Forget Dantonio, How Stupid Are MSU Players?
Forget the whole debate over whether this is the coaches fault (I think partly) and whether the media is treating this differently than if it had been RR (absolutely), I just can't wrap my mind around this incident.
You are an MSU player, you are getting a college education for free, you are being afforded the opportunity to play high level football (insert MSU is not high level football joke here) which is an opportunity most people never get and would kill for, and you throw it away on a revenge fight?
I just can't understand how dumb you would have to be to think this is a good idea. Now I know a bunch of people will say something about that's the quality of kids that go to MSU or that Dantonio set a precedent with Winston yadda yadda yadda, but seriously, rolling up in cars with a crew of 20 to give a beat down when you have all this going for you? I just can't get over the sheer stupidity of it. You just threw so much away over getting "revenge." If anyone can please explain to me what goes through these kids minds, at lots of universities when stuff like this happens not just MSU, I would love to hear it because I seriously cannot fathom how dumb you would have to be to think what they did was a good idea.
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:26 AM ^
The mentality of a team starts at the top. It's what kind of players a coach recruits and what his expectations of them are. Any environment where a jailbird like Winston can use his hood charisma to influence up to as many as 20 players to commit a group felony is inappropriate for college football.
Dantonio builds his program on hatred, and he is seeing that hatred manifested in students with such little control of their own hatred that they attack fellow students.
I have done massage for an Arena Football League team. I cannot tell those of you who have never seen football players up close how physically superior to the average person they have to be to hold a spot on the team. The reason I mention this is the same reason that when a professional boxer punches anyone, he is booked for assault with a deadly weapon.
A football player's body is basically a deadly weapon compared to that of the average student. So, really, what these players have really done is commit multiple "assault with a deadly weapon" felonies. It is the responsibility of the coach to make sure that such wholesale thuggery doesn't happen on his team.
I know that coaches can't "babysit" players 24-7, but, just like Steve Fisher should have known something was going on with his players, Dantonio should have known something was going on with his.
This is a classic "lack of institutional control," even if it doesn't yet pertain to NCAA violations. If it was one or two isolated incidents like most teams have, it would be excusable and could be written off as the same deviation that most groups of college students have. However, this was a team effort by a sizable percentage of the football team.
The responsibility for such a mass act of misconduct has to fall on the coach, just like I would blame Fisher for most of the Ed Martin scandal.
I would expect to see a ceremonial removal of Saint Dantonio's ring soon.
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:54 AM ^
"Dantonio builds his program on hatred, and he is seeing that hatred manifested in students with such little control of their own hatred that they attack fellow students."
This is spot on and the main reason I have no respect whatsoever for Dantonio and no respect for the football program.
December 2nd, 2009 at 1:28 PM ^
"This is spot on and the main reason I have no respect whatsoever for Dantonio and no respect for the football program." Same here. I love hard hitting football like the next man. That's why I like watching teams like the Ravens and the Steelers. What Dantonio is promoting is not hard nosed, lean and mean football. He promotes douchebaggery, and that was really apparent with the personal foul calls they racked up during the game against Big Blue. Now we're starting to see that douchebaggery spill off the field as well.
December 2nd, 2009 at 9:52 PM ^
I thought Mouseberger was the only person alive who called us that.
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:26 AM ^
Your post is: "how stupid are MSU players?" and you really expect an answer? isn't that a rhetorical question when considering the agricultural college?
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:30 AM ^
and throws it away. The list goes on and on but for example:
Michael Vick
Plaxico Burress
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:35 AM ^
Your characterization of my question is correct. But at least with dog fighting or carrying a concealed weapon, there is some chance of not getting caught. I just don't get how a group of 20 guys could sit around and collectively think it was a good idea to go assault another group of guys in a public place. How did not one of the 20 of them think it was a bad idea? Seriously, 20 people went along with this idea!!! HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN! How can you be that dumb, I can't understand it no matter how hard I try
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:48 AM ^
"Hey, I'm kinda bored tonight brah."
"So am I brahs."
"I really just have the urge to punch a nerd Ogre-style."
"Yeah, but nerds will probably tell on us if we get caught."
"Then let's go punch some frat boys then."
"Let's put ski masks on so they can't see our faces too!"
"Brah, you are 6'5 with tattoos all over, you really think they won't know who you are?"
"Let's get a bunch of our football buddies so everyone is 6'5...that way they won't be able to tell which football players we are."
"This evil plan is amazing. Put in 300, I want to get jacked up."
"Nerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrds!"
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:56 AM ^
That made me laugh, but upon my second reading I am not sure how many black guys I know that say brah
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:43 PM ^
Kinda sounds like the Great St. Patrick's Day Nerd Massacre without all the brahs and ski masks
December 2nd, 2009 at 1:07 PM ^
I cram to understand it!
December 2nd, 2009 at 2:45 PM ^
I was talking to my boss about Nu'Keese Richardson today. He's the (former) Tennessee WR from Pahokee who allegedly tried to rob some kids just off campus. Kiffin pretty swiftly "permanently dismissed" Richardson and a DB who was also allegedly involved. I feel so badly about the situation though, because the few articles I've read about Pahokee paint a bleak picture indeed. This was his chance to get out and have an amazing future, and he screwed it up. I know he's responsible for his own actions and he was stupid to even think of robbing someone, but Pahokee HS isn't exactly Catholic Central. I just wish things turned out differently for him.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:05 PM ^
With how talented he is, he very well may get a second chance. It might be in the 1-AA ranks, or at a lesser 1-A, but I would be surprised if this is the last we hear from Richardson.
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:11 PM ^
Aww thanks Mike Hart. I really hope he does--that makes me feel a lot better. 3
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:43 AM ^
Can we have more posts about MSU? I don't feel fulfilled until we get 10 each day.
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:53 AM ^
We're averaging at least 1 per hour!
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:01 PM ^
When they put one on a tee you have to take a swing.
December 2nd, 2009 at 1:36 PM ^
I wonder how many of the players involved came from places where, as star football players, they could get away with anything, and they haven't had to face any (serious) consequences for their actions.
And maybe they would think that facing a little jail time in the offseason isn't serious, as you put the pads back on as soon as you get out.
December 2nd, 2009 at 2:35 PM ^
...the answer goes without saying, no?
But the added point to it all was not just the idea's inherent DUH factor, but the fact that some of them were already on "probation" for the very same thing...
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:00 PM ^
to go to MSU in the first place
December 3rd, 2009 at 1:12 PM ^
To be honest, this entire scenario reminds me of the stupid missions you do at the beginning of GTA San Andreas. About that much thought goes into it.
I think it literally takes operating at a lower level, mentally.