So what do we do about athletes behaving badly?
If I’m a Georgia fan, here is what would drive me absolutely nuts:
We just watched our 40-year-old athletics director commit career suicide for making foolish decisions about alcohol and his personal life. It cost him a salary of $550,000 per year and untold other benefits in the future. It also embarrassed the hell out of him and his family. There are no adjectives to fully describe how bad it was and there is no way to truly quantify how much it will ultimately cost Damon Evans both professionally and financially.
In short, it was really, really bad. It was kind of thing you probably wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.
So if you’re an athlete at the University of Georgia and you’ve seen one of the most high-profile employees of the school lose almost everything in the space of a few days, wouldn’t it occur to you to be a LITTLE more careful in your behavior–at least for a couple of weeks?
Wouldn’t you say to yourself: “Self, if that can happen to Damon Evans, it sure could happen to me! One day he was running the whole athletic department, making good money, living in a great house, and driving a BMW. Man, he had it all and now he’s GONE! Guess I’d better watch it for a while until things calm down.”
If you were an athlete at the University of Georgia, wouldn’t you at least THINK about that?
Apparently not. Two players were arrested Sunday on alcohol-related charges. They have been suspended from the team. As Mark Bradley points out, that makes seven arrests this year for Georgia football players.
Here is what would drive me crazy if I was a Tennessee football fan: In 2007 we were two bad passes away from winning the SEC championship. Now we’re working under our third head coach in three years. The whole world is telling us that we’ll be lucky to win five games in 2010 but we do have some hope.
Derek Dooley is now our head coach which means that an adult is back in charge. Dooley has made it clear that a change in culture is coming. If you are a Tennessee player and you liked the culture of the previous guy, you’ll find him out on the West Coast serving two years of NCAA probation. Feel free to join him. But if you stay here you better understand that there is a new sheriff in town.
If you’re a Tennessee player wouldn’t you think that maybe–just maybe–it would be a good idea to be careful because a lot of people are watching and this Dooley guy is not kidding around?
Apparently not. The other day Tennessee fans had to look at the searing images of two players covering their faces from photographers as they left a detention facility in Knoxville. An off duty police officer was sent to the hospital while trying to break up a fight in a bar. Media reports say Tennessee players were involved. To what extent will be determined in the future by local law enforcement. One guy has already been kicked off the team.
Needless to say it was a setback for Dooley’s attempt to change the culture of Tennessee football.
Here is where I think we are on this issue.
The vast, vast majority of college student athletes behave themselves and accomplish great things on the field and in the classroom. There are some amazing kids who participate in college sports. We should never forget that.
But within this large universe of good kids, there is a subset of people who participate in college athletics who cannot or will not draw a straight line between actions and consequences. They believe, for whatever reason, that their talent makes them bullet proof and unaccountable. And in some cases they are right. And when they are right, that’s when the adults have to take an integrity check.
It’s easy for me to write this. My professional future is not resting on the behavior of an 18-year-old kid whose ego was so pumped up during the recruiting process that he thinks the rules don’t apply to him. It’s easy for me to say that you send the kid packing and let him figure out his future far, far away from your campus.
But I don’t think you ever get a handle on that subset of problem children unless you have a conversation with them that goes something like this:
Young man, you are blessed with enormous talent. But you have a decision to make. Which do you want to do more: Play football and go to school OR engage in anti-social and potentially criminal activity? You can’t do both. If you want to play football we have a great opportunity here and we would love to have you with us because, as I said, you are very talented and we believe you could be very successful as an athlete and as a student.
But if you embarrass our football program and our university, your athletic career can be ended right here and right now. You know that NFL dream you’ve had since you were little? It won’t happen because the pros have decided they are fed up with the Michael Vicks and the Ben Roethlisbergers, and the Pac-Man Joneses of the world. These guys do more background research on a potential NFL Draft pick than the U.S. Senate does on a future Supreme Court justice. They will come to us and ask us what we think of you. And we will tell them the truth.
So on draft day, when you go in the fifth round after your agent said you were a lock to go in the first, you’ll know why.
Now is this kind of harsh? Yeah, I guess it is. Would this potentially hurt a school in recruiting? With a certain kind of kid, probably so.
