12/21/24
January 30, 2008
Victory and Ruins - The Story of the 2000 Rose Bowl Champion Washington Huskies: Pity Ty Willingham who inherited a program that protected and enabled:
UCLA fans, ask Rick Neuheisel what price you're paying for victories next year. Tampa Bay fans, stay off the roads.
Great articles, Fatty. And required reading for anyone who thinks that football players don't get special treatment. I'm guessing Jerramy Stevens is just trying to live up to his NFL idol, Leonard Little.
posted by cjets at 01:37 PM on January 30, 2008
Good stuff. They got it goin' on up there in Washington, don't they?
posted by Texan_lost_in_NY at 03:04 PM on January 30, 2008
Wow. I am so glad that Jeramy Stevens played a large role in helping his team lose the Super Bowl.
posted by holden at 03:10 PM on January 30, 2008
Whoever thinks athletes have any morals is greatly mistaken. In Wilt Chamberlain's 1991 autobiography A View From Above he claimed to have had sex with 20,000 different women. That's a little over one women every day from the time he was 15 until he died at 63.
posted by Shotput at 04:54 PM on January 30, 2008
Whoever thinks athletes have any morals is greatly mistaken. The real story here isn't about athletes having morals. It's about athletes getting special treatment by law enforcement (in this case, the Prosecutors seemed much more to blame). If star athletes were treated as rigorously by law enforcement as ordinary citizens are, I bet athletes would start developing morals (or enlightened self interest) real fast.
posted by cjets at 05:12 PM on January 30, 2008
Wow! College "thugletes" at their best. I hope the good folks in Westwood are ready for the new "Nieuheisel Era"! In the NFL, the rediculous amounts of money given to players has required the GM's to pay closer attention to the character of their draftees. It's probably not a coincidence that the most successful NFL teams have the lowest number of off-field incidents and thugletes. See: http://www.profootballtalk.com/turdwatch.htm
posted by Toad8572 at 05:13 PM on January 30, 2008
Whoever thinks athletes have any morals is greatly mistaken. That's painting ever so slightly with a broad brush, huh Shotput? With certain noted exceptional cases such as O.J. Simpson, Rae Carruth and Greg Maddux, it's not like the majority of athletes are wildly immoral or badly behaved. On a percentage basis of the body of professional athletes as a whole, do more athletes run afoul of the law (putting aside the question of "morals," which is so amorphous and subjective as to derail the conversation -- some might say Wilt is immoral, while others would say "Well done, big man") than members of the general populace? I've not seen any studies that suggest so, but it wouldn't surprise me. But to say "[w]hoever thinks athletes have any moral is greatly mistaken" is quite off the mark.
posted by holden at 05:15 PM on January 30, 2008
That's painting ever so slightly with a broad brush... You're right holden, it's a bit of hyperbole, but I would say that murder and rape are moral issues. If you are a good person, then the lax police effort would be moot. But putting Greg Maddux in the same sentence with O.J. is a little over the top, too. There was a study done of pro basketball players and they overwhelmingly had more out-of-wedlock births than the general population. Granted, that's not the same as rape and murder, but it does say something about their feeling of self-importance and lack of personal responsibility.
posted by Shotput at 05:34 PM on January 30, 2008
I think putting O.J. in the same sentence as Greg Maddux is what's over the top. O.J. only got away with killing two people.
posted by rocketman at 05:49 PM on January 30, 2008
But putting Greg Maddux in the same sentence with O.J. is a little over the top, too. Twenty-three dead prostitutes and twelve decapitated hobos think otherwise.
posted by holden at 05:50 PM on January 30, 2008
If star athletes were treated as rigorously by law enforcement as ordinary citizens are Of course, you can always ask the Duke Lacrosse Team about being treated like ordinary citizens. This is not to excuse any of the acts committed by the players in the articles, but there have been a number of occasions (not all in sports) on which a zealous prosecutor decided to "make his bones" by pressing celebrities harder than might have been the case with lesser known people. Unfortunately the blindfold that is worn by Justice is not worn by all in the justice system. Once prosecutors, defenders, judges and juries consistently apply the same standards to all cases, then articles like these will not be written.
posted by Howard_T at 06:04 PM on January 30, 2008
Whoever thinks athletes have any morals is greatly mistaken. Damn straight. Who the hell does A.C. Green think he is anyway? But putting Greg Maddux in the same sentence with O.J. is a little over the top, too. But to impugn the character of all atheletes, without qualification isn't? That doesn't strike you as being a tad disingenuous?
posted by lilnemo at 06:10 PM on January 30, 2008
I just read Maddux's name in the thread for the third time, and now he's standing behind me with a knife in one hand and a severed hooker head in the other!
posted by tahoemoj at 06:18 PM on January 30, 2008
Seriously, have I missed something with Greg Maddux, or is this just a joke? The closest I can recall Maddux coming to immorality is the "Chicks Dig the Longball" commercials.
posted by bender at 06:43 PM on January 30, 2008
Some time ago SportsFilter discovered the truth of Greg Maddux. Underneath his calm exterior is a rampaging, bloodthirsty murderer. I would advise not using his name in vain.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 07:07 PM on January 30, 2008
Maybe Greg Maddux is really Chuck Norris in disguise. Can we account for thier whereabouts at the same time? I think not.
