By Tim Cowlishaw

The Dallas Morning News

A recent development in the great Facebook sports journalist battle of our time involves whether or not Texas head coach Tom Herman told former ESPN reporter Brett McMurphy to look into allegations of domestic violence against former Ohio State receivers coach Zach Smith.

McMurphy broke his story on Facebook two weeks ago. Using text messages from Smith’s ex-wife, Courtney Smith, it suggested not only that Zach Smith had physically abused her but that head coach Urban Meyer knew about all this three years ago and did nothing. Meyer denied any knowledge at Big Ten media day, then later recanted and admitted he lied to the media but not to his Ohio State superiors when he learned of a police investigation into Smith.

Meyer, having covered himself from a possible firing with cause, then stepped aside —he’s on administrative leave with pay —while the school investigates what in the wide, wide world of sports was going on in Columbus the last three years.

But this tale took a turn when Jeff Snook, author of numerous Ohio State books and an OSU alum, shined a light on the mothers involved. Both Zach’s mom and Courtney’s took Zach’s side, suggesting that the fired coach never laid a hand on Courtney unless it was in self-defense during their tumultuous marriage. This is the aspect of Snook’s story that I feel should be drawing more national attention, not the gossipy Herman angle which has nothing to do with learning what might have happened behind closed doors in the Smith household.

Herman, of course, denied any involvement and McMurphy tweeted that Herman is not his source, which was odd in that, to his credit, McMurphy’s original story had no sources. It was all on-the-record information or text messages that he obtained. The use of anonymous sources, which can be found in far too many stories of little consequence these days, was never in play.

Here’s why I don’t really care whether Herman was part of this story or not. The suggestion by Snook was that Herman was upset after losing a local wide receiver recruit to Ohio State, specifically to the recruitment of Smith, and wanted to exact revenge. That’s an interesting angle I suppose, but it feeds the worst part of fans’ nature which is rarely to ask what did our team do wrong but focus instead on how the heck did we get caught.

Going back in time to my brief and unspectacular work on the SMU football investigation in the ’80s, Mustangs supporters were forever complaining about whether or not Texas, Texas A&M or TCU had turned them in. They cared too little as to how the Governor of the state of Texas was involved in direct salary payments to their players.

While Snook’s story plays to that crowd and his long history of writing Buckeyes books raises eyebrows as to his credibility, the other information he uncovered is worthy of discussion and further investigation. If Courtney Smith is painted by her mother and former mother-in-law as an unreliable source, it doesn’t mean Zach never hit her but it does change the original tone of the story, which was to ask how Meyer could have been blind to such violence on his own staff.

In fact, Snook quotes Courtney’s mom as saying that she hopes she will seek help for her drinking after all this and that her good friend, Michelle Herman (Tom’s wife), told her she could set her up with interviews and a book deal.

Good grief.

Two weeks ago when we all asked how Meyer could fail to fire this guy in 2015, maybe the answer was right in front of us. Just maybe — according to the two moms, anyway — there was no reason to do it.

As for the other head coach now attached to this story, is it conceivable Herman would contact a reporter for such a thing? I would say college coaches have been paranoid about any number of things for as long as I have been in the business, so it’s never out of the question.

Some decades ago when it was my job to select the All-State team in Oklahoma, an in-state head coach I had never met called me at work to make sure I knew his son belonged on the squad. The kid’s name —a solid linebacker as I recall —was named Brent Johnson.

His dad’s name was Jimmy.

He made the team.

That doesn’t mean Herman called or texted McMurphy or anyone else in this case, but it’s largely irrelevant anyway. How the information was obtained is a curiosity.

Whose information is most accurate is what matters for Meyer’s future and maybe for our future understanding of how to react to these unpleasant stories.