Perry Brown has his say on Oakley tournament DQ
Those of you who read my column in The Roanoke Times this morning know that I heard from Perry Brown last week after my column about the Oakley Big Bass Tour ran.
I had tried to reach Brown right after the tournament but had been unsuccessful. So I was appreciative that he called and told me his side of the story.
I’m not going to rehash the column here. Give it a read and see if it changes your mind about the fairness (or not) of Brown’s disqualification from the tournament.
May 1, 2012 - 3:30 PM
The best way around this issue is CPR tournaments, requiring a digital camera that flags each photo with a date stamp, some even with GPS coordinates.
I say it’s another facet of the 1% envy psychosis that is currently destroying this country. Notwithstanding the fact that this became the greatest country on earth due to rugged individualism and excpetionalism, modern day moocher America hates an exceptional(in their field) individual and projects all their own shortcomings onto them and tears apart their success to satisfy their own ego. Even if Mr.Brown carried and paid for a court appointed observer, the same folsk would say he bribed the observer whenever he won or placed well.Too many people grew up in the last 20 years getting a ribbon for just showing up, and that sentiment is prevalent in most popula rculture these days. Take a look at the editorial blog, where the pious 99%s hold court every day.
Its funny that he just clearly states he was NEVER been caught cheating, not that he has never cheated….It does not make sense to not remove the hook from the fish….If there was any questions from the tournament director or VDGIF officers, it would have been cleared up with the polygraph test….. oh wait he refused to to take it……If you are an innocent man you would have been adamant about taking the test, regardless……….. Just my thoughts
Good Story Mark on the Perry Brown disqualification saga.
I’m not going to pass judgement but I will say I’m very skeptical? I was an avid tournament fisherman for many years and during the 80′s and 90′s and all of the better events gave polygraph tests. I was given polygraph exams at several tournaments, (Lucky13 all night tourneys, Foxport Spring classic, Roanoke Bassmasters fall open tourney, Lynchburg Toyota tourney, etc.etc.) IT NEVER ONCE CROSSED MY MIND TO NOT TAKE THE TEST!!! If you are innocent why would you not go ahead and submit to the polygraph?!?! It would seem to me that if Mr. Brown really wanted to clear his name he would have taken the polygraph to prove to the world that he was not cheating. Right or wrong I think most people will assume you are guilty by refusing to take the exam. If you have nothing to hide you will pass the test!!!!
Also the hook in the fishes head story is also a little hard to swallow? Again if you caught the fish fair and square that won’t matter….. you would pass the polygraph. And it’s not uncommon for fish to get a hook in areas other than the jaw! Just last night I dug hooks out of the heads and gill plates on several fish simply becasue of the way they were hitting my topwater plugs! Often a fish will bump or swat a lure out of aggression and not hunger thus getting a hook in the head.
Anyway these kind of issues led me to eventaully quit fishing tournamants and now I’m having a blast JUST FISHING!
excuse all the bad grammar in my former comment….. I’m operating on 3 hours sleep today…… brain is a little foggy!
Ralph — Your grammar is forgiven. You made good points. You are probably getting less sleep now fishing for “fun” than you did when you were fishing tournaments!
!
I agree with Ralph about the polygraph test. If you’re not guilty, what’s to hide? Perry’s issue was he says he was told by tourney officials he would be dq’d whether he passed the test or not. He said-she said, but it’s definitely hard to compete at anything with a monkey on your back.