Morris: An All-America team to turn down

There is nothing wrong with Playboy magazine for adults who want to purchase it. That is their prerogative. There is something wrong with public universities allowing their athletes to be represented in the publication’s pages.

The issue comes to light with the recent naming of South Carolina wide receiver Kenny McKinley and Clemson running back James Davis to Playboy’s 52nd annual All-America football team.

Both are deserving of preseason accolades. This concern has nothing to do with their football prowess. Rather, it has to do with public perception. By allowing the two to appear in the September issue of Playboy, USC and Clemson are essentially endorsing pornography and perpetuating the objectification of women.

Every school contacted over the past week said the decision to accept membership on the Playboy All-America team is up to the individual athlete, even at North Carolina where the wife of former basketball coach Dean Smith has long campaigned against players accepting the award.

“I think (Playboy has) a high degree of legitimacy because they’ve been doing this for years and years and years,” said Eric Hyman, USC’s athletics director. “Athletes obviously have the right not to participate. We would never force them to do it if they didn’t want to do it. But that’s their right.”

Tim Bourret, Clemson’s sports information director, said his school’s athletic department would not turn down an athlete’s appearance in Sports Illustrated because it publishes an annual swimsuit issue.

Bourret’s comparison of Playboy to Sports Illustrated rings hollow. Sports Illustrated is in the business of covering sports, and happens to put out a soft porn publication once a year. Playboy is in the pornography business, despite men claiming to purchase the magazine for the intriguing stories and not the photos of nude women. Playboy happens to annually name a preseason All-America team in football and men’s basketball.

There is precedent for turning down Playboy.

“As far as players turning down the opportunity: Yes, it happens,” said Gary Cole, a Playboy senior vice-president and photography director. “Interestingly enough, it never happened in the old days. However, more recently, some people have a greater sensitivity about such things.

“Typically, no, we do not encounter resistance or turn downs from athletes when asked to be part of our All-American team. It has happened in the past, but it is not common. In regards to religious affiliated schools, such as Baylor University, their administration strongly discourages its students from having any affiliation with Playboy. We do not want any player’s experience with us getting in the way of their education.”

To Playboy’s credit, when shooting photos for a 2006 issue that featured “Girls of the Big 12,” the magazine refrained from using any Baylor females in the pictorial after the school strongly urged its students not to participate.

In 2003, Georgia defensive end David Pollack and Alabama tackle Wesley Britt made decisions independent of each other to not be a member of the Playboy All-America team. Both said appearing in the magazine, which annually features a two-page spread of the team members in uniform, would go against their Christian beliefs.

“I’ve seen a Playboy magazine before,” Pollack told a Georgia fan Web site at the time. “I don’t see anything wrong with a Playboy magazine, if someone wants to buy it. I just wouldn’t want to be promoted in it. I do a ton of speaking in church to kids. That would be kind of a double standard, don’t you think?”

Interestingly enough, Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Tim Tebow of Florida was not named to the Playboy team this preseason. Tebow often espouses his deep religious beliefs, and it is highly unlikely that he would have accepted the award.

Playboy’s Cole, who helps select the team, said the magazine’s reason for not selecting Tebow was because “I happen to be a huge fan of Pat White at West Virginia and almost selected him last year. So, I didn’t want to miss him this year.”

Linnea Smith, a Chapel Hill, N.C., psychiatrist and the wife of Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith, began campaigning against Playboy All-America teams nearly two decades ago. She is the reason UNC basketball players seldom appear on the teams, even though the school’s policy puts the decision in the hands of the athlete.

Once a player accepts membership on the football team, he is invited to a photo shoot and awards ceremony in Phoenix. USC’s McKinley and Clemson’s Davis joined Georgia running back Knowshon Moreno, among others, May 9-11 for a weekend celebration.

The players participated in an all-around sports competition on Friday, playing games such as ping-pong, putt-putt golf and home run derby. A banquet followed on Saturday. There were no Playboy bunnies present, nor was the magazine’s founder, Hugh Hefner.

The fact that the team has little or no relevance only adds to my thinking that schools such as USC and Clemson should not allow their players to participate. Playboy’s preseason teams are not alone in their irrelevancy. All such teams are based on projections, not on performance. They mean nothing.

Compound that line of thinking with a publication that peddles pornography, and it seems an easy decision for schools to step up and do the right thing. Paint me as being politically correct on this issue. I can live with that.