughout the south, like many of the residents of south Louisiana. Southeastern, Nicholls State, LSU and Southern all have canceled games due to Katrina's wake.
Stories hit the wire about how many of some of our favorite professional athletes' hometowns were effected by Katrina. Camera crews followed Brett Farve as he surveyed storm-strewn Kiln, Miss. NBA players hastily gathered in Houston, putting up $10,000 of their own money each, to play a charity game to raise money. George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton hit the airwaves to raise funds.
Something felt missing, however. It seemed as though some stories were not being told, let alone being told enough. People read about LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell put up blues legend Fats Domino in his on-campus apartment for a spell, where Domino later hooked up with family friends after being rescued. The story of Southeastern's Keithshone Dantzler, however, was not given to as large of an audience.
Lions' head coach Dennis Roland's voice was dripped with concern when he said one of his players went unaccounted for after the hurricane. Dantzler went to New Orleans to be with his mother before the storm hit, but Roland said he could not get out of the city in time. Dantzler made contact days after the storm and he and his mother are safe.
Chicago Bulls' guard Chris Duhon, a Slidell native, did not have a televised tour of his hometown after the storm. Duhon sent supplies back home and talked about stories he had heard. One of those stories was probably the condition of the town and Salmen High, his alma mater. St. Thomas Aquinas football coach Randy Johnson said he has a son that lives next to Salmen and gave him an update on the school.
"When I tell you there's no Salmen High School, there's no Salmen High School," Johnson said.
Peyton and Eli Manning sent supplies to evacuees and visited them in Baton Rouge. Cameras were there, with reporters in tow. Little to no ink on Marshall Faulk, who came out of the Ninth Ward's Desire Street Housing Projects to become a future Hall of Famer and has given thousands of dollars back to his old neighborhood. No real coverage on how the storm affected athletes like Indianapolis Colts receiver Reggie Wayne of Marrero, WNBA Rookie of the Year Tameka Johnson of New Orleans or World Wrestling Entertainment performer John Heidenreich of New Orleans.
Even Shaq himself, the giant man he is, received a smidgen of coverage as he and his wife shipped supplies to evacuees. Nothing was made of the fact that NBA pariah Ron Artest was one of those players in that charity game in Houston, and reports from people there said Artest was the nicest guy there. Stephon Marbury friggin' cried as he announce he was donating between $500,000 and $1 million to relief efforts, and Marbury's from Brooklyn.
Any network TV interviews? Any extended coverage? There could have been - with all the channels satellite and digital cable television provides - but it was probably few and far between.
It is refreshing to know that these spoiled, egotistical, me-first professional athletes do know what truly is important to life. It is refreshing to know that these people who make these ludicrous sums of money and have literally everything show they actually care and put for the effort to help those who have absolutely nothing but each other right now. It is also situations like these that show the rest of the world that athletes and other celebrities are just as vulnerable to disaster as everyday people, and they are not as removed from reality as some think.
It is unfortunate the general public is not seeing or hearing it all, and probably will not see or hear it either.
Now, as Hurricane Rita bears down on southwest Louisiana and south Texas, you wonder if more coverage will be devoted to how Roger Clemens fared while stories about George Foreman, Donald Driver, Keenan McCardell and others get brushed to the back pages.