I want to speak up for Troy Davis because Iowa’s governor apparently doesn’t think Davis can do it on his own.

I want to talk about Governor Terry Branstad and the big foot in his mouth.

For the few of you who didn’t hear, Branstad appeared on sportscaster Jim Zabel’s show “Beat the Bear” last Sunday night on WHO-TV in Des Moines and ridiculed Iowa State running back Troy Davis.

During the show, Zabel read the Bear’s sign, “Troy Davis runs for 486 yards and he runs for governor.”

Pretty funny, I admit.

Branstad’s response was, “He’s gotta learn how to talk first, though, before he runs for governor.”

Not funny at all.

Here you have a case of a 20-year-old sophomore in college, who also just happens to be the best thing to happen to ISU football since Jim Walden resigned, being mocked by an elected representative of the people of Iowa for a speech impediment.

Since becoming the nation’s leading rusher, Davis has had to deal with the trauma of a million cameras and tape recorders shoved in his face, watching and listening to everything he does and says. Pretty scary stuff for a young man who can’t even legally by a beer. Add this with the fact that Davis is from the inner-city of Miami and you get an excellent football player who’s got a good case of Iowa stage fright.

Imagine you are in this situation and see how many “um’s” and “you know’s” you spit out. It’s not an impediment — it’s called being human.

I had the chance to follow Davis for a day and with all honesty I can say he is polite, humble and intelligent — not to mention one heck of an athlete. I never heard a “you know” from the man the whole day until we got to his press conference and he was asked his first question.

Branstad has since come up with two feeble excuses for his comment — on Tuesday it was: I don’t remember saying that; on Wednesday it was: Oh yeah, I remember, I was talking about the Bear.

Get it? The Bear never talks on the show, so the Bear needs to learn how to talk before the Bear runs for governor.

Yeah, right. Pretty lame excuse if you ask me. I think Branstad would do Troy Davis and us all a big favor if he would just fess up and admit that he said the wrong thing.

Instead, we are led to believe it was the Bear, but “If anything that I said was considered to be offensive to him, I’m sorry and I apologize,” quoth the governor, nevermore.

After Saturday’s win over Oklahoma State, the inevitable question was thrown at Davis, “Do you have any comment on the remark made by Branstad?”

Davis responded with great clarity, “People just talk about my speech and I’m getting help for it right now. So I don’t have too much to say about him, though.”

In other words, governor, Troy doesn’t want to talk about you because he knows his situation and you don’t — end of story.

You would think the governor of a state that is heavy on education would be proud that a young man like Troy Davis would choose to come to a state college here and further his education.

Instead, Branstad has ridiculed himself and in some part, the state he represents.

My vote goes to Gopher next time.

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Jason Howland is a senior in journalism from Riceville. He is sports editor of the Daily.