Yet another superstar college football player from my youth has passed away with the recent death of legendary Oklahoma defensive lineman Lee Roy Selmon. I have never been a Sooner fan, yet I rooted for the Selmon brothers as they seemed to be talented members of a great family. The more I learned about the Selmons over the years bore that impression out as everyone had a kind word to say about each of them. But despite their natural friendliness and classroom success, the Selmons were terrific football players and their recruitment was the most important reason for the success enjoyed by OU during their time in Norman.
It has taken me a couple of days to write about Lee Roy's death because of my anger over the many obituaries I have read. I readily admit that the NFL is the most popular sport in this country, but college football is not far behind and Oklahoma football is arguably more significant than that of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Selmons's team. But the obits either ignored his tremendous career at Oklahoma or briefly mentioned it. Why? Because it is not pro football and today's sportswriters have grown up in the modern era where the pro game trumps all. Selmon was a college superstar, winning awards and national titles. That is as important as anything he did before or after. It is really stupid when ESPN makes this kind of mistake as they have been broadcasting college football for decades.
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