LP Caught

[HuskersGJ]

At least there saying "Former NFL RB" instead of NU star!?

obviously i ranted above about this "former Husker" headline crap. but for the most part i have actually been surprised that the coverage of this is, by far, MOSTLY "former NFL player...".

 

Is it b/c we're on the down right now that "Former Nebraska player" is just not as appealing for the media?? b/c it sure used to be. the fact that it was the NFL, not Nebraska, that gave Phillips multiple chances was apparently lost on much of the media.

 

Take this for example:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/l...rattackinlapark

Phillips, who spent his teens in a West Covina group home, first attracted national attention for violent behavior when he was a star player at Nebraska. In 1995, he was charged with trespassing and assault for an attack on a college girlfriend, who said he threatened to shoot her in the kneecaps and elbows. The university provided her with 24-hour protection. Phillips pleaded no contest and was sentenced to a year of probation.

Straight forward recanting of part of LP's infamous history, but... No mention of "only suspended for 8 games before returning to become an undeniably important part of the Huskers win over the Florida Gators in the National Championship"; Not even a mention of Coach Osborne or a rehash of alledged crimes from the 1995 team.

These types of things have almost always accompanied such articles on Phillips from the past ten years. But here, amazingly, the only mention of NU's response is something positive- that they gave the victim protection!

Wha?!

 

who would have thought our football team being on a downturn would have any kind of remote positives?!

 

Of course, these are all technical type reports and not editorials. we may still get an editorial from the Boston Globe alledging that LP had been hiding out at Osborne's place. then after the incident he tried to help LP hide the stolen car, along with Tyrone Williams' gun. Later, after BSing police as to Phillips' whearabouts, TO offered a tipsy Eric Warfield another beer and the keys to LPs stolen car.

[Red November]

Osborne said Phillips Called Him

 

Osborne says Phillips called him

 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Troubled former Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips contacted Tom Osborne recently about getting back into professional football.

 

The former Cornhuskers coach, now a U.S. Congressman, said Tuesday that Phillips called him about two or three months ago.

Osborne said he told Phillips, who starred on Osborne's 1994 and '95 national champion Nebraska teams, that he probably had used up all of his chances.

 

"I think he pretty well had run the string out," Osborne said.

 

Phillips was arrested in Los Angeles on Sunday after allegedly running his car into three teenagers he argued with during a pickup football game. At the time Phillips was wanted on suspicion of assaulting his girlfriend.

 

Phillips was booked on suspicion of attempted murder and domestic abuse and held without bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Web site.

 

The teenagers were treated at a local hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

 

Osborne said Phillips told him that he had been helping coach high school football.

 

"It sounded like he was getting things on track," Osborne said. "I'm just really embarrassed and sorry for the people that he hurt. I did everything I could to help him, but apparently it wasn't enough."

 

Phillips has a history of high-profile legal trouble dating back to his days at Nebraska. In 1995, Phillips pleaded no contest to assaulting a girlfriend.

 

Osborne came under intense scrutiny for allowing Phillips back on to the team after the running back served a suspension.

 

The St. Louis Rams drafted Phillips sixth overall in 1996 despite his trouble at Nebraska. The Rams released Phillips in 1997 for insubordination.

 

Phillips joined Miami later in 1997 but was released after pleading no contest to striking a woman in a nightclub.

 

Phillips signed with the San Francisco 49ers in 1999 but was later released for missing a practice. Phillips was dropped by two Canadian Football League teams for behavioral problems.

 

In 2003, he was charged in Quebec with assault and sexual assault.

 

Phillips was not able to appear in court on the charges after Canada denied him entry because of his criminal history.

[Red November]

Everyone wants to blame TO, but shouldn't the teams who gave him his 4th and 5th chances be more at fault than anyone.

[HuskersGJ]

Everyone wants to blame TO, but shouldn't the teams who gave him his 4th and 5th chances be more at fault than anyone.

Of course, these are all technical type reports and not editorials. we may still get an editorial from the Boston Globe

 

and here we are with an editorial, as expected, blaming Osborne.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/s...-phillips_x.htm

 

Check out this last bit and you'll get an idea of the stupidity of the writer

They didn't pay Osborne to hold Phillips' hands. They paid him to win. And so he did. With Phillips, Osborne finally conquered the big one — twice. Eight years after his last game, the congressman still looks like a big winner to many constituents. No contest.

And society still has Lawrence Phillips on its hands.

