You know, in general I wish they would stop linking former players with the schools they played for, especially if they were kicked out of school without graduating. Every time Maurice Clarett farts, I don’t need to be reminded he played for Ohio State. With every developing issue with Rae Carruth, I don’t need to know he played for Colorado. With every single instance of Lawrence Phillips running afoul with the law, I don’t need to be reminded he played at Nebraska. Same goes for any other kid who played for any other school, including Thunder Collins.
I know that’s never going to happen because the only reason it’s news is their association with whatever school they played for. But it gets tiresome seeing these schools, whose ideals and principles are polar opposites from what these guys have done, raked through the muck over and over.
I said this in another thread once before, we cannot control the behavior of other or control the destinies of our teams. I cannot control Rae Carruth anymore then you could control Thunder, it may embarrass us, but what can we really do? Same on the field, I cannot control who Cody throws a pass to any more then you can control a linebacker making a tackle. I think sometimes we envelop ourselves into our team loyalty so much that we actually believe that Madden or NCAA 9 are for real and we control everything. All I can control are my own actions.
To some degree I agree with you on this,
BUT, when they recruit a player they should do like MLB and the NFL
USED TO DO, which is check out their character BEFORE you offer them a scholarship.
I think schools in the NCAA have gotten very lax in doing so, they go in and just look for the best athlete , sometimes they know he isn't of such good character (and usually kids that come from gangs or tough neighborhoods are just that - tough, and make good athletes, which their high schools pass through to keep eligible for their football or basketball program), but hear him say how he wants to get away from his current life and start over fresh, yada yada yada, and in their misconstrued belief that they can bring a better change to this person's life, they sign him up. They need to realize that it took 18 years to make this person the way he is, and it most likely will not change for them overnight. They have surrounded themselves with a certain type of persons, and that is all they know, and those are the people they are comfortable being around...they will most likely continue to do that.
It is naive to believe that someone is going to go from being a thug to sitting in the church choir on Friday night. It is more likely that a kid will slide backwards into the party culture than to go the other way when they get away from home - that is just being a freshman. Schools will most likely get the person they recruited if they are already in that mode...and should be expecting it. The school takes the chance that there won't be any incidents that will bring negative attention to their programs while the kid is at their school, and he will remain eligible. I don't think they really think long term, after he leaves the program, though. Maybe they figure he will get an education and choose to do something with it, who knows...but again, if a kid is raised in gang culture, or has to be tough and do things that aren't legal to survive growing up, it is what they know - chances are they will revert back to it, and do things that are illegal, or just on the line - which will sometimes make them actually look like good business people. But it is the ones that go to getting into trouble you hear about, not the ones that actually did make the change along the way, unfortunately.
Recruiting kids in a inner-city culture can be dicey...at best. But I do think that recruiters need to take a harder look at their "real" character before signing them on. Who are the people that they surround themselves with every day? What is their relationship with their parents or grandparents? What are their parents and grandparents values? Recruiting is a fast and loose process, you have to get in and sell the school...where it should be the kid selling themselves to some degree also - and not just by what they are on the field, since chances are, the kid will get more out of the education than the school will ever get out of the kid's athletic abilities.
