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This is Brentt Eads of Extra Inning Softball and, oh boy, did I screw up…
Here’s the story of how this palm-to-forehead incident went down over the last 48 hours; a situation that has never happened to me in my 30+ years working in media (I started when I was 8 years old, but that’s another story)…
*****
My late father had a sign over his desk which always stayed with me… it said,
“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”
Yea… I admittedly was a part of the problem on this one.
On Wednesday (Oct. 6, 2022), the news broke that one Clarence Davis had passed away and several sources—including at least six trustworthy club coaches—told me that this was the same Clarence Davis who was the All-American running back at USC before going on to fame with the Oakland Raiders in the ‘70’s and winning Super Bowl XI over the Minnesota Vikings.
This Clarence Davis also was famous for making one of the biggest plays in NFL history, a playoff last-minute reception that has become known as the “Sea of Hands Catch.”
Here’s a video of this momentous play that the NFL itself labeled as the “17th biggest play in league history.”
So here was the issue: this Clarence Davis of NFL fame is/was NOT the same one who was a well-liked umpire for many, many years in the softball world. The biggest problem? He let people believe he WAS that former Raider star and MANY coaches believed this to be true.
From what several in softball have told me, he wouldn’t go out of his way to tell of his (fictitious) time in pro football with “Da Raiderz” but he didn’t correct the misinformation, either, unless directly called on it. In fact, he led many folks to believe he was THE football star and would tell anecdotes embellishing his time in pro football. Like “(Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker) Jack Lambert was the best I played against” and “Sunday games were easy compared to our Coach John Madden-led practices.”
Why?
Maybe it was a fun inside joke. Maybe it was enjoyable letting this tall tale grow and take on a life of its own.
As one coaching friend told me:
“Somewhere, (umpire) Clarence is laughing his @$$ off about all of this attention!”
So what happened involving Extra Inning? And how did the truth come out?
I was told on Wednesday–two days ago–that “Clarence Davis, the umpire who was also the NFL star” had died. A half dozen people told me that he had died and when I went to his Facebook page it was confirmed as many tributes to him were offered.
So, with “confirmation” from several trusted sources, I ran a nice tribute published Wednesday at 9 pm my time (Mountain Time) that I thought was noteworthy to our sport because of Clarence’s passing and ties to softball.
It wasn’t a quick blurb, either, it was over 1,500 words and took me half the day to research and produce including video clips and photos. And I went to bed Wednesday night thinking I had done a good thing…
… until the calls started rolling in Thursday morning.
Let’s just say several well-connected people in the know were aware that the two accomplished men—I’ll name for purposes here as “umpire Clarence Davis” and “Raider Clarence Davis—were not the same dude.
I was told the Raider Clarence Davis was alive and living in Texas.
That 13 or so years ago, the wife of umpire Clarence passed and the Raiders were called and knew that wasn’t true, that they had recently talked to both Raider Clarence and his wife–so we know this story was going on for at least a decade, maybe two, and it wasn’t the first time this misinformation had someone confused.
This “inner circle” convinced me that umpire Clarence—loved and as respected as he was—was NOT the Raider Clarence… and, just hours before, I had posted an article saying they were one and the same.
Oh boy.
So, what to do? I pulled the article down off the site and asked some people I respect if I should pretend it didn’t happen? Let the story die down over time? Run a retraction? Move to Siberia and start my new media life there covering the exploits of penguins and polar bears?
The answer became apparent really fast: one of the “insiders” intimately knew that the Clarence from his USC days was not the one from AFA (softball). He even sent me a photo from 2016 showing the Raider Clarence and how the umpire Clarence looked different.
Oh boy (part II).
And then my friend started cracking up telling me that the Raiders (THE NFL Raiders) had issued a statement sending out condolences that (their) Clarence had died, only to have to apologize when the truth came out… here’s an article that was picked up on this by ProFootball Talk of NBC Sports:
Raiders apologize for erroneous Clarence Davis obituary; he is alive and well
In the article, writer Mike Florio states:
“The Las Vegas Raiders posted a story on their website and tweeted that Davis, 73, had died. They have deleted the story and the tweet, and they have issued a statement.
“The Raiders received notice of Clarence Davis’ passing but have found that information to be false,” the team said in a statement texted to PFT. “The Raiders extend our deepest apologies to the Davis family and the Raider Nation for the erroneous announcement.”
Florio concludes:
“Our current policy is to not post obituaries without an announcement from the team, the league, the family, or some other credible entity, like the Hall of Fame.”
Totally agree with this, but at the time I felt I had six “credible entities” who confirmed the sad news.
In hindsight—always 20/20—I did see some red flags I wish I would have paid attention to more because:
* Although the umpire Clarence’s social media page had many condolences and notes of support confirming that he died, I noticed an age discrepancy: someone last summer had wished him a happy birthday which would have made it 77 or so now; not age 73 that Raider Clarence is, which I knew from doing research.
* Also, I looked extensively across the internet and couldn’t find ANYTHING on the Raider Clarence’s passing and wondered why mainstream media hadn’t picked it up. I dismissed it thinking the passing was only a day or so old and it would probably hit the wire on Thursday at some point (it DID, but not the way I thought it would!!!).
* Later, after the truth came out, one of the “inner circle” coaches said: “Brentt, I’ve had (umpire) Clarence do 15 or more of my games and I’ve talked to him and stood next to him many times—he was all of 5-foot-7 and 145 pounds!” (Raider Clarence was listed at 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds when he played). In my limited defense, I have watched games with umpire Clarence multiple times but always from the stands.
But, but, but… ugh.
And so much for the (mis)story going away quietly:
The Raiders’ apology story was picked up by Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, the New York Post and even the Daily Mail in the UK! It’s gone global!
Oh boy (part III)
It’s not like I know that the Raiders relied on my story alone for the reason they issued condolences to the Raider Clarence’s family—but it would explain why the NFL team just this week cancelled its Extra Inning subscription (kidding, kidding)—as the news was out there via many sources on social media and certainly the NFL team thought it was credible enough to issue a statement.
But I feel awful that I helped perpetuate a flat-out wrong story. I apologize to the Raider Clarence Davis and his family, the Raiders organization and their fans and anyone else misled by our article (notice I’m saying “our” now instead of “my”?).
I honestly meant well and wanted this to be a tribute to a figure in softball who has done great work and service in the sport and appeared to have had an amazing previous life in football.
Twasn’t the case here, but you live and learn including, optimistically, how to do your job better. And I’m hoping this mea culpa (i.e. acknowledgment of one’s fault or error) will help others learn not to make similar mistakes, i.e. rushing to spread news that isn’t accurate.
And, as my beloved father taught me from my youth: it’s better to be part of the solution instead of being a big part of the problem.