Steve Robertson discusses his book Flim Flam

Antonio Morales  |  The Clarion-Ledger
Updated 06:21 pm CDT Sep. 27, 2017


In most cases, there's a tale behind every tattoo.

Gene's Page Mississippi State writer Steve Robertson is a man of many. And Robertson compared writing his first book, Flim Flam, which chronicles, from his view, the happenings behind the NCAA's investigation into Ole Miss, to getting his first tattoo.

"Once you get it and understand the process and there's nothing to be afraid of, that you really can do it, it's an encouragement," Robertson said.

Robertson worked on the book for more than a year, and now, a little more than three weeks after its release, he said more than 5,000 copies of the book have been sold.


He described the book as a pursuit of the truth about the investigation, which resulted in the NCAA's enforcement staff charging Ole Miss with 21 violations. The university has self-imposed some penalties, but the Committee on Infractions has yet to hand down a final ruling.

"I think people were expecting an 8,000-word message board post, kind of a hit piece on Ole Miss, but that was never the intention," Robertson said. "I just wanted to let the facts of the story and details provided by Ole Miss and public records to lead the narrative rather than preconceived notions about how things should be presented."

The 282-page book was certainly thorough and detailed. In the early chapters, there's an interview with David Didion, an Auburn athletics compliance director who was previously the NCAA's director of enforcement, which describes the enforcement process.

Robertson details how he uncovered Hugh Freeze's phone call to an escort service, through public records, which ultimately led to Freeze's resignation at Ole Miss.

He also dives into booster culture at Ole Miss, which has been an issue considering how many were named in the enforcement staff's Notice of Allegations. Included in the book are some of Ross Bjork's notices of disassociation, obtained by Robertson, to certain boosters.

"I just thought Ross Bjork's words were really kind of powerful," Robertson said. "I thought when you look at the interaction, they kind of detail out: We asked you on this day, on this day, and this day not to do these things. ... You can kind of take a step back and if you remove your biases and just look at the fact you've got an administrator here that is basically having to admonish somebody that's a lifelong fan. ...  If there's somebody out there that's determined to be a part of the recruiting process there's only so much administration can do.

"I think those letters kind of demonstrated that and pointed that out to people. There were some efforts to kind of curtail this behavior."

Robertson is well aware of the criticisms of himself: crazed and obsessed. But he says that's par for the course.

In the book, Robertson has his criticisms of Ole Miss, its boosters, Bjork, Freeze and the in-state media, The Clarion-Ledger included.

"I tried to be as objective as I possibly could, as a Mississippi State guy could be about Ole Miss," he said. "I'm sure there's some inside jokes, but nothing mean-spirited. I just really tried to stick to the facts."

Flim Flam debuted at No. 1 on the Mississippi Best Sellers list, but Robertson thinks there's some more meat on the bone.

As mentioned earlier, the Committee on Infractions has yet to hand down its ruling. He's already been offered the contract to write the sequel to Flim Flam and said there's "absolutely no question" he'll write more books in the future.

"We've still got the sanctions to deal with, the fallout. I think there's some other Leo Lewis stuff we need to get into," Robertson said. "Hopefully we're able to get our hands on some of those records once all that is over and done with. I think it's important to clear the record."

He doesn't want other future books to be about Ole Miss' NCAA issues. Instead, he said he wants to focus on things celebrating the state of Mississippi. For now, he'll focus on his book signings, which will take place at Mississippi State on game days and at book stores throughout the state for the rest of the year.

There's even an expectation, Robertson was told, for "Flim Flam to be the Christmas book of Mississippi this year."

For more information on the book, visit Flimflamthebook.com

Originally published 06:21 pm CDT Sep. 27, 2017
Updated 06:21 pm CDT Sep. 27, 2017

Antonio Morales
Ole Miss beat writer
The Clarion-Ledger

Johnny Yuma wrote:

 
When has that 'rag' ever assigned a beat writer to OM that actually supports the school?  I can imagine that being assigned to OM as a beat writer for them is akin to being punished.....

Can you imagine a beat writer for Bama, Auburn or LSU  writing such a story concerning one of those schools? He'd be gone as their beat writer at warp speed. Yet Ole Miss just lets the CL repeatedly rub our noses in stuff like this.
 

Semper wrote:

Johnny Yuma wrote:

 
When has that 'rag' ever assigned a beat writer to OM that actually supports the school?  I can imagine that being assigned to OM as a beat writer for them is akin to being punished.....

Can you imagine a beat writer for Bama, Auburn or LSU  writing such a story concerning one of those schools? He'd be gone as their beat writer at warp speed. Yet Ole Miss just lets the CL repeatedly rub our noses in stuff like this.
 

Stump meet Ole Miss......or should I say Ole Bendover?

Dave would have been a great Ole Miss sports writer for the CL.

Most of you guys are not old enough to remember Carl Walters, his column was known as "Shavins".  The Hederman's liked Ole Miss and we got the headlines and Walters usually made us look good.  Then came Rusty Hampton, hated Ole Miss with a passion and when Gannett got ownership of the paper Hampton started putting anti-rebel people on our beat.  We haven't had a fair shake with the CL for about 15 years.  They haven't liked us since we fired Cut.