I thought you guys might want to see htis

[JCOOPER]

I emailed BassZone to see if there was anymore in the Morris DQ from the last Elite Series.  The story was all the buzz for about 2 days with news saying he was going to appeal and such.  But the story has beed ice cold since.  Here is the reply I got, jus thought I'd share.

We haven't heard anything either - aside from the fact that the appeal was submitted, two anglers issued sworn affidavits on Morris' behalf, and a non-competitor who witnessed the event submitted a sworn affidavit.

As soon as we know anything of substance, we will get it out.

Thanks!

Brent - The BASS ZONE

[Dan]

What do you know about the DQ circumstances?

[JCOOPER]

Only what I have read.

The story is that he left the boat to land a fish.  He was fighting a 4 lb it gets caught in a rope and he cant reach it from the boat.  Evidently duing the rules meeting at Amistad Trip Weldon says it is ok to leave the boat as long as one hand remains in contact with the boat.  ESPN has footage of IKE doing this same thing last year and he was neer DQ'd.    So it supposedly goes down that he jumps in the water, with hand in contact with boat at all times, reaches down and grabs the fish.  That night Trip Weldon asks him if the story is true and if he is willing to take a lie detector test to verify that his hand didnt leave the boat.  The next day (after no test) Trip informs him that his day one catch is DQ'd for leaving the boat.  Not for taking his hand off, just simply that you cant leave the boat.   He has until today to appeal the decision.  I havent heard anything since monday.

[McCarter]

WHat i dont understand is, part of Morris' appeal is that the rules meeting was 'vague and unclear'.  How many friggin rules meetings have these guys been to?  How many times does a tournament director have to explain the same rule???  It sounds like the only question here is that his co angler is claiming that his hand did come off the boat. 

Save the drama for ya mama

McCarter himself

[JCOOPER]

At first the only question was "did his hand leave the boat"  then Trip completely dropped that issue and said you cant leave the boat at all.  Completely contradicting himself from the previous conversation with Morris.

[JCOOPER]

Heres a copy of my latest email for those interested.  The bottom one being my email to him and top being his reply.  His reply was almost record time.  less than 20 mins.

We spoke w/ Morris at Grand yesterday. He has filed the appeal, as I said last week. He still hasn't heard a peep out of BASS - both in terms of when they intend to review the appeal, when they plan on letting him know the outcome, or anything else along those lines.

The problem with appeals, and other things of this nature, is that either way you go in reporting the facts there are always those who don't see them as plain facts. The feedback we generally receive is that we're trying to further aline with BASS/ESPN (which is not the case, though they have been good to us over the last two years), or that we're merely trying to fabricate "news" where there is none (something that we flatly refuse to do). So, in a way, it's a Catch-22.

As I said, as soon as something - anything - of substance comes out of this, we will let you know.

Brent - The  BASS ZONE




-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Morris DQ
From: "Josh Cooper" <jcooper@copemarine.com>
Date: Wed, June 20, 2007 6:23 am
To: <brent@basszone.com>


We have still heard nothing more on this.  There has to be some buzz
going
on. Did he appeal?  Will there/ has there been a hearing?  Outcome?

I am afraid everyone will just forget about this and let it fade away.  I
think BASS might feel a little more compelled to fix the situation if it
were still in the media, but at this point they can ignore it also.