ak47

November 16th, 2018 at 9:47 AM ^

Nope.

Also Major Applewhite is a giant piece of shit who hired Kendall Briles so don't care about the situation I'm team Oliver.

UofM626

November 16th, 2018 at 11:02 AM ^

I don’t agree at all. He had mentioned before there were only so many of those jackets from day 1. And if your not playing you are not allowed to wear them. I see it as the coach just being fair, I am a coach and the players get away w so much these days it’s annoying.

CLord

November 16th, 2018 at 9:48 AM ^

OT and I would put it on the coach.  If a kid who is healthy doesn't suit up, he shouldn't be on the sidelines distracting and making a spectacle.  He should be left home.

mGrowOld

November 16th, 2018 at 9:51 AM ^

I hope so.  I think no team should draft him in the first round until the Browns are on the clock.  

To answer ur question tho not a chance in hell.

Reader71

November 16th, 2018 at 10:11 AM ^

Say a stupid team like the Jets doesn’t like his combine interview, or there’s an injury concern, or whatever. There’s no doubt that they will then pair that concern with him quitting on his college team to shield themselves from criticism if they don’t draft him.

So, I doubt that they actually care, but that won’t stop them from pretending they do if it’s expedient to them.

“Don’t be mad at us, we knew he was good, but look at all these red flags!”

ijohnb

November 16th, 2018 at 10:07 AM ^

Nor does Houston owe him anything more than what he is getting.  Either play or don't play, but don't be "hurt" and then run around and make a spectacle before the game.  It is a bad look, kind of disrespectful to the opponent and puts the coach in a bad position.  I doubt anybody is forcing him to be on the sidelines. 

And do I think NFL teams care that he is not playing?  No.

Do I think he will have to have a few conversations at the combine interviews as to why he went all "do you know who I am" and was trying to physically confront his coach.  Yes, I think he probably will.

ak47

November 16th, 2018 at 10:29 AM ^

He gave a pretty clear justification. He got hurt against Navy, a triple option team that did a lot of cut blocking by diving at the knees. Tulane is also an option team that does a lot of cut blocking and he didn't want to risk re-aggravating the injury from the same types of blocks. Of course its him looking out for himself but its pretty reasonable to me for a guy 2 games away from making millions of dollars. If Applewhite didn't like that he could kick him off the team and not play him next week either and don't let him be on the sidelines because he is no longer part of the team.

But Applewhite didn't do that and instead went for a petty passive aggressive move on the sideline.

ijohnb

November 16th, 2018 at 10:46 AM ^

I think this is a pretty terrible take AK.  All the guy had to do was literally exist at the game without being disruptive and everything would have been fine and he could not manage that. 

I have no problem with draft bound players putting their own interests at the top, but they cannot do so and still make themselves the center of attention.  A football coach is trying to win football games and keep players motivated.  It is not an easy balancing act now that NFL bound players are now "hurt" more later in the year when there is less to play for, while the coach still has to ask everybody else to give 100%.  If he wants to sit out, fine, but he doesn't have to go out of his way to make it as uncomfortable as possible for the coach who is still trying to coach the rest of the team.

MgoWood

November 16th, 2018 at 11:14 AM ^

Keeping to the rules isn't being passive aggressive to me. Oliver could have worn more clothes to the game. How this all unfolded last night, Applewhite was displaying that respect for the rules is a priority, and I'll stand behind that. Not sure if there is anything else that I will stand behind with that guy, but respect for team rules for sure.

B1G Winning

November 16th, 2018 at 11:34 AM ^

An equipment manager told him the rules about the jacket and he blew him off.  Applewhite was siding with and defending the equip manager.

Oliver could’ve looked at a damn weather forecast and saw he probably should wear more than a sweatshirt and sweatpants.

But it’s much harder to make a spectacle of yourself during pregame warmup when you’re wearing a bulky winter jacket.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

November 16th, 2018 at 12:39 PM ^

Entirely reasonable.  I would go a step farther, though.  If you can play but would rather not because you've decided your own interests come first, then don't be still taking advantage of what the school offers.  Don't be eating the free food at the training table, don't be accepting the free coaching and instruction, don't be taking scholarship money, don't be hamming it up on the sidelines.  Why should the privileges of team membership be extended to someone who has decided not to do his part?

It's obviously unrealistic to push someone onto the field who legitimately can't play, and teams will always rightly err on the side of caution there.  So they won't and shouldn't just pull all the privileges of someone who isn't playing.  But they have every right to be miffed if a guy puts a bad look out there like Oliver did.

