Why I can’t be mad at A.J. Green
I’ll be honest. My first reaction when I heard of A.J. Green’s four-game suspension was one of anger.
And it wasn’t because Green owes any of us anything. I want to see the guy play because he’s a great player. And when there is a big game like Saturday’s between Georgia and South Carolina I want both teams to have all of their weapons. I love college football and I want to see great players play. And we’ve got too many guys who are not playing right now because of NCAA rules violations.
No, I was angry at A.J. because it seems so unnecessary. Early next year A.J. Green is going to be a very wealthy man because he is going to turn pro. So the money was coming. A.J. is a smart kid and he knew that there is no level where selling his jersey for a lousy $1,000 bucks was not a rules violation. The risk/reward/punishment equation for doing this just didn’t add up.
If this NCAA ruling stands (three more games on suspension), and it shouldn’t because it’s excessive, what should be an unforgettable junior season for Green will be forever tainted with “Yeah, he was good but he missed four games.” That made me sad and, at first, angry.
But I learned a long time ago that it’s easy for us adults to wag our fingers and say “Hey, those are the rules. You gotta follow them.” We’re not in the kid’s shoes. We don’t have to watch while the schools fill the stadiums, accept millions from television and make more millions from selling his jersey (with his name on it) while the system pats us on the head and assures us that our day is coming if we’ll only be patient. We really only learn that kind of patience as an adult. Youth, by its very defintion, is not patient.
Understand that the NCAA makes these rules not to regulate what actually happens, like one kid selling a jersey for $1,000. The rules are in place to control what COULD happen–like a kid selling 500 jerseys (provided to him by an agent) for $1,000 each. The NCAA punishes the nickle and dime stuff in hopes of preventing something really big and bad from happening.
When Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant lied to investigators about his relationship with Deion Sanders, the NCAA banned him for the rest of his junior season. Bryant was not truthful but was his lie REALLY that bad? Well, no but the move sent a chilling message to other athletes: Lie to NCAA investigators and you’re done. That message was received and understood. Now before every interview with the NCAA the kid has the fear of God put in him. That was by design.
Yes, the financial end of college athletics is certainly to the benefit of the schools. It’s all one big double standard, we know that. But certain things are just a blatant slap in the face to these guys. The fact that A.J. Green may lose a third of his junior season for selling a jersey while the University Bookstore sells a bunch of them is a double slap. It’s the establishment telling these kids: We can make money off your talent and fame in every damn way we please. If you try it, though, we’ll use the rules to take you out and to keep you in line.
The NCAA enforcement people have been working overtime this summer trying to keep a lid on a bunch of these issues from Agent Gate to Hotel Gate. At the core of all of them is a system where the athletes realize on a daily basis that they are getting a raw deal. They get to the point where they don’t care any more. It’s “hey, if they catch me they catch me but I’m not taking this any more.”
We as fans wonder where the loyalty is to the institution. But through the eyes of a young kid from modest or poor circumstances, that loyalty street seems to only run one way.
I don’t have a lot of answers for you this morning but I would suggest this: A school like Georgia should be able to sell all of the No. 8 jerseys it wants. The jersey and the number belong to the school.
But when some schools–and I am told that Georgia is not one of them–start putting name on the back on the jersey then you have crossed an ethical line. What the kid did on the field made that jersey more valuable than a generic one. He created that extra value and cannot share in it. So the school shouldn’t share in it either.
So let’s just end that practice. Is it a little thing in the grand scheme of things? Absolutely. But it would be one less slap in the face to a group of people who are getting tired of being pushed around.
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847 comments Add your comment
Phillip
September 9th, 2010
2:15 pm
GT Alum –
Will you provide us with other ranking sources? Thanks.
wildbill
September 9th, 2010
2:16 pm
This post is meant for the football coaching staff. Do you control the football team? If not, who does? If the football team is out of control, why don’t you all resign immediately, or make a statement that the players can do what, when, who, and how they want to conduct themselves at the U. of Ga.
