TCU football pulls credentials from local newspaper for reporting on locker room assault story

TCU Horned Frogs football has a chance to make a run in a wide open Big 12 Conference, coming off a 9-4 season in 2025. But if they do, local fans who subscribe to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram won’t have access to the type of reporting they might normally expect.

The Star-Telegram reported recently about an incident in the TCU locker room that resulted in senior safety Jacob Fields being dismissed from the football team. Fields allegedly assaulted another player, wide receiver Dozie Ezukanma, though the initial report didn’t identify him directly. Ezukanma posted a now-deleted Instagram video acknowledging that he was the other player involved.

TCU has now, per the paper, rescinded the Star-Telegram’s credentials to cover Horned Frogs athletics. And it’s supposedly because of the “health and wellbeing” of student athletes.

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“Our primary focus is the health and wellbeing of our student athlete,” said TCU athletic director Mike Buddie in a statement this week. “Unfortunately, an unnamed source without first-hand knowledge of the incident provided inaccurate information cited in initial reporting by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which we strongly disputed.

“The inclusion of the misinformation advanced a narrative that endangered a student-athlete and resulted in threats to him and his family. These actions led to the decision to withhold the media credential until additional conversation can be held between athletics and the sports reporting team. We remain dedicated to restoring our student to health as well as focusing on the game that’s ahead.”

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This decision came just a few days before the Horned Frogs start their season against Bill Belichick’s North Carolina team in Dublin on Saturday. The paper’s TCU reporter, Steven Johnson, is still traveling to cover the game from Ireland, though he will now not have media credentials to do so within the press box.

TCU’s athletic department was reportedly not clear about what the Star-Telegram needs to do to regain their credential, but without question, the biggest irony in the whole story is that the Horned Frogs’ home stadium is named after the founder and publisher of… the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Banning news organizations from doing their jobs is not what schools and athletic departments should be doing. Given the player identified himself, how TCU is blaming this on the Star-Telegram is inexplicable. What’s more likely here is that TCU simply didn’t like a negative story about their locker room that potentially reflected poorly on head coach Sonny Dykes, so they punished the paper.

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We’ll see if they get their credential back in time to report on Saturday’s game. They should.