I'd further add this: Not playing while dinged up in order to preserve your own earning power really diminishes the argument that "they make millions for the school."  Everyone at that game showed up despite knowing Oliver wouldn't play; or otherwise, nobody left when they found out.  So is he the one making millions for the school, or is the laundry doing that?

Larry Appleton

November 16th, 2018 at 9:58 AM ^

I was waiting for the first prospect to “healthy scratch” himself midseason.  Once skipping the bowl game became en vogue, you knew it was coming.

ak47

November 16th, 2018 at 10:34 AM ^

And it will continue to be the right decision. If you are a major recruit and potential NFL player the purpose of college football is to showcase yourself to NFL. If you've done enough to gaurantee yourself a top 10 pick the only thing you can continue to do is risk your body, how does that make any sense to do for a coach that will leave at the drop of a hat? Or for a school whose entire argument for amatuerism is that people care about the school and the players playing in it don't add value as individuals and are meaningless to the success.

Reggie Dunlop

November 16th, 2018 at 10:49 AM ^

I don't care if I had a scholarship or not. To this day, I play hockey. You could not get me to voluntarily sit out a game. Not tomorrow, not when I was 8 years old, not when I played juniors, and certainly not if I were receiving a scholarship to voluntarily represent my school of choice.

You could not dangle enough money in front of my face to have me quit playing. I played, and still play, because I love skating, scoring and winning. I love my team. I love BS'ing in the locker room and sharing our successes and failures with the other guys. Still. That's why I play sports.  You can't pay me to stop. Not my wife, kids, school, job or anything else has gotten in the way of that for over 30 years.

I do not understand your money-first attitude. The money will be there. Jake Butt is not poor. Willis McGahee didn't die. Jaylon Smith is thriving. And if something more unfortunate happens and it's not, you will find money elsewhere. I can't understand giving up something you love and supposedly enjoy to chase a fucking paycheck. It's not in my make-up. I'll never get it. I'll never be on board with the decisions of Bosa, Oliver, McCaffrey or anybody else. I don't understand the mentality.

 

 

ak47

November 16th, 2018 at 11:01 AM ^

Yeah ok buddy, if your future depended on it you would be stupid not to consider it. Jake Butt might not be broke right this second but he will be if he doesn't play again. People overrate the hell out of how much money NFL players make in extremely short careers on average and how hard life is post football for the vast majority of players.

Also its kind of shitty you wouldn't put your wife and kids and other clearly more important things over meaningless hockey games. But you do you.

ak47

November 16th, 2018 at 11:41 AM ^

Watch the film "broke". For one people only look at top line contract numbers. NFL contracts are not guaranteed and many include performance based bonuses that teams can manipulate to not hit. There is also a lot of off season costs for players to stay in shape and keep nutrition up over the year and a lot of instability in terms of housing from year to year for mid level players.

The average NFL salary is 2.1 million and the average career is 3 years. So if you assume the average NFL player makes $6 million or so over their career. After taxes that is more like 3 million. Even an extremely frugal person who saved every dollar of their contract would be unable to live the rest of their life from age 25-26 on 3 million in savings. When people are retiring and only expect to live like 20 more years they recommend having like $1-2 million.

Yes they can continue working after their careers but the average NFL player isn't famous, isn't getting commercials or acting jobs, or a job in an announcing booth. And because you can't work another job and play football in college most don't have any other kind of work experience. And high school football coaches isn't exactly a lucrative career path, etc. Its not the automatic ticket to a life of success people paint the nfl as just because the individual yearly salary is high.

EGD

November 16th, 2018 at 11:57 AM ^

I mean, who are you comparing these people to?  Most people would say that being 25 years old and having $2.5 or $3M in the bank is a pretty damn good situation to be in.  Yeah, it's not enough if you want to live the high life without ever working again, but how is that a reasonable expectation? And it's no excuse to say "well I don't have any job skillz because I was a football player and can't football any more."  You're 25!  You have $2+ million!  Go back to school or go get an entry-level job somewhere and learn how to do something.      

WorldwideTJRob

November 16th, 2018 at 3:51 PM ^

But that’s where the biggest misconception about pro sports begins...they rarely ever have $2.5 M in the bank at one time. Sebastian Telfair(former NBA player) gave a great breakdown of this in an interview last week. They get paid on salary twice a month, so that $2.5 M is broken down over however many months the season is. You have to pay union dues, your agent, and whoever else that may be working on your behalf. Uncle Sam gets a cut as well and they have to pay taxes to whatever city they travel to play in as well. So while to the average American it seems like a ton of cash. It is very easy to see how some athletes go broke, especially when you add in the fact most of them are the bread winners in their families.