posted by BoKnows at 07:12 PM on January 30, 2008
Of course, you can always ask the Duke Lacrosse Team about being treated like ordinary citizens. Yes, that was clearly a spectacular case of prosecutorial misconduct. But I still believe that a large majority of star athletes in trouble receive preferential treatment rather than overzealous prosecution. Once prosecutors, defenders, judges and juries consistently apply the same standards to all cases, then articles like these will not be written. Exactly. But I'm not holding my breath.
posted by cjets at 07:13 PM on January 30, 2008
Greg Maddux makes Anton Chigurh look like a baby sleeping in its crib.
posted by Bonkers at 07:43 PM on January 30, 2008
Anton Chigurh look like a baby sleeping in its crib. Thanks Bonkers, for the first No Country for Old Men reference.
posted by BoKnows at 09:19 PM on January 30, 2008
just why is anyone acting surpried?? most of us have known for a long time that 'many' schools overlook all sorts of stuff just to win football and basketball bring in the $$--win or get out will be around for a long, long time
posted by jim222 at 09:31 PM on January 30, 2008
I don't think Greg Maddux and Chuck Norris are the same person. If Chuck Norris was a pitcher he'd roundhouse kick the ball through the catcher everytime. Greg Maddux and Chuck Norris have never been seen together because they avoid each other because if Maddox's insatiable blood thirst ever came up against Norris' unstoppable roundhouse, the universe would implode.
posted by apoch at 09:49 PM on January 30, 2008
Chuck Norris. Perfect Game. Every Game.
posted by BoKnows at 10:22 PM on January 30, 2008
Whoever thinks athletes have any morals is greatly mistaken. That is one of the most ridiculous comments I've ever heard on this site, or indeed, in my whole life. To characterize an entire demographic of people as you did, and to back up your position using only anecdotal evidence of one man's behavior is lazy at best. The fact that the man in question (Wilt Chamberlain) hasn't played professional sports at all since 1973, and has been dead going on 10 years now just makes your statement all the more foolish. Did you really mean that, or did you just say it to cause a stir, and make people pay attention to you? Do you really believe that the millions of people who participate in athletics in this country have no morals? That they're all inherently evil people, just waiting for the opportunity to rape, murder, slit and gouge? I'd really like to know, on behalf of all those people who work their asses off for their sport, who pour their passion into their particular athletic endeavor, and never complain, if you really meant to say something so derogatory about them, or whether you were just tossing bombs, hoping to stir up a shitstorm.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 04:42 AM on January 31, 2008
But I still believe that a large majority of star athletes in trouble receive preferential treatment rather than overzealous prosecution. I think in general, being able to afford expensive and extremely competent counsel provides a huge advantage when facing criminal prosecution. In that sense, star athletes are no more advantaged than any wealthy person; and in the context of today's 24-hour media cycle that is sure to devour any rumor of misconduct on on the part of an athlete, I'd rather be an anonymous, lawyered-up Manhattanite accused of a crime than a star athlete on a New York team accused of the same crime. Greg Maddux makes Anton Chigurh look like a baby sleeping in its crib. Funny 'cause it's true...
posted by Venicemenace at 07:55 AM on January 31, 2008
If you spell Greg Maddux in scrabble, you win automatically. Greg Maddux doesn't breathe...he holds air hostage.
posted by hawkguy at 08:42 AM on January 31, 2008
Hell this sounds like a Dallas Cowboys team from years past.
posted by B10 at 11:55 AM on January 31, 2008
I think in general, being able to afford expensive and extremely competent counsel provides a huge advantage when facing criminal prosecution. That's certainly true. But what the cases above indicate is that these players were receiving preferential treatment by their high school coaches (in the case of Stevens, anyway), college coaches, college administrators and even NFL coaches long before a case ever came to court. Again, using the Stevens "case" as an example, Prosecutors shied away from even taking the rape case to court. The only reason seemed to be because he was a star tight end for the Huskies. and in the context of today's 24-hour media cycle that is sure to devour any rumor of misconduct on on the part of an athlete, I'd rather be an anonymous, lawyered-up Manhattanite accused of a crime than a star athlete on a New York team accused of the same crime. If you're comparing two cases that have actually gone to trial? Maybe I'd agree (and I'm not so sure about that). But unless you think the articles posted are an aberration, rather than the norm, they sure seem to point to the fact that the potential cases against these athletes never even come to trial (or in the case of Steven's many DUI's and moving violations) are not charged with the offenses that an ordinary citizen would be.
posted by cjets at 12:31 PM on January 31, 2008
preferential treatment by their high school coaches, college coaches, college administrators and even NFL coaches Don't forget District Attorneys, which is completely unbelievable. Or at least I wish it was.
posted by yerfatma at 12:54 PM on January 31, 2008
I'm sure USC alumni have forwarded this article to the Los Angeles Times with words of mock outrage. A horror show for most but for a UW alumnus named Ed Hansen no doubt it was the good old days.
posted by Newbie Walker at 12:01 AM on February 02, 2008
Via deadspin. Like Pandora's Box, there's some hope at the end.