at Justin Boren anymore. He didn't get his way, so he took his jelly rolls and went home. I think the fact that his degree will get him an assistant night shift manager position at the central Columbus KFC is just great, and I hope he manages to live up to his potential there! Go be a star, kid.
Exactly, sure he might have more wins on his record now - but was it worth being known as a traitor for your entire life? I sure wouldn't want that. The guys who are more well revered are the guys like Graham who struggled through adversity and still came out on top. That's a true test of character.
but to OSU fans he's probably revered as someone who stood up for themselves.
Let's not be delusional and think that everyone is going to think that he's a traitor and a terrible person.
Ehh... it's probably more one sided than you would think. Most all of the Ohio State fans I know thought it was a dirt bag move.
Because he definitely ate a whole wheel of cheese.
Which would usually be quite impressive, not so much in this case.
It worked out well for him then. Can you say employee discount?
or anywhere is worthless to him. He was going to work at his father's plow/ landscaping business no matter if he graduated from Michigan, Harvard, OSU, or Phoenix online.
Although he's a traitor in Michigan, he's a born again in Ohio, and that will sell well to people who want landscaping.
Anyway, to hell with him.
They apparently have great Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degrees at OSU. My OSU neighbors both have one. (Neither work in landscaping.)
or anywhere is worthless to him. He was going to work at his father's plow/ landscaping business no matter if he graduated from Michigan, Harvard, OSU, or Phoenix online.
Although he's a traitor in Michigan, he's a born again in Ohio, and that will sell well to people who want landscaping.
Same sentiment, but it's just as likely that he does a stint in the NFL before going back to landscaping.
I said it before Justin Boren ever put on a Buckeyes uniform; OSU probably got its best guard in modern history. From the University of Michigan.
I'm done with griping about Justin Boren. I feel sorry for him. His parents are a couple of freaks. What I wonder is if his psycho-dad Mike ever goes to any of his (own) (Michigan) team reunions anymore. It would have to be weird if he did. It should be weird, given psycho-dad's role in Justin's departure. And it might say as much about Mike's teammates from '80-'83, if they are still talking to him at all.
Figures that they would enjoy our sloppy seconds.
And we hope he has just as much NFL success as these other Ohio State NFLers:
They actually closed down that KFC at the beginning of this year. He will have to seek employment elsewhere...
And the economy swallows yet another young man's dream.
I suppose it's just as well. those night shifts don't get over till early morning. He'd be late getting the plow going in the winter.
If you don't think he'll play on Sundays, you're being silly.
Justin Boren: Those who STAY will be champions. Have fun working the night shift.
here goes, one more time.
Justin Boren's a fine football player; he was a fine player in Ann Arbor and he's no different in Columbus. No matter whose uniform he is wearing, he is an elite, national-quality interior lineman.
All the trash-talk about Boren really masks a serious issue. I'll get to that in a moment. But it is so easy for casual fans to say, "Boren was fat; Boren was lazy; Bore was coddled by Carr; Boren didn't want to run; etc., etc., etc." None of it, as far as I know, is true, and all of it misses the real point.
The Boren family is some kind of weird, tightly-wound football-producing unit. Before Mike and Hope Boren pulled Justin out of Michigan in a fit of rage over the failure to get a scholarship offer for little brother Zach, Mike had pulled Zach out of Pickerington North HS to move him across town and enroll him at Pickerington South. Because Mike didn't like the North football program. Recall (again, I know many are tired of my rehashing this -confirmed - story) that Mike was such a freak that Justin recalled, in a pre-Rodriguez Free Press interview, that his dad would yell at him so hysterically at halftimes of his high school games that he "thought somebody might call the cops." That's Mike Boren.
So why bother with the Boren story at all? Why worry about anything that happens with Justin or with Zach? (And Zach, by the way, has turned into a real find for OSU; it is certainly arguable that Michigan would have been right to offer Zach, and keep Justin in Ann Arbor. Zach might have found some valuable playing time at Linebacker for Michigan, even if the Spread needs no 1960's style FB.)
Here's why the Boren story -- the REAL Boren story, that is -- still matters. It is because the Boren family gave us the "family values" meme. It was a ridiculous statement when Mike and Hope Boren drafted their own homemade press release that referred to "family values." And it remains ever-more ridiculous now. The Boren story is important because it represents one of the many crystalline examples of the unfair public treatment of Rich Rodriguez.
So that's why "Boren" still has any relevance. It was his bullshit story/press release that saddled Coach Rodriguez with the ludicrous "family values" attack.
This is a story that every single Michigan fan ought to understand, and understand clearly. No thanks to our favorite Detroit newspaper, which has never once reported this story in any relevant detail.
Damn ....
I did not know any of that.
Agreed. I went so far as to ask Brian on if Boren was considered for his "Of the Decade" team. If he was going to throw out the idea of Molk's freshman season, I think Boren's last year was at least on par with that when we're talking interior lineman.
According to my question of Brian, he just "didn't remember him being that good." While I don't disagree with that, he was supposed to be one of our best returning players on offense the year he left, so I have to think he at least may have deserved a mention.