 

oh that's right, TO was wrong for playing LP in the Orange Bowl in 1994- LP should have been suspended in anticipation for what he did months after that game and for breaking laws now ten years later. AND, a common mistake of TO haters, the idea that the 1995 Huskers even needed LP to win the championship that year.

 

apparently its also TO's fault that LP is still a criminal, no blame of that type goes to the NFL and CFL teams gave him a plethora of chances, no blame goes to the society itself that won't just lock this guy up for good. it's all TO's doing.

all he had to do, was kick LP off the team TEN YEARS AGO and today, LP would be a perfect, law abiding citizen.

 

do these idiots never quit?

[Eric the Red]

This articles is ridiculous, but it deals with Osborne so:

 

Accountability in college athletics a rare occurrence

 

By IAN O'CONNOR

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: August 28, 2005)

 

 

Tom Osborne will likely be elected governor of the state of Nebraska. He will be elected largely on his popularity as the former football coach of that civic Saturday afternoon treasure known as the Cornhuskers, whom he turned into two-time national champs.

 

Lawrence Phillips, the running back Osborne refused to tackle, might be sitting in a jail cell the day Congressman Osborne takes his oath of higher office. Phillips is behind bars in Los Angeles now after plowing across a football field the way he once had in Lincoln, only this time he allegedly battered opponents half his age, and only this time he allegedly used a stolen black Honda to do it.

 

Phillips now has a rap sheet that runs longer than the Mississippi. But he won enough football games at Nebraska for Osborne to become bigger than the university, so big that the coach could suit up Phillips after he dragged his then-girlfriend down three flights of stairs — by her hair.

 

Osborne was already acting as if he were governor of the state, and now he'll get a chance to make it official. But he won't just be the face of a state known for touchdowns as much as anything; he'll remain the face of a coach-worshipping culture in major-college athletics that forever runs against the grain of a university's mission statement.

 

The latest arrest of Phillips — while he was wanted on suspicion of assaulting yet another woman — and the "I'm-just-really-embarrassed-and-sorry-for-the-people-that-he-hurt" statement from the gubernatorial hopeful — a little late for that, wouldn't you say, Tom? — serve as sorry reminders that institutions of higher learning are too often reduced to small and meek appendages of run-amok sports programs.

 

Forty-eight hours after news of Phillips' latest round of mayhem hit, word came that University of Cincinnati president Nancy Zimpher was terminating Bob Huggins, the basketball coach who had lorded over a program that majored in off-court embarrassment. Like a defender desperately needing a stop in the final minutes, Zimpher got up in Huggins' face and declared that her school's academic credibility was more important than taking an anything-goes approach to securing the highest possible seed in the Bearcats' first Big East Tournament.

 

Zimpher threw Huggins $3 million to get lost, and deserves her fair share of credit for doing it. But will Zimpher's stare-down of Huggins inspire a trend, or will it be rendered a rare exception in a high-stakes game where the rules favor the multimillionaire coaches who fill stadiums and arenas and university coffers while running programs severely lacking in redeeming social value?

 

"I'm skeptical," said Kathy Redmond, founder of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes. "Whenever I deal with college presidents, I have to be. For the most part, college presidents are figureheads and athletic departments are calling the shots. The presidents normally only act when you hit them in the pocketbook."

 

Redmond has hit a number of Division I schools in the pocketbook by helping alleged victims of sexual assault file Title IX lawsuits against those schools. The victims claim that the institutions violate Title IX's equal opportunity guidelines by allowing hostile environments for women to exist on their campuses. The schools often settle these cases with their bowl game or NCAA tournament receipts, then install tougher student behavioral codes in order to keep future winnings for themselves.

 

Now Redmond wants to lobby Congress to revoke the NCAA's tax-exempt status — "Hit 'em where it hurts again," she said. "We have to level the playing field and give students a way to fight back. There are many Lawrence Phillipses and Tom Osbornes out there. The only time some coaches hold their players accountable for anything is when they miss curfew the night before a game."

 

Empowered by star-struck boosters and healthy winning percentages, major-college coaches often become the most powerful figures on campus. Presidents who are slaves to the bottom line become towel boys and girls (see Betsy Hoffman, University of Colorado). They cower in the presence of coaches who seek lavish contract extensions despite poor graduation rates and consistent patterns of player misconduct.

 

It's rare when a Myles Brand takes out a Bob Knight, or when a Nancy Zimpher takes out a Bob Huggins. "Athletic departments can give universities stature," Redmond said, "and college presidents need that."

