His letter was written to the news reporter who wrote the article, not the more appropriate Letters to the Editor section. In that public space Cole would have had to defend Playboy and SI without resorting to personal attacks, and juvenile name calling. As the subsequent letter by Carolina Blue Editor clearly indicates, people can see through Playboy 's strong-arm tactics, and will not allow them to censor the efforts of inquiring journalists, or prevent them from reporting on those who dislike pornography. There have been only a handful of players who have turned down the opportunity to accept the Playboy All-America designation and attend our weekend. In a few instances, it was because, as Ms. Smith states, the player felt his own personal beliefs were at odds with the philosophy of the magazine.
Playboy believes in freedom of opinion, freedom of choice, freedom of speech.
In a few other instances, most particularly at North Carolina and, even more particularly, in the basketball program, players have sometimes not attended because they were pressured not to by Ms. Smith. When we invited him again the next season, he told me that he wanted to come very much, that he had no problem with any aspect of Playboy or the weekend, but that Ms. and Coach Smith had 'made life miserable' for him for attending the previous year. Now about our Coach of the Year award. Oh, and one other coach that Ms. Smith forgot to mention. Coach Smith attended the weekend at the Playboy Resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and had, as I remember, a great time.