To the Editor:

The December 16 issue of The Chronicle trumpets a front-page, above-the-fold headline "What the Hell Has Happened to College Sports?" Despite the in-depth commentary given by the experts selected, I posit that the answer is self-evident in the title. College sports are not the only area of our society that has degenerated into vulgarity. We daily swim in a maelstrom of degenerated morals, ethics, values, and even vocabulary. Could not the headline writers at The Chronicle have selected a less offensive yet equally gripping headline for an interesting story? Has it become nearly impossible to express strong emotion without selecting words that would have been unthinkable to publish in a national trade newspaper just a generation ago? Has our societal ability for expression become so lazy and weak that we must use only popular vernacular, no matter how vulgar?

Before we lament the decline of value in one area of life—sports—perhaps we should look at the greater society in which sports exist. Prosecutors have charged Sam Hurd, a Chicago Bears wide receiver, with intent to distribute as many as 10 kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 pounds of marijuana weekly. Meanwhile Tim Tebow, the Denver Broncos quarterback, is in the national limelight for open displays of his Christian faith. Which NFL player faces more controversy? Outside Chicagoland, it's likely that few nonfootball fans have ever heard of Sam Hurd's legal problems. But everyone in the U.S. has heard of Tim Tebow—often in a disparaging light.

Indeed, scandals abound in sports, as your paper illustrates. Everyone knows that scandals are all too frequent in business, education, government, politics, and even the church. However, is the reporting on these scandals helped or hindered by headlines which would have been unprintable in the not-too-distant past? You may blow off my letter with a shrug and a mild expletive and conclude that this guy is clearly out of touch. However, consider standards in our society. Can you name an aspect of life in which standards are higher now than they were a generation ago? Journalistic standards? Academic standards? Behavioral standards? Common courtesy, decency, and respect?

We may lament the deterioration of standards, but it is not helpful to do so in language that decreases common civility.

Daniel L. Cohrs
Vice President for Business Affairs
Colorado Christian University
Denver