Lets talk about the coaches... if you win a National championship, in Sabans case 2, or coach your team to one national championship game after another like Stoops, then, yes I think that the coach can be "glorified in a Sports sense" all they want, and as soon as they want.
People often forget that a guy like Bobby Bowden who won 11 games a year for 20 years, 2 national championships, and is the second winningest coach of all time was let go (fired) because the University thought it was their right to yet again win 11 games a year and contend for a national championship every year... Its funny though, when Bowden was hired at FSU, the university didn't even have a football team, it was a convert from an all girls school, he made the program, he turned it into that national power.
That's not the point though... the real point is that, even after doing so much for FSU... he was fired. Not for cheating, not for breaking recruiting violations (although he did in the past), for nothing. He was fired because the boosters and the university thought it was their right to win... guess what, after over 40 years of work Bowden doesn't have a trophy.
I guess times are different and we all get that but, for Selena Roberts (the author of the article) to say that we celebrate to quickly or glorify to fast... well if not now, when? After coaches are fired? After a guy like Reggie Bush is thrown under the bus and blackballed by the school he made millions of dollars for?
Shame on her and shame on SI.
Below is the conversation I had talking about these points as well as others... take a look, do you agree? Feel free to read the SI article in its entirety and comment below (SI Article)
Out...Cundiff
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I said:
Let’s talk about this a bit…
Maybe it is the fact that I was one of the lucky ones that participated in a collegiate sport and was shown the harsh reality of NCAA and their nonsense. So I have a very different take on all this.
Tebow (by the way a hard core Christian) should 100% have that statue in front of that stadium. He may very well be the single greatest college football player EVER, if he isn’t the greatest, he is in the top 5 period, no arguing that… he also lead Florida to two National Championships.
Now the cost of the statue… $550,000.00…lol chump change compared to the amount of revenue that Tebow brought in to that school. In the four years Tebow was at UF the average annual football revenue was 66.1 million dollars… that's 264 million dollars over four seasons that Tim Tebow and football directly contributed to the University of Florida, over a quarter BILLION dollars. In #15 (Tebow) Jersey sales alone, Florida made over $80,000.00 a year so, that $240,000.00 just in Tebow jersey sales… all of which he gets ZERO. What did Tebow get from UF a scholarship? $14,000.00 a year (he got $56,000.00 in total education) that is not even a year of his own jersey sales.
In a world where the NCAA and the Universities rape the athlete of all they bring into the school, it would seem that a statue should be the least of the issues.
Think about that revenue amount, a quarter billion dollars… think about how many additional scholarships that creates for non-athletes, for the poor, and for the academic scholars…
Even if the school was using its own money for a Tebow statue, I think that it is amazing that the kid played by the rules, never got into any trouble, is known as the greatest leader of his time as far as sports goes, all while leading a Christian life style.
By the way, all these guys that do get caught taking money and cheating, I really can’t say I blame them seeing how they know what kind of money they are making the school and they are getting none.
The sad thing is, for a guy like Reggie Bush, USC knew what was going on, they gave him whatever he wanted (they knew about it all trust me), with that said he cheated and got caught… that guy like most wasn’t in school for an education, he was in school to go to the NFL. Now USC blackballs him and shames him. They are the ones that should be shamed.
Also, now the current players at USC are being punished… for what? Something someone else who isn’t even at the school anymore did… that makes sense.
Sorry, this is the tip of the iceberg for me… I can go on forever about SI, the NCAA, and all these corrupt universities… it’s all a bunch of you know what.
Bc
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J Reply:
Bobby C, I’m with you 100% of the way on the equity of what the school gets compared to what the athlete gets. When you net it all out, Tebow’s statue is pennies on the dollar.
But that’s not my larger concern. It’s not whether it’s an even net for Tebow, but a wise use of real resources. What good could all that revenue create in a world where 27,000 children die every single day because of malnutrition?
Not to get all downer on this article, it’s just that the obscene money IS the problem. What if Tebow said, ‘Give that money for my statue to WorldVision and feed 50 villages in Nigeria.’ Would they?
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I said:
J, interesting take on this…
The thing is, I would not doubt that Tebow actually said to give the money to the poor instead of a building the statue, I wouldn’t doubt that he even asked for that money to be donated to a better good (http://www.timtebowfoundation.org).
The problem here is that a booster is paying for the statue out of his/her own pocket… (even though, as I pointed out in my last post, the universities are just as bad as these boosters).
Even if Tim Tebow said he didn’t want it, and that the money should go to feed some villagers, at the end of the day, its not his cash:) Its the boosters money… that could be you, me, anyone really… it’s their money to do with what they please… and as you know trying to tell someone how to better spend his or her own earned money isn’t the easiest thing to do. (thanks Dave for that lesson…lol)
Even if it was not the booster’s cash and it was the University of Florida’s (or any University for that matter), would they do as Tebow asked? Definitely not.
With that said, we should be asking questions of the Universities, the boosters, and all others who are in a place to give to less fortunate folks… I have found in my experience, being lucky enough to know more than a few professional athletes, they are usually fast to donate, to start foundations, and to give back to the poor and others who are in need as most of them have come from poverty themselves (or close to it)…. it also explains why a lot of them go broke after a few years after retiring from professional sports. Most of these guys are extremely giving and often times to generous with their money.
I have always wondered why we do not ask doctors, lawyers, or wall street millionaires why they are not donating to the poor as much as we ask our athletes to. It seems like we hold the athlete to a higher standard and its always dollars and sense with them for some reason… why is that? It also would bring up or open the door to this.
I think about how much of the revenue athletics brings into a given University and how much money is poured into other things across the board such as:
-New facilities across the whole campus (buildings, computers, research materials, staffing upgrades, etc…)
-Scholarships for all (especially the less fortunate and minority groups)
-Pay raises for administrators
-University foundations
-All Women’s sports, and other men’s nonprofit teams funding– did you know that basketball and football revenue fund all other sports, band, and cheerleading (sorry I don’t consider the last two sports)…. Basketball and Football are the only two athletic programs across the whole University that make money and actually fund the school…the university then spread it around (like Obama was running the joint),similar to a socialistic society, to keep all other sports afloat and parts of the University running on equal ground. I can go on and on as to other programs and such that money gets dumped but for time sake I won’t.
Its almost like the athlete is trained from day one that they are to support and give to others in need, examples above…
To me athletics is more than just sports… it is something that bonds people, something that drives us together and it fuels the soul. It’s something that people don’t always understand but, want to be part of. Maybe its the crazy amount of money athletes make that really intrigues people… I honestly think that these athletes do a lot more than we think or see.
This biggest thing for me is, maybe SI should have wrote this article about the crooked boosters are or how the corrupt Universities are. How the Universities and boosters should be donating to foundations.
I also think that SI should write a major article about how Tebow is a devote Christian (and voices it pretty strongly), or about how much money athletes in general donate to charity. It would be pretty sweet for these SI clowns to show how many athletes recognize Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior or talk about how many athletes praise Him during games and in their press conferences. That never gets any pub… you never hear about how many athletes are actually donating to those 27,000 children you were talking about but, trust me, THEY DO. See, that wouldn’t be politically correct or it would be looked at as giving more recognition to Christianity than other religions and well… we just can’t have that these day because someone might get their feelings hurt or feel unappreciated.
Sorry to rant here but, like I said, this is just the tip of the iceberg for me on this topic.
Bc
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