These guys have good LBs.
wow section 1 theres alot of hatred toward justins parents. no doubt you are a parent living in picktown north and resent that zach left your school and legally transferred according to picktown rules at the time over to picktown central. plus you also know it was due to a certain daddy coach who was allowed to take over norths football program that caused the mess there & they got rid of him.
i have to laugh at everyones beliefs that justin actually left um while on full scholly to transfer over to osu where he had to be a walk on because zach wasn't offered a scholly at um. now lets reason this out. first of all theres no way in hell justin would ever have left um or any college because of zach.
and what did the family gain by causing justin to leave as you all say is the truth when in the end the family still has one kid on a scholly and has to pay for the other one. zach had other offeres for a scholly besides um so bottom line is that if justin was happy at um then he would have stayed and zach would have a scholly elsewhere.
justin left um because of what he witnessed at the time he spent with rich rod and frey which he knew to be wrong. he stood up for his beliefs which proved to be true to the entire world after awhile except for um fans.
mike and hope never made justin leave um. he just knew he had to because of what was occuring there.
mike is still close to his former teammates. those that had been close to him before all this took place. and he will always be a michigan man who shed his blood on that field. thats more than any of you can say.
Now I'll never be able to forget Bent-a-dick Boren. May your dog unknowingly puke in your favorite shoes.
1. What did "family values" mean in the context of the Borens' (and you know that it was written by, or at the direction, of Mike and Hope) press release? What, exactly? It is a bad joke that it somehow referred to bad language, or rough treatment of players, or excessive workouts, since Mike Boren is about as angry and foul-mouthed as any football dad on the planet, and since the Ohio State Buckeyes work out as long, and as hard, as anybody in the business of college football.
2. What do you make of the fact that Justin's sudden withdrawal from Michigan occurred just about 48 hours after offer letters for Zach's recruiting class hit the mailbox?
3. Is it not true that Zach had attended just about every Michigan camp and combine that he could, during his high school playing days and "recruitment," such as it was? Zach wore Michigan-logo gear and looked forward to what he hoped would be a Michigan offer, right?
4. OSU offered Zach ONLY after Justin quit Michigan. Who else offered Zach? Was there anybody in Zach's recruiting class who was less-recruited and lower-ranked than Zach? (I have already stated the obvious -- that OSU really did well by offering Zach. They got the Boren two-fer, including Justin, and Zach has turned into a starting FB when they use a FB.) But the recruitment part remains.
I want you to understand; I really don't give a rip about the Boren brothers, other than that they are punks whom I'd like to see get whipped by Michigan. But they are undeniably good players. We'll see them in November.
All that I care about is blowing up the weird, inexplicable and false assertion that Michigan somehow lost "family values" under Rich Rodriguez, and that caused Justin Boren to leave. Justin Boren left for one reason only; his parents were furious that Zach didn't get an offer from the Michigan Wolverines. And I will not forgive the Borens for starting the stupid and laughably untrue "family values" attack/mythology.
Section 1, busting out the Socratic Method and destroying.
+1
I probably have an unfair advantage, what with using capitalization and all of those other sophisticated techniques. I always get a kick out of his presuming that I am sufficiently knowledgable to be a parent from Pickerington (it's an east-Columbus exurb), which is not true. I've spent only enough time in Columbus to be dangerous. Exceptionally dangerous.
It's simple, really. If the Borens had their own side to this story, they'd tell it. Or they could tell it, if they wanted to. I'd welcome it. I'd love the chance to interview any one of the Borens. But the Borens will have none of it. They have done the "no comment" thing with everyone who has asked them.
Contrast Rich Rodriguez, who was basically slandered by the whole affair, and who refused to return fire against a former player.
True story: When Justin was being recruited he actually did give some serious thought to OSU. And little brother Zach went nuts; he went online, as a then-14 year-old, and basically called his big brother a putz for not being a loyal Michigan commit. And when Justin got "divorced" from Michigan, Zach had two big boxes of Michigan gear to donate to Columbus shelters. It wouldn't be the last time that Zach Boren went nuts. I think people in Dublin might still be talking about the incident in which Zach allegedly spit in the face of the quarterback whom he had just sacked in Columbus-area h.s. action.
[As to other offers that Zach was entertaining, when he got his offer from The Ohio State University -- I checked it, and as far as I can tell, there was a rumored-but-untrue offer from Pitt, a real offer from Kent State, a pending offer from Akron and what Zach said was a forthcoming offer from Norhtwestern. I suspect that the Northwestern offer did not exist. Again, Zach is largely getting the last laugh, insofar as he is a good ballplayer on the field for the Scarlet and Gray. I never want to end things up by simply taking shots at the Borens as football players. But as I have declaimed all along, the story to me is not about Justin and Zach at all. The real takeaway from the whole Boren story is that the "Michigan has lost its Family Values" meme is 100 per cent pure bull shit. It was a false and phony cheap shat at Rich Rodriguez, entirely unhinged from reality. But damaging nonetheless, insofar as "family values" attacks on Rodriguez persist.]
They may have Mr. Plow, but we will always have Paris...