GT is # 35
September 9th, 2010
2:16 pm
Suck on what, loser? How bout them apples?
GT Alum
September 9th, 2010
2:17 pm
Freshman retention rate is like 30%- Freshman classes that are easy will raise this number
Freshman Graduation rate is like 20-25%- Again easy classes and grade inflation will result in this number being high..
Also things like professor to student ratio are high in the ranking consideration…
You cannot compare the academic merits of GT and UGA with US NEWS and World report ranking.
I have seen test of friends at UGA in comparable classes…they are not comparable.
ReGgIe BaLlA!!
September 9th, 2010
2:17 pm
Y0!!!!
WhO bEe bAsHiN mAh Sko0L?!!?!?
JacketFan
September 9th, 2010
2:17 pm
InDecatur – do you own a Heyward jersey?
collegeballfan
September 9th, 2010
2:18 pm
I agree but………….
What is it, 23 UGA players arrested in the last almost 3 years? Is anyone in control?
Green did not get arrested. But he broke a rule he knew he should not break.
But UGA does not need to appeal. Let UGA and Green take their punishment. The teaching moment here is…if you screw up we will stand with you but we will not lift a finger to lesson the penalty.
And if you get arrested you are on the Scout Team for the remainder of the season.
Of course if UGA cares little about its image in the country, then keep doing what you have been doing for the past 9 years. Little slaps on the wrist.
hmm.....
September 9th, 2010
2:19 pm
# 35 and stuck in the projects where you get mugged every day with absolutely ZERO women.
OR
#56 at the best party school in the nation with some of the best looking women in the nation?
LOL, man, that’s a toughie!!!!!
Give me a break
September 9th, 2010
2:19 pm
Ramblinwrecker, it sounds like you have a lot of problems with the GT fanbase and our players. Actually, it really sounds like you have a lot of problems period. Go find another team, we don’t need you.
555
September 9th, 2010
2:19 pm
Again, no one is talking about the offenses. 85% are automobile related. Nice try tools.
Phillip
September 9th, 2010
2:20 pm
still waiting on those other sources……
Ur name is???
September 9th, 2010
2:21 pm
I believe all College/Universities level athletes should Incorporate there Names, if Colleges/Universities use your name to sale merchandise, you automatically get a percentage. Since Colleges/Universities run the athletic programs as a business, then I have the right to run my name as a business. INCORPORATE YOUR NAMES ATHLETES!!! F*&K the NCAA.
RamblinWrecker
September 9th, 2010
2:22 pm
My problem is with people who do not accept responsibility and have to live vicariously through other programs for either beating our biggest rival; or, our rivals off field issues. You are the one WE can do without. Please, move along now and stop embarrassing my school and teams.
Delbert D.
September 9th, 2010
2:23 pm
justaguy – The argument has been going on since at least the 1950s.
Your comment,
“It’s such raw deal it’s unbelievable, and I’m glad kids are making money under the table. I just hope most of this stuff goes unnoticed.”
supports cheating (breaking the rules, as opposed to breaking the law.) Without rules, the current environment cannot exist.
Would you prefer the ultimate solution? That would be to prohibit athletic scholarships and require that all equipment, facilities and salaries be paid out of the Universities’ funds, with no separate athletic association involvement.
BOOYA!!!!!!
September 9th, 2010
2:23 pm
hmmm…..
You just kicked the nerds teeth in with that reality!!! Classic!!!!!!!
Tide Rising
September 9th, 2010
2:23 pm
It amazes me how many irrational folks there are thinking that the athletes are getting a raw deal. Here is a list of all the freebies they get. 5IML, I copied some of the benefits from your post and added a few of my own to the list.
Carnal knowledge of the hot chicks on campus
Expert instruction and training facilities at no charge. As an example if the 85 Bama scholarship players had to split the cost of Nick Saban’s salary alone it would come out to roughly 50k per player. That doesn’t include the expert instruction of all the position coaches and the coordinators.