But Mark Bradley also pointed out in a recent column that one of the reasons Evans had to go was because he was in a leadership position and had seriously damaged the “brand” of the University of Georgia. And that is a really big deal. Do we not hold high-profile student athletes to the same standard? And if we don’t, is it because we think it’s easier to replace an athletics director than a great wide receiver? Again, it’s the adults who are paid to make the tough decisions.
And don’t tell me that this happens everywhere. I know it does. And don’t tell me that some schools are better at covering it up than others. That may be true. Is that the rationale you want to hang your hat on: That everybody does it and some are just better at getting away with it?
But on this issue, fans and media are often guilty of wanting to have their cake and eat it too. When the left tackle gets into trouble and embarrasses your university, you want him gone–right now. But when the backup left tackle gives up four sacks in the next game and your team loses, the coaches suddenly become stupid people and should be replaced.
We can’t have it both ways. Like we just told the athlete who behaves badly, we have a choice. We either want discipline or we don’t. If we do, then we have to be adults and live with the consequences. And if we don’t, we also have to be prepared to live with the consequences as well.
Please follow me on Twitter:
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
206 comments Add your comment
RxDawg
July 13th, 2010
11:07 am
Hugo “Coaches across the country have already shown a lack of interest in serious discipline so somebody else has to do it.”
I wouldn’t go that far, coaches do step in many times. However, there is a serious conflict of intrest in it. Maybe it’s time to have an outside enforcement as some say.
Good point again GATORZONE about the reporting and coverage. However, the coverage about D Jackson’s DUI has more to do with his timing than anything. The fact that it came within a week of Damon Evan’s DUI and the next night after the fiasco at UT made this story bigger than it is.
GATORZONE
July 13th, 2010
11:12 am
Yep, part of the consequences for having premier programs. You get players that don’t always have the same values or mores or discipline as most of the fanbase.
GATORZONE
July 13th, 2010
11:13 am
I’ll take at risk atheletes that have to be disciplined to keep the quality of play in the SEC. We could have the boring BIG 10, but they still have issues as well.
Atlantan
July 13th, 2010
11:17 am
One or two soundly kicked off the team would set the example for the rest. Mark Richt’s judgment has been frankly very poor when it comes to disciplining his players. Every year it is another 7 getting arrested and it has made Uga football the laughingstock of college football.
59bulldawg
July 13th, 2010
11:23 am
Why did we ever move away from Athletic Dorms? When I was in school, all male athletes lived in McWhorter. Why the change? Perhaps we need to go back to housing athletes [i.e. at least the football team] together in separate dorms if that would make it easier to keep tabs on them. It seems that we have had more problems with football players under Richt’s tenure than I ever remember under Dooley, Goff, and Donnan combined. If someone wants to research it I’d love to know.
DaaaaaaaaaaaRick
July 13th, 2010
11:28 am
TB,
I rarely agree with you but you are right on target with this one. When athletes think they are BIGGER than the program they tend to do stupid things. I’m curious about their upbringing – did these players have 2 parent families and receive a large dose of humility – probably not.
jdawg
July 13th, 2010
11:29 am
I know one of these athletes personally…Yes, great high school career and no problems. How should coaches recruit a better person? Do not have the answer. It is sort of like middle school players that do not play high school. They do not want to pay the price and find other intersts. I challenge some that think they can do a better job. Background checks, tests, you name it. Things change as they get older. You just have to do the best job that you can…jdawg
RxDawg
July 13th, 2010
11:30 am
why is the word ri di cu lous banned from blogging? That is just….well ri di cu lous.
Urban Bear
July 13th, 2010
11:31 am
the only thing missing in athens that Bamer and Gaytors have; Gaytors are in a state where anything goes and they have a longer runway at the airport. And Bamer has an effective “duelling grounds” where players are held captive inside a zip code where anything goes. Let the big dawgs eat
Typical Dawg Speak
July 13th, 2010
11:40 am
I’ve got one word for you Tony- Enviroment! And I’m speaking of the enviroment in which they were raised. Some of these recruits come here with one foot in the prison door. While I would love to see us recruit the type of guy who cares about academics and spends Saturday evenings at F.C.A. gatherings instead of bar hopping, that isn’t always going to happen. I believe there are more good than bad but consider this. Great athelete and well behaved intelligent young man are not synonomus. It’s quite the contrary and we must get used to that fact. Lets not blame coaching and leadership for the atheletes undisciplned ways, misbehavior and violation of rules. Although not impossible, it’s extremely difficult to get past your raising. After all, the problems and issues we are now discussing are occuring miles away from the stadium and the watchful and caring eyes of their coaches.
