Amid all of the nonsense that's gone on - both on here and in the real world over the past few weeks - I figured I would bring up an old SI.com article and put my mind at ease.
http://www.si.com/college-football/2013/06/07/rutgers-football-kyle-flood
For those of you who still remain close to the faculty and staff at Rutgers, almost all of them will tell you great things about Coach Flood. He's very active on campus, as well as within the athletic department, and represents the university well. With the exception of a couple of professors who cannot accept that big time athletics is here to stay and seek out any opportunity to get the spotlight, they all support him and want to see him succeed - there is a reason that Julie gave a pretty impassioned speech on his behalf.
So let's recap -
1 player robbed someone when he was home with high school friends in Florida.
2 ex-players and 2 former players were involved in robbing drug dealers. While I thought it was pretty cool when Omar did it in The Wire - anyone who believes that that is proper conduct in real life was probably beyond repair. It is unfortunate that they ended up on the Rutgers roster - but the Duggan article on Dre Boggs was pretty telling - though it appeared initially he had gotten his stuff together. His conduct in court clearly indicated otherwise.
3 players were in a fight. 2 of those players had found themselves in some drama prior (Nadir and Ruhan). Clearly Nadir cared more about partying than studying. Both were clearly idiots. Anyone who spent some time out on college ave during their years on the banks might have found themselves in a scuffle or two. Most of us werent strong enough to do some damage. Alcohol clearly a factor.
1 appears to have gotten carried in breaking up a fight between two women. I'll reserve judgment until we know the full details on what happened - this appears to be a bit murkier than the Ray Rice episode. Was the person who ended up on the concrete the instigator? Was she hitting Leonte and the employee/lady friend? Did he push her away and she fell hard into the concrete? Was he the only person charged? There are clearly a lot of missing pieces to this story. I actually want to see the video on this one. I do think the fact that alcohol was not a factor bodes well for Leonte.
the email thing. frankly, I feel like it was a stupid thing to do (I think if there were more, he probably would be fired by now). but I think Flood is learning that he can't save everyone and needs to cut ties/move on.
Unfortunately, when you're in a professional sports market, you might judge college kids the same way you judge professional athletes who are adults. Its a disservice to the players and to the coaches. The financial incentives are different. The consequences of poor behavior are different. When you have a struggling paper only a few months away from bankruptcy, it becomes very easy to forget these points and to destroy a few people's lives to save your own neck and to simply prevent the inevitable (while employing sports writers to do investigative journalism - the same journalists who struggle with grammar - (look at Sargeants use of the word "myriad" (hint: its "myriad", not "myriad of") or Duggan not using the proper roll/role in his articles). Interestingly enough, they could probably learn a good bit from Season 5 of the Wire...
http://www.si.com/college-football/2013/06/07/rutgers-football-kyle-flood
For those of you who still remain close to the faculty and staff at Rutgers, almost all of them will tell you great things about Coach Flood. He's very active on campus, as well as within the athletic department, and represents the university well. With the exception of a couple of professors who cannot accept that big time athletics is here to stay and seek out any opportunity to get the spotlight, they all support him and want to see him succeed - there is a reason that Julie gave a pretty impassioned speech on his behalf.
So let's recap -
1 player robbed someone when he was home with high school friends in Florida.
2 ex-players and 2 former players were involved in robbing drug dealers. While I thought it was pretty cool when Omar did it in The Wire - anyone who believes that that is proper conduct in real life was probably beyond repair. It is unfortunate that they ended up on the Rutgers roster - but the Duggan article on Dre Boggs was pretty telling - though it appeared initially he had gotten his stuff together. His conduct in court clearly indicated otherwise.
3 players were in a fight. 2 of those players had found themselves in some drama prior (Nadir and Ruhan). Clearly Nadir cared more about partying than studying. Both were clearly idiots. Anyone who spent some time out on college ave during their years on the banks might have found themselves in a scuffle or two. Most of us werent strong enough to do some damage. Alcohol clearly a factor.
1 appears to have gotten carried in breaking up a fight between two women. I'll reserve judgment until we know the full details on what happened - this appears to be a bit murkier than the Ray Rice episode. Was the person who ended up on the concrete the instigator? Was she hitting Leonte and the employee/lady friend? Did he push her away and she fell hard into the concrete? Was he the only person charged? There are clearly a lot of missing pieces to this story. I actually want to see the video on this one. I do think the fact that alcohol was not a factor bodes well for Leonte.
the email thing. frankly, I feel like it was a stupid thing to do (I think if there were more, he probably would be fired by now). but I think Flood is learning that he can't save everyone and needs to cut ties/move on.
Unfortunately, when you're in a professional sports market, you might judge college kids the same way you judge professional athletes who are adults. Its a disservice to the players and to the coaches. The financial incentives are different. The consequences of poor behavior are different. When you have a struggling paper only a few months away from bankruptcy, it becomes very easy to forget these points and to destroy a few people's lives to save your own neck and to simply prevent the inevitable (while employing sports writers to do investigative journalism - the same journalists who struggle with grammar - (look at Sargeants use of the word "myriad" (hint: its "myriad", not "myriad of") or Duggan not using the proper roll/role in his articles). Interestingly enough, they could probably learn a good bit from Season 5 of the Wire...