Free tuition and books
Free medical care (including major surgery and physical rehab) Dr.James Andrews is very expensive
Free training and coaching
All meals free
A monthly stipend for rent ($300-500)
A monthly stipend for miscellaneous expenses ($200-300)
Celebrity status on campus- did I mention the hot coeds?
crackbaby
September 9th, 2010
2:23 pm
The NCAA, it’s Universities and especially the Athletic Departments are the world’s largest remaining plantation. Making BILLIONS of dollars off of slave labor. The money has gotten so large that the archaic rules and institutional money grubbing is a disgrace.
The players get an “education.” Yessir, Massa!
deserves a bump!!
September 9th, 2010
2:24 pm
# 35 and stuck in the projects where you get mugged every day with absolutely ZERO women.
OR
#56 at the best party school in the nation with some of the best looking women in the nation?
LOL, man, that’s a toughie!!!!!
GT Alum
September 9th, 2010
2:24 pm
Phillip, I don’t have time to do web research for you.. If you think UGA is as good of a school as Tech you are retarded. I can refresh this page and type a comment or two, but I’m not going to put off work to research links to prove myself. Everyone in the business world knows GT is harder than UGA.
more of the same
September 9th, 2010
2:25 pm
Just another day the nerds get owned on the blogs. What else is new??
Tide Rising
September 9th, 2010
2:25 pm
I forgot to mention free tutoring help with your education. Do you know how much a tutor costs these days?
Phillip
September 9th, 2010
2:26 pm
You need to do “research?” Well you were so confident and certain that there are numerous publications that do not include UGA in their rankings. Weird how you’d need to “research” it. Did somebody just get caught in a lie?
I think so!!!!
BR5
September 9th, 2010
2:27 pm
Clearly Gator, you’re one to talk, with your team full of thugs and a coach who makes more excuses for them than anyone I’ve ever heard.
BR5
September 9th, 2010
2:27 pm
GT Alum, continue living in your own little world.
North always beat the south
September 9th, 2010
2:28 pm
24 different players arrested,from Urban Meyer Florida Gators but no ones cares because they have played three national title in four years,
Blondie
September 9th, 2010
2:28 pm
Wahhh, schools profit off athletes, waaahhhh!! He’s getting a FREE education and FREE on the job training so that he can make MILLIONS in a few years. Cry me a river. I wish someone would have paid my way through college with a virtual guarantee at a job making millions once I graduated. So he’ll miss four games – he knew the rules when he accepted that scholarship and he made a choice to ignore them. He didn’t even admit it up front. He let the lawyers try to get him out of it.
All he had to do was be grateful and play by the rules for one more stinking season. The only thing I disagree with is that his idiot teammates that got arrested this summer and only got one or two game suspensions – I’d kick them off the team. Period.
DawgNation
September 9th, 2010
2:28 pm
RamblinWrecker,
Thank you. It revives my believe that there really are GT fans/alumni that deserve respect.
Give me a break
September 9th, 2010
2:29 pm
Ramblinwrecker, I’m not going anywhere. I will be on the sidelines around the 25 yard line at most home games if you’d like to discuss in person.
Nole 5050
September 9th, 2010
2:29 pm
Tony I could not disagree more with your pity party for the poor unpaid athletes. I have no desire EVER to pay and make these athletes “professional players”. If anything I would sooner move toward re-establishing a policy of student athletes again.
just so you know
September 9th, 2010
2:30 pm
RambinWrecker – batting a thousand
GT Alum – 0 for life!!!!
takedowndawg
September 9th, 2010
2:30 pm
reasonable, Is Georgia your home state or are you a transplant from another state? I suspect the later.
elliot
September 9th, 2010
2:31 pm
Give me a break,
Are you the ball girl?
Tide Rising
September 9th, 2010
2:32 pm
crackbaby,
They can just skip the plantation that is college football and hire their own professional instructor like Nick Saban at 4 million a year. Oops. Almost forgot. They’ll also have to pay for their own position coaches and D coordinators. That’s only another 1 million per year out of their own pockets.