 

Osborne gave Nebraska a whole lot of stature. He also brought the school coast-to-coast ridicule for suiting up players accused of lawless and antisocial conduct, and for conducting his own investigations — including interviews of the complaining witnesses — before the local prosecutors could do their jobs.

 

The Phillips case was only the most memorable; he was, after all, a first-round NFL draft choice. Redmond said she was sexually assaulted by another Cornhusker, Christian Peter. Her lawsuit against the former Giant was settled, this as she found a career calling in victims' rights.

 

"When Lawrence Phillips was in a boys home growing up, I truly believe he was on the right track," Redmond said. "Nebraska derailed that. Osborne undid what that boys home did. There was no accountability for Lawrence Phillips, no discipline. Just a protective mechanism for him to conduct himself the way he did. Nebraska didn't care about Lawrence Phillips; they cared about their won-loss record."

 

That won-loss record is what will make Osborne the next governor of Nebraska. He won't have to sweat the possibility that Phillips will be convicted of assaulting another woman or of crashing a stolen car into some teenagers he'd joined for a fun afternoon of sandlot football, teenagers who would learn all about the former running back's long history of explosive and misguided rage.

 

Phillips' collegiate eligibility has expired. In other words, there's no reason for the ol' football coach to offer him a pardon.

[BigRedJake]

This articles is ridiculous, but it deals with Osborne so:

 

Accountability in college athletics a rare occurrence

That last line is inexcusable.

[rawhide]

Maybe when TO becomes gov. he can indict that guy for being a jackass.

[BigRedJake]

Maybe when TO becomes gov. he can indict that guy for being a jackass.

That's an indictable offense in Nebraska?

 

That would solve SO many problems...

[rawhide]

Against Dr. T is should be. He was one of the few College/Pro coaches that the networks could do a closeup of and not have to censor his lips.

[Pedro Guerrero]

Do these same people hold all of Doc Goodens ex-coaches accountable for his actions. I believe he was only 18 when Davey Johnson started coaching him.. Is Callahan to blame for Barritt Robbins. Last I checked LP is an adult(was when he was at NU also) he makes his own choices. Get off TO's back. If LP would of went on to live a productive life people would careless about what he did at NU. Look at Christian Peter, nobody says anything about him because he stopped screwing up.

[skersfan]

This drivel does not even deserve a response.

[DaveH]

This drivel does not even deserve a response.

What drivel imparticular? The article? I am guessing the article.

[DJR313]

That article is the dumbest piece of trash I have ever read. TO gave the kid a second chance and he was wrong about him. How many numerous kids did TO mentor and help lead them down the right path? I don't think it's really fair to pin this on him, basically pointing to TO as a win-at-all costs coach, because on that 95 team, Phillips didn't even need to play for them to steamroll teams, that's a fact. Osborne has pointed to what Junior Miller had to work through as evidence of why he gave LP another chance. If these journalists are going to try and slant their stories to try and drag Osborne's name through the mud then I say F**K EM! The man is only guilty for having made a mistake in judging character in LP and he admits he was wrong. He thought he could help him. Yeah, screw that Osborne guy, he believe he can help a troubled young man who just so happens to be a great football player.

[StuckinChicago]

Not to mention that LP still stayed in contact with TO, even up to two weeks before he was arrested. People like LP arent born evil people. He isnt a serial killer or anything like that. He is a guy who grew up poor in a broken home and never received any love as a child. If Osborne throws him out on the street, than I gaurantee LP is in jail alot earlier than this. Im sure that Lawrence looks upon Tom as a father, and I am sure that Osborne feels much the same about him, as he probably does with all of his players, and parents dont ever abandon children, and make no mistake, that is all LP is... a child.

[skersfan]

There comes a day in your life when you and only you are responsible for your actions. LP reached that day many years ago. Blaming Tom for this is crazy. Any more it seems no matter what happens it all goes back to the poor boy did not have this nor did he have that or some one abused him.

 

You and only you make the decessions that form your life. Most know right from wrong. I don't care where you came from or who raised you. That crap is bullsh#t as far as I am concerned.

 

I grew up with an alcoholic father who burnt our house down and 3 drunken step fathers, that beat my ass every time I turned around. I watched them beat my drunken mother. I got thrown out of the house at 15. Sexually abused by a gay guy when 14. You put things behind and you move on. I never graduated from High School. But I own a multi million dollar company, have a new home, have a retirement home, spent 26 years in the Marine Corps and have accomplished every single thing I put my mind to. I am finishing my 3rd year at the University of Redlands at 58 years old. I just do not swallow it is someone elses fault. Sorry.