Q&A with Charles Woodson: 1997 Heisman trophy winner says efforts to clean up college sports won't work
Annarbor.com has posted part of an interview with Charles Woodson discussing efforts to cleanup college sports:
Among other things, the interviewers call out people like MSC, Hoke, Dantonio and Saban for refusing to criticize a cheating coach or the way his corrupt employer handled the situation.
I could read Q&A from Woodson all day long.
That was a great article.
I know it was pryor to the resignation of sweatervest, however the only issue I had with the article was at the end. It stated all of the great voluntary things CW does out of his own good will.
Others obviously have pointed out how Tressel did these same things which made him a great man etc.
I'm proud of Woodson and all he does and I think he is someone kids should look up to from what I see. But it's not charity or voluntary work that show's the goodness in a person.
"Pryor to tge resignation" Zing!
Unable to edit iphone comments. I'm aware I spelled 'the' wrong. I've been drinking since the morning, cut me some slack.
You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning.
Wouldn't worry about it to much.
I'm half way into a bottle of crown right now.
Stuff is really hard to enforce completely--but, if like that story by that Texas walk on is true, it may not be impossible to significantly reduce the problem with rigorous oversight.
But, yeah.
To be fair, it's hard for Michigan's President to say anything about OSU's culture when Michigan is still finishing up its penalties for a NCAA violation. Something about rocks and glass houses.
I know the scale is different, but still. She knows its an incredibly stressful, difficult thing to deal with and probably has some level of sympathy for Gee.
And in general, I think it's better to take the high road in these situations. The NCAA will determine just how guilty OSU is.
a lot of other people should tone it down and wait for the formal investigation results.
15 minutes of stretching a day equals thousands of dollars worth of extra benefits over a period of ten years. Great logic there, "Zoner."
AFAIC, what goes around comes around. They are still using the phrase "Fab Five Scandal" in reference to Ed Martin. They took sustained and intense delight in giving Michigan fans shit over 15 minutes of stretching. Fuck TSIO. They deserve everything they get, from the NCAA and from Michigan fans.
Michigan fans can say whatever they want. They're fans. But I don't think it would look good for the official representatives of the school to take shots at another institution. That would just make us look petty. The Drew Sharps of the world would find a way to make OSU the victim and us look like sore losers. Better to just not get involved.
I'm not going to argue with you, but public figures need to be smart and take the high road when talking to the media. I was just pointing out that she knows what a major violations investigation is like and probably isn't wishing it on a fellow school president.
Gee deserves no sympathy from anyone...especially after that astoundingly idiotic "hope coach doesn't fire me" line. That is why his and MSC's situations are completely different. If anything MSC should be taking the opportunity to make sure everyone understands that difference...without naming names of course...there are subtle ways to do it.
Don't be surprised if both Smith and Gee are gone next. They are enablers and that makes them complicit.
But the fundamental problem is that we are talking about 18-22-year old kids. They will do stupid things. You can threaten them 50 times a day and some will still do stupid things. They think they're invincible. And it's likely that for every Terrelle Pryor that gets caught, there are 10 guys that get off.
In the human brain, the frontal robe (which is responsible for reasoning, including the ability to recognize consequences for actions) does not reach full maturity until at least the mid-20s. Your average 18-year-old literally can't comprehend the consequences of an action to the same depth that the average 26-year-old can. He/she doesn't have the same foresight as a fully mature adult.
No, no, no, no, no, and no. By the way, no. Did I mention yet? No.
I don't think you're wrong about the frontal lobe business; I'm certain you know more about it than I do, but this has very little to do with it. An average 18 year old is able to tell the difference between right and wrong. But let's be honest. A football player is NOT an average 18-22 year old. They are a superstar. Their name is all over the media, their face is all over the media, they're being featured in calendars, and if they're especially talented, merchandise sold by third parties is being named after them. Their contributions are helping the University, the conference, the NCAA, and multi-million dollar corporations net millions more dollars in a given year.
This is the primary reason why NCAA rules are broken. What they don't have is any semblance of normality while they spend their time on campus. They are not a regular student; they are, again, a superstar. Many of them come from impoverished backgrounds and have a mentality of "take what you can get when you get it, because this might be the only chance." They don't gain a conceptual understanding of debt to the same extent everyone else does because they are not in school on loan. All of this causes them to act more like a professional athlete than a collegiate one.
Woodson is right. The money involved in collegiate athletics will make it impossible to clean everything up. Edit: I want to clarify that the previous statement was made before I even read the article or had any idea what Woodson said.
I don't necessarily agree. Some will be more careful, some won't.
We have had a whole system of criminal laws with stiffer penalties for lots of crimes since the early 70s. I don't see crime rates declining. Tougher drug laws? Meaningless. Harsher penalties for viiolent crimes? Even the death penalty - the real one, not the football one - hasn't stopped murder.