They can pay their own rent and food, pay for their own training facilities, pay for their own medical care for any potential injuries and surgeries-that aint cheap. Why go to college and work for the man and be abused by the college football system? Just pay for all these things out of your own pocket if you’re a great athlete coming out of high school.
Rather than get all the free exposure that college football provides they can also hire their own PR firm and they can pay ESPN to air all their workouts and athletic abilitites.
BooBoo
September 9th, 2010
2:32 pm
PMC
Wrong. As far as I understand, Division 3 athletics have to pay for buses and bus drivers to cart teams around to games against opponents. Intramurals is all on campus, between Geek houses and open enrollment students wanting to exercise their muscles, and relax their brains on a Saturday afternoon. Professional college football is when students sell their tickets to some geezer, who never went to college, for $500 each. Therefore, A.J. Green thinks he is a college student who can cash in on the old geezers. All “college” football teams need to be privatized as BIG BUSINESS. To keep an affiliation with a university, they need to pay the school, in the form of grants and scholarships for real students. Then they go pay A.J. Green a working wage to pay pro ball, and quit pretending he is a student. His “course work” is nothing but practicing and playing pro football, without compensation, for a “degree” in “Professional Football”, as long as he does not hurt himself so badly that he will never get a job in his “career field”. The only ones hurt in the current system are: ALL players who have to sneak around looking for old geezers with cash; ALL residents of a state that have to pay taxes to fund university athletics, regardless of who they like to watch play; and ALL people of the world who would like to send a child to school to get educational degrees, who are smart and shun steroids as a way of success, but have to pay much higher tuitions because the Athletic Director makes $1.6 million per year, and the Head Coach makes $12.5 million per year, while A.J. Green’s family drives a new cadillac (secretely donated by alumni – i.e.: scouts for the pro team).
Chopper
September 9th, 2010
2:32 pm
DawgNation,
Don’t go overboard now. One out of their entire fan base isn’t anything to get too excited about.
Laqueisha
September 9th, 2010
2:32 pm
Aj be one ugly lookin brutha.
Gay dog
September 9th, 2010
2:33 pm
So put your hands up and sing out loud
Everything’s gonna be okay
yeah yeah yaya
it’s a party in the uga!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GJVxFP19Gs
now I've seen it all
September 9th, 2010
2:34 pm
A tech fan regulating the nerd blogs and putting all the crybaby yechers in their place? Say what!?!?!?
DawgNation
September 9th, 2010
2:34 pm
Chopper,
Yea I know but when one does show up the deserve a tip of the hat.
North always beat the south
September 9th, 2010
2:34 pm
Q: What is Nick Satan’s biggest concern?
A: Does the NCAA count bail money as a recruiting
violation?
A lady in Tuscaloosa calls 911. Hysterically, she says,
‘Someone’s just broken into my house, and I think he’s going to rob me!’
The police officer says, ‘We’re really busy at the moment.
Just get the guy’s jersey number and we’ll get back to you.
Fomessiha
September 9th, 2010
2:35 pm
But dat Josh Nezbitt boy sure is a fine drink o chocolate!!!
DawgNation
September 9th, 2010
2:36 pm
they that is.
Give me a break
September 9th, 2010
2:37 pm
yes, elliot, come on down and I will shove the footballs up your ###.
Burner Turner
September 9th, 2010
2:37 pm
A rational tech fan? So does this mean there is such thing as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and Big Foot????? This is scary
bawahahahahahaha!!!!!!
September 9th, 2010
2:39 pm
Awwwe!!! Poor little give me a break!!! He’s ANGRAH now since he’s been humiliated and slapped silly all over this blog!!! Now he’s getting internet tough guy on us from the safe confines of his mama’s basement!!!!
Geez...
September 9th, 2010
2:39 pm
Yep, Burner, and a magic man in the sky that grants wishes. Just had some friends in NC crowing about how prayer works ’cause the hurricane didn’t hit ‘em. Guess those folks in New Orleans didn’t pray enough in ‘05.
Xavier Jockstrap
September 9th, 2010
2:39 pm
Green “earned