There’s Definitely Something Askew Here

Allow me to quote T.J. Simers with regards to off-the-field issues at UCLA, so that I may also correct him: “UCLA has always had a problem dealing with things gone askew.... “

No, T.J., the difference is, we deal with the issues and thus they get hashed out in the media time and time again. We suspend players for wrongdoing, big or small. This is a vast difference from the darlings of The Times, USC. They have a starter [offensive lineman Winston Justice] who was arrested during the summer for solicitation [of prostitution], yet he got nothing but a slap in the wrist from “Pom Pom” Pete Carroll, the cheerleader.

Things go askew at UCLA, as well at USC. UCLA acknowledges them, deals with them and moves on, (even if you don’t). USC sweeps them under the rug (enabling you to ignore them).

Tony Siracusa

San Gabriel

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T.J. Simers again misses the point in his story about UCLA sophomore cornerback Marcus Cassel [Sept. 2]. Throughout his column, T.J. seems astonished that UCLA Coach Karl Dorrell did not answer T.J.’s leading, inappropriate questions about Cassel’s disqualification from this week’s season opener at Colorado.

Who can blame Coach Dorrell for not honoring T.J.’s insensitive, tactless questions? Does T.J. really believe his questions are worth answering when they are nothing but ill-advised references to irrelevant “peccadilloes,” as T.J. calls them, by former Coach Toledo’s teams?

One can only hope T.J. will soon realize he is shunned by coaching staffs and athletes alike not because they want to hide the truth from him but because T.J.’s sanguinary, judgmental and vindictive style repulses them as it does many readers.

Ruben A. Vassolo

Hollywood