Coach 'Proud' of Players Stealing Papers

The Texas A&M Commerce football coach says he's proud of his players for stealing all copies of the campus newspaper, which featured a headline about some teammates' drug charges.

Within minutes of The East Texan paper hitting the stands on campus, nearly 2,000 copies were taken. In fact, campus police said two football players were caught on video stealing a stack of papers from inside the police station.

The paper's editor, James Bright, said football players did not want the edition seen because of its top story: "Football Players Arrested in Drug Bust."

"This is unlawfully taking a paper's right to disseminate information to its readership," Bright said.

Police investigating the incident as theft interviewed the team's head coach, Guy Morris, who made some surprising statements.

According to investigators, Morris said: "I'm proud of my players doing that … this was the best team building exercise we have ever done."

Bright called the comments "appalling" and said, "I don't understand how a head coach of a division 2 football team can say things like this -- can advocate his players committing a theft."

However, university president Dr. Dan Jones said Morris' comments could have been sarcastic.

"I think he was frustrated. I think he was frustrated with his own players," Jones said. "I do not think the head coach knew this was going to happen. We're still doing some internal investigation to see if there were some other members of the coaching staff who may have been involved."

Still, Jones said there would be disciplinary action taken against Morris on down to all players involved.

Morris was reportedly out of town on a recruiting mission and was not available for comment.

The case will be turned over to the Hunt County prosecutor.