The Miami story is the biggest thing going on in college sports right now. If you haven’t heard, you are probably some weirdo who lives under a rock with no computer, no tv, and is just a weirdo. In a story this expansive, one can only wonder how out of control college sports are. Some of those Miami teams that they had in the mid 2000’s weren’t even that great. They had 3 loss teams in 04 and 05, before really falling off in 06. In 02 and 03 though, Miami was great. So if Miami was cheating pretty heavily, what were the good teams of this era doing? We know USC ran a dirty program, at least to Reggie Bush. We know shady things happened in Columbus. What we won’t know is what happens at other schools. You gotta think that no one would roll over on their school, especially if the times were good. That would be insanely stupid. You would also think that someone wouldn’t roll over on the school if times were bad, because they would spend more in the program to make times good again. The outrage would go towards the coach and the AD. The only way it seems like people would turn, is when they needed the money and no one helped them, and they were in jail and desperate for attention, and revenge. That’s what this is a story of to me. A guy at the top of the world, then having the rug pulled out from under him and wanting to take everyone around him down.
And that strategy worked. The Miami administration looks like a bunch of fools. You have the former president of the school, who lashed out a USC, have something worse happen right under his nose. Donna Shalala had a picture of her starring at a $50,000 check that was from Ponzi scheme money. Miami allowed themselves to be blindsided by the whole thing. In this day in age, you have to police yourself like you are about to be inspected by the NCAA. The key to any PR move is about being in front of the story. If you are behind it, like Miami is, you look like a bunch of clueless morons. Speaking of clueless morons, let’s talk about the players.
I would have taken the money, and the cars, and the party yacht if I went to Miami. I would take that shit every day of the week. Part of it is because I don’t care one way or the other about the University of Miami, but the other is that the players have it easy this day and age. Unless you completely extorted the system like Reggie Bush, players never get in trouble of their cheating. Derrick Rose had faulty SAT scores in high school. Did anything happen to him at Memphis? No. Did anything happen to him in the NBA? No. What does every single player do when allegations against their school crop up? Say that someone is trying to tarnish their name, and is making shit up. Jon Beason signed a picture to the booster where he called him Little Luke. He signed with the dude’s agency. He was in multiple pictures with him. Yet, no one is holding him accountable for his actions. Look at this quote from Antrel Rolle:
“Right now, to me it doesn’t matter what’s true and what’s not true. There’s nothing for me to comment on with this guy. Obviously, he’s on a rampage to cause havoc. I’m just gonna let him do his talking because honestly right now it’s really irrelevant. It don’t concern me at this point.”
What? It doesn’t matter what’s true? The truth doesn’t matter when your name is being dragged through the mud? If someone made up claims that I stole all my stories from Down the Drive, I would be fucking pissed off. I wouldn’t say “Right now, it doesn’t matter what’s true and what’s not true.” That’s just stupid and ridiculous. If I did it, I wouldn’t say that whoever exposed the scam was “obviously, he’s on a rampage to cause havoc.” Get the fuck out of here, Antrel Rolle.
If you think that’s bad, Jon Vilma said this:
“I feel it’s unfortunate that things are being brought up right now from a guy who’s in jail,” Vilma said. “You can go back and forth with someone who’s in jail and try to explain yourself. I really don’t want to do that. That’s very unnecessary. I’ll leave it at that.”
I mean, what the fuck? I bet it’s very unfortunate that you taking money from a booster came out. If he wasn’t in jail, would it still be unfortunate? Probably not to Jon Vilma. If Shapiro all of a sudden had a change of heart for his actions and outed all of this because he wanted to make things right with God or some shit, would it still be unfortunate for this to come out? It’s kind of unbelievable. That’s why I don’t get why the players just don’t talk at all. Talking only makes you look stupid. If Rolle or Vilma did what Devin Hester did, and not commented, we all get that they cheated the NCAA and move along with our day. It would be kind of stupid to admit that you did it, especially if for some reason you had to pay the IRS for that shit. The IRS comes after everyone for everything. If anyone asked me, I would laugh in their face and walk away. Then I would go home and have my Hummer waxed. Players get away with everything, and can you really blame them? The less famous ones are the guys who get thrown under the bus. If you are in the NFL, and a star like most of the Miami guys named in the reports, you are pretty much teflon. No one can touch you, because you can just call the guy a hater and move on with your day. You have a car? That’s because you are rich. You have money? Duh you are rich now. NFL fans don’t give a shit what you did in college. I would even say that college fans don’t care about what you did in college.
I don’t really know where the average college sports fan falls on something like this. I tend to blame the booster and the administration before I would blame the player. I think taking money becomes a pride thing as a player. If some linebacker the class ahead of you is getting paid, and you think you are better than him, you want to get paid too. If your friend is getting money, you want money. If your friend is nailing prostitutes on a yacht, you should stay at home because that’s kind of gross. I can see why players would take money. They know it’s wrong, but someone is offering it to them. It’s hard to say no to cash. Watch an episode of Pawn Stars. People will take cash even if the offer isn’t anywhere close to what they want, because it’s cold, hard cash. Boosters pay out cash and gifts because they want the school to do well. They don’t give a shit about the image of the school. They don’t care that the coach wants to do things the right way. They just care about the W. The administration would rather bury it’s head in the sand than police itself, especially if the money is rolling in. If you are strong from the top, you don’t have problems at the bottom. If you are weak that the top, the bottom will do whatever it can get away with. In the case of Miami, it was a lot.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