OaktownGator
July 13th, 2010
11:43 am
Tony’s article was spot on.
Urban Bear – trying to deflect at other teams doesn’t do your program any good. Neither does juvenile name calling. But you go ahead and do what fits you best.
Joe
July 13th, 2010
11:45 am
“As a Gator, I have enjoyed our run the last 20 years. But I would never want our “brand” to be compromised just for the sake of winning a few ballgames. I’m not saying that the administrators or coaches at UGA do either, but a large portion of their fans could care less it seems. They continue to want to deflect blame, finger-point and downgrade the severity of the infractions. That’s the whole problem….no accountability.”
As a gator, you really do need to shut up. A Gayturd is the last person that needs to be lecturing anyone. The list of Gator players that have been arrested in the last 10 years is staggering, and at least UGA players are not shooting off weapons and trying to use a dead girl’s stolen credit card.
Retired Coach
July 13th, 2010
11:46 am
How much can you change the behavior of someone who is 18 years old? These athletes were always physically more gifted than their peers, they are used to being treated as special just because they could help their teams to win. Many of their coaches in little leagues were not inclined to try to be a strong disciplinarian because of wanting to win, community pressure, pressure from parents, etc. This same type of behavior was reinforced as the individual continued through high school. They were learning that they could get by with behaviors that would get a person with lesser physical ability into trouble. I have seen too many coaches, under pressure they put on themselves or pressure from the community, that have , in my opinion, hurt talented athletes by not taking a very strong approach to discipline. Then you add all the recruiting services hype and you have an individual that believes that they can continue doing things that they have gotten by with all their life. Except that the actions become larger as they get older. They have never learned that “actions have consequences.” So people that are trying to put all the responsibility for the college athlete on the shoulder of his or her coach should realize that change is going to have to occur earlier in the life of that person. Change the culture.
JoeHK
July 13th, 2010
11:51 am
This is another example of how people who have no social skills and responsibility shouldn’t be on a college campus. These two guys wouldn’t have gotten within a mile of the UGA campus had it not been for their football skills. They were bums back home and they’re bums now in Athens.
The Ghost of Wally Butts
July 13th, 2010
11:55 am
Bravo, Mr. College Footbal, Bravo. That’s the most plain speaking truth I’ve heard since Harry S. Truman.
Sadly, it looks like Richt, for all of his attributes, is no longer respected nor feared by any athlete. Perhaps if Leeburn would allow his employee Adams to step in and suspend the head coach, the position coach and the team captains – in addition to the thug player who messes up – maybe then the message would get through some thick skulls. Maybe.
TheBigGuy
July 13th, 2010
12:01 pm
Tony…you nailed this one. These kids need to live by one simple motto…”Do Right”
Ed
July 13th, 2010
12:04 pm
Remember its COLLEGE football. I don’t want the “show me the money” thugs on my team. Maybe if the NCAA enforced academic standards for student athletes it would do away with a lot of the problems we see. Who cares if the skill level drops off a little as long as all colleges are recruiting a true STUDENT athlete. Let the pro prospects take another route if that’s all they’re interested in.
Polobert
July 13th, 2010
12:09 pm
Amen to that Tony. Never really thought I’d see Big Ben in the same sentence with Vick and Pacman but it is well earned. IMO, there is not enough emphasis put on the STUDENT part of student/athlete. However, as it was said in the movie ‘The Program’, “… when was the last time 60,000 people showed up to an academic decathlon”
carrie nation
July 13th, 2010
12:14 pm
First you folks that think it should be okay for these players to have a beer need to check the law. That is what got them in trouble, except for the one driving, was they were underage, get it. Second, why did we not read the names of the other two that were arrested. Not football players just regular students. According to a survey done a few years ago the percentage of football players that get in trouble is about the same as the general population of a college. The press just tells us about the ‘players’. Why don’t y’all list everyone the police haul in for underage drinking or drunken driving and soon no one will care and you will find something else to write about.