After being on this planet a long time, and being part of the legal system for many years, I don't see putting the hammer down as much of a solution.
Maybe there are other ways to deal with this?
Crime rates are actually down across the country. There have been several articles recently that have noted the decline in crime and expressed surprise that crime rates have gone down while the economy is in the tank.
See, e.g., http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/dec/06/there-link-between-bad-economy-and-crime-rates-no-/ or http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2009/08/03/crime-rates-down-despite-bad-economy/
Putting criminals in jail where it's difficult to commit crimes against the general public really does work. It's also noteworthy that firearms ownership has skyrocketed since November, 2008.
agree with Woodson. For at least the last 30 years, this country has been about getting yours and not of other things matter to some people.
big money is the focus of the media and by extension everyday people. Some of the parents, kids, agents will be tempted as well as feel justified to break the rules for some money. No all but some.
The other problem I see is. How in the hell can a coach or president from another university impact another a student or coach at another university? Especially, when said persons can feel internally, intrapersonally justified in their actions, I did it for the kids, for my team, i did it because I would have been evicted, everybody else is doing it.. Please... That perp off the hook if say well if everybody speaks out well that would some how change things, you hold MCC, or Hoke accountable for being classy or neutral I don't think so. Tressel, Pryor, and others who continually break the rules came to OSU like that and no matter what walk of life they endeavor this would be their M.O.
Certainly, MCC, Hoke, Brandon and all of the Michigan Athletic Dept seem to be on the same page. That culture will be passed on to all of the student athletes and hopefully they all will uphold those standards.
Ha!!! Heineken has struck again
And what does Lucy Ann Lance know about college football? What does she know about anything?
And I am sorry, but what does Charles Woodson know about Wall Street?
This interview gets three out of five "stupids."
...here. According to this:
Radio and TV personality Lucy Ann Lance grew up in Ann Arbor and is a graduate of Huron H.S. and the University of Michigan. She is the assistant manager of Ann Arbor’s Community Television Network, where she has worked for more than two decades. She’s also a veteran of the local radio scene, having hosted her own morning show for many years and worked as an assistant news director filing reports for NBC and Mutual Radio News. In addition, she does voiceovers on numerous projects for local and nationwide businesses.
Lucy Ann, along with radio personality Jimmy Barrett, pioneered the very first Michigan Football Tailgate Party on the air, a show that continued for 25 years with various co-hosts including Fat Bob Taylor, Dean Erskine, and Jeff DeFran. In 2008 she joined sports broadcaster Doug Karsch, along with Dean Erskine, to co-host the Michigan Football Tailgate Party on the syndicated Michigan Football Network for IMG.
Lucy Ann has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities as a volunteer emcee for many events. She is the recipient of Business Review’s “Most Influential Women” Award, and was the first recipient of the Miss America Women of Achievement Award from the Miss Washtenaw Scholarship Program. She also was saluted with the Spectrum Spirit Award, the Torchbearer Award from the Huron Valley Girl Scouts, and the Ambassador Award from the Ann Arbor Convention & Visitors Bureau. In 2010, Lucy Ann was bestowed with the Michigan Small Business Journalist of the Year Award from the Small Business Administration.
Looks like she knows something about football. Wonder why you thought she might not?
Funny how you and I could take the exact same information, and reach opposite conclusions.
Woodson made a valid point when he talked about giving an 18 yr old kid $1000. Christ, give me $200, a 6 pack of Zima at 18, and I would have been your best friend for life. How can we control that? How can anyone? Easy money is the hardest to let go.
Some of the comments are surprising ("coaches know what's going on" in particular) considering Woodson's relationship with his former agent (shady guy who was at the Heisman Ceremony and later got sued for ripping off Woodson and his other NFL clients). I doubt he would have agreed to do it, but a better interviewer could have brought a lot more transparency to this issue by asking the right questions.
I will add a comment that my brother made to me on this subject of the corruption of college football by money and it seems worthy of further discussion. The problem with college football (and to some extent basketball with the rare Kobe, Lebron, like exceptions) is that there is no minor league for high school students to choose. In the other big money sports, (baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis, golf) there are no barriers to going pro to make some money right away if that is your interest instead of school.
How does A2.com expect to ever be taken seriously when they are letting radio personalites like Lucy Ann Lance write for them?
When the picture next to the byline looks like Tammy Faye Baker, you have a problem.
Enlightening piece.
The interviewers, more or less outsiders to the college game, seem to perceive NCAA rule-breaking as morally reprehensible. Lance acts like he should be in federal prison. Woodson seems to think they are living inside a bubble, which I agree they are. His point about Wall Street was spot on. People are greedy. It's just the way of the world.
Listen, Tressel deserved to be fired. I think he's a bad guy (evidenced by today's rally). There are no reasons to have rules and contracts if he was kept. But to GASP at OSU's story and pretend like it is a serious problem relative to other things that go on in society is a quite disengenious.