Athens Mike
July 13th, 2010
12:16 pm
While I agree that UGA has had a string of bad luck lately, I don’t think that UGA is that much worse than most places. I think a big issue here also is whether or not the college athletes should be treated as public figures in the media. I think DUIs deserve to be reported on, but the thing a couple of weeks ago with Jordan Love and a miscommunication with officers should not be on the same level with what King and Jackson did.
There is a big difference between getting busted for underage drinking and a DUI. Report the DUI’s, but don’t make a minor in possession charge into a career ending issue for the athlete. Suspend him and move on. If it continues, take it further.
Plus, all of this talk about Bama cleaning up, or Florida being immune or any other place not being as bad as UGA, that may be true now, but give it a few years and somone else will be the perpetrator. Miami, FSU, USC, Tennessee, Oregon. This is not just a UGA problem.
SEC lunchtime links: Gators defriended? | Hog Country Online
July 13th, 2010
12:23 pm
[...] Tony Barnhart takes a look at how to deal with football players behaving badly. [...]
G8R GRAD
July 13th, 2010
12:32 pm
“Plus I still wanna know what a nice little girl from a prominent Atlanta family was doing with King, Jackson, etc.”
Help me out here, guys.
Who was she?
SEC lunchtime links: Gators defriended? | SportsTalk South
July 13th, 2010
12:42 pm
[...] Tony Barnhart takes a look at how to deal with football players behaving badly. [...]
Tom
July 13th, 2010
12:44 pm
Always a good sign when Paul Finebaum writes another “hotseat” article on Mark Richt. Wow, Paul F is scared to death of Georgia and Mark Richt. He’s trying everything he can to get Richt fired to make life easier on the Alabama teams Richt has a 7-1 record against lately.
Richt against Alabama 3-1
Richt against Auburn 4-0
Richt’s finished in the top 10, 19 out of the last 24 seasons and has NEVER had 2 bad season in a row, in 2 dozen years of coaching.
Now we see why Alabama based Paul F writes so much sensational articles about Richt. 7-1, 19 top 10 finishes, you’d be writing them too.
poopdawg
July 13th, 2010
12:54 pm
Tom your right , its amazing the fear rival program’s fans have of Richt. GO DAWGS!
Gt4ever
July 13th, 2010
1:00 pm
Retired Coach,
Change MUST come from the leader, that’s the HEAD coach! Period, It really doesn’t matter when these kids get a dose of discipline, middle school, high school, or college, the bottom line is that it has to come from your leader…. I have said and I will continue to say that Coach Richt, a very respected man, a good man, is NO leader. He has little or NO discipline installed at UGA, it was the same at FSU, he just wasn’t the head coach… This trend will continue as long as you let it….. UGA football will continue to be the laughing stock of the country! Well the southeast, nobody outside the southeast really cares about UGA….
Roll Tide
July 13th, 2010
1:05 pm
Discipline lacks at a lot of these Universities, especially within the SEC. Nick Saban kicked off 10 players his first year for being involved in an act that required police assistance. Since then he has only dismissed one player and that was because he failed to attend class everyday. I know Alabama has a little more depth than most teams right now but if other coaches including CMR would take the same stance and stop giving kids a second chance to prove to you that they will do it again less Universities will have these issues. These schools are pouring in anywhere from 10K-40K a year on one player to go to school and play football you would think they could keep it together for 4 years.
Reptillicide
July 13th, 2010
1:07 pm
Tony,
exactly what do you mean “IF you’re a Georgia fan?” I wasn’t aware you had gone turncoat on us. Are you now a Tennessee fan? Sounds like it.
Tide Rising
July 13th, 2010
1:09 pm
GATORZONE
July 13th, 2010
10:52 am
Tide rising, I would be surprised if Alabama does not have the same issues as EVERYONE else in the SEC outside of Vandy. I wouldn’t be bragging too much, it usually comes back to bite you!
Gatorzone,
Not bragging. Just pointing out the obvious. That Saban runs a harsh, disciplinarian program and that it keeps our players out of the headlines for the most part. Our players have the fear of God in em that they will be asked to transfer just for breaking team rules. We all will have bad apples. Its impossible to avoid them. The question is to what scale and degree are you having all sorts ofissues with player discipline. And in that regard UGA and UT seem to be having the most problems.
In Athens
July 13th, 2010
1:13 pm
Gatorzone,
About the most honest opinions posted. Thanks. However, rewading posts frrom Tide fans – VERY short memories and now throw way too many stones.
SEC lunchtime links: Gators defriended? | Rebel Country Online
July 13th, 2010
1:27 pm
[...] Tony Barnhart takes a look at how to deal with football players behaving badly. [...]
LOL at Delusional Dawgs
July 13th, 2010
1:33 pm
So, Finebaum is Bama’s mouthpiece.
Then Barnhart is UGA’s mouthpiece.
BTW, Saban and Meyer have accomplished MORE in the past 2-3 Years
than Richt has in 10+ years.
Just so we’re using FACTS here.
Agreed
July 13th, 2010
1:34 pm
Enter your comments here
SEC lunchtime links: Gators defriended? | GameDay Weekly
July 13th, 2010
1:35 pm
[...] Tony Barnhart takes a look at how to deal with football players behaving badly. [...]
collegeballfan
July 13th, 2010
1:38 pm
Nice article Tony. I basically agree with your thinking.
I would take it maybe one step farther. All potential recruits get a copy of a set of rules that state in big bold letters that if you break any of these rules you are immediately sent to the scout team for 365 days.
Concrete Pete
July 13th, 2010
1:38 pm
To Charlie Bama, you blindly defend Bama, but obviously don’t visit the campus bars often. If you did, you would see first hand what I’m talking about. Just don’t take your wife/girlfriend/daughter whichever is applicable. If a player offends/grabs/assaults her and then kicks the crap out of you when you try and defend her, good luck with the Tuscaloosa PD helping you.
Tom
July 13th, 2010
2:01 pm
Interesting how Paul Finebaum doesn’t go after Saban as hard as Richt. The bias is noticed by all.
If you kick a wall hard enough, you’ll break your own leg.
GATORZONE
July 13th, 2010
2:07 pm
Well, Tide Rising I had no idea that Saban was such a Moral Authority! congratulations with that. Keep thinking he walks on water and can do no wrong. Bama has as many problems as anyone else. Remember the whole book selling situation? Perhaps not this year, but it is inevetable that these 18-22 year olds will screw up. Saban being a disciplinarian or not…
GATORZONE
July 13th, 2010
2:11 pm
Rammer Jammer, we just beat the hell out of you!!!
How self righteous of BAMA fans to act as if they run a perfect program. GET REAL!
DP
July 13th, 2010
2:22 pm
Tony, I was with you until you threw a Dawg Bone to the delusional fans who think the only reason UGA has more players arrested than most schools is because the police on other campuses look the other way or hand the players they pick up over to the coaches. There is not a shred of evidence to support this. Aren’t you supposed to be a journalist? Where was Mettenberger picked up? How about Damon Evans? The most recent arrest was only picked up because he sped past an officer on a traffic stop and didn’t pull into the lane away from the stop as the law requires.
As Georgia has had more players getting in trouble off the field the last couple of years, they’ve also had less disciplined teams on the field. Do you think there might be some connection?
Tide Rising
July 13th, 2010
2:40 pm
Gatorzone,
I never said Saban is a moral authority or that he walks on water. He doesn’t. My single point is that he’s a harsh disciplinarian, the players have the fear of God in them if they get out of line, and that’s why we currently having fewer discipline problems. What other coach will ask players to transfer not for getting arrested but for simply breaking team rules? Its like the broken window theory. Fix the small problems immediately, set expectations, and you’ll avoid bigger headaches down the line.
As for our players sellng books you are dead wrong. Of the 5 football players who were getting extra textbooks they were helping out friends/girlfriends. They weren’t selling books to make money and that point was thoroughly investigated by the SEC and NCAA. Also, the books were returned to the bookstore at the end of the term. Hard to sell a book that you have to return at the end of the term.
Last, as I said we will eventually get a player or 2 arrested again. Its inevitable. But as I pointed out its the sheer scale of what’s going on at UGA and UT that is different from other programs like Bama, AU(dare I say), and LSU where you never seem to hear of their players consistently getting in trouble.
Tide Rising
July 13th, 2010
2:47 pm
Tom,
Finebaum is a UT grad and has only recently jumped on the Bama bandwagon for the simple reason that we’ve been winning. For years he was reviled by Bama fans because he was always beating down the program. He’s a flamethrower, a rabblerouser, and just stirs stuff up to get people talking. But he is not a bona fide Bama fan. Never has been.
I suspect that he is beating on Richt for the reason that Richt is a target with all the hot seat speculation mostly done by fans of other programs of course. If Bama were to suddenly drop 3-4 games this year you can bet he’ld be all over Saban’s arse and be touting Chizik at AU. Plus Finebaum is also an unabashed Stever Spurrier fan and we all know Spurrier has always loved to rile dawg fans.
But to say Finebaum is an Alabama fan is to not understand what this guy is really all about. He is anything but an Alabama fan.
uga fan
July 13th, 2010
2:50 pm
saban oversigns so he is looking for someone to kick off. his players know they had better work extra hard and stay out of trouble or they will be the one that has to go. it is a tuff strategy but it works.
Dave
July 13th, 2010
2:59 pm
I kind of wish the NCAA would make it a rule where if an athlete goes into police custody from a bar and they are underage they have to give a blood test to the police otherwise it is an automatic suspension. When they have alcohol in their blood they get suspensions. Hopefully what this might do is at the first sign of a disturbance in a bar you would have football players run for the exit knowing it might be like an illegal alien round up where an ICE raid is coming down. I want these guys afraid to be in bars rather than like a vigilante gangs deputized to dispense justice as they see fit which was happened at TN.
We all know enforcement of underage drinking by college kids is an absolute farce. It is kind of viewed like the speed limit where people think they can go 10 miles over the speed limit with no problem. I wish the laws were like it was when I was a kid in SC many years ago. At 18 you could drink 3.2 beer and wine and needed to be 21 to drink booze. This might discourage binge drinking or getting hammered in the dorm before going drinking at the bars later because it is cheaper that way.
Gen Neyland
July 13th, 2010
3:02 pm
Tide Rising :
“The question is to what scale and degree are you having all sorts ofissues with player discipline. And in that regard UGA and UT seem to be having the most problems.”…
The flaw in your assessment is that CMR has had years. CDD has had months. Saban didn’t gain instant control at Alabama but to his credit, he got the word out as it became warranted. I’d give CDD a chance before lumping his yet-to-be-seen policies in with those that have near tenure at another university.
delusional dawgs
July 13th, 2010
3:10 pm
“we’re just in a fishbowl, unlike everyone else who hide their issues”.
LTC Phil
July 13th, 2010
3:36 pm
There is a correlation between bad behavior of scholarship athletes and admission standards. For instance, Mike Adams personally admitted Tony Cole to UGA. Cole had been kicked out of a number of schools and there was nothing in his past that indicated UGA would be any different. Even Harrick did not want him. If universities collectively held scholarship athletes to the same admission standards as regular students, most of these criminal events would disappear. I would like to see the academic records of the scholarship thugs that kicked and stomped the off-duty policeman. Richt demonstrates a great disparity in his discipline policy. Danell Ellerbe probably holds the record for separate charges in a single rampage. He was released on $20,000 bond, and Richt suspended him for two games. The better the player, the lighter the punishment. Odell Thurman also got a two-game suspension. Until Adams and Richt clean up their act, expect more of the same, if not worse.
McDawg
July 13th, 2010
3:40 pm
Drinking and driving is a big deal underage consumption on a college campus is NOT a big deal
Tide Rising
July 13th, 2010
3:41 pm
General Neyland,
I agree totally. The situation at UT is similar to when Saban came to Bama. It was the culture at Bama of players doing whatever the hell they wanted to do with no fear of consequences that Saban had to change. And it sure as hell didn’t happen overnight. 7 arrests in Saban’s first year and a total of 10 players he had to boot off the team the first year or so due to arrests, breaking team rules, etc.
Its not Dooley’s fault he walked into a culture at UT similar to what Saban walked into at Bama. Like Saban at bama it will get worse before it gets better and it’ll probably take Dooley a year or more to firmly change the culture. If he’s the Saban type disciplinarian that people are saying he his since he worked under Saban several years then given time he will get things under control.
KA-POWWW
July 13th, 2010
3:46 pm
OK Tony, LTC Phil has just “stepped on your face with a hobnail boot.”
Lets see if a homer like you can answer.
I doubt it.
Hard to defend the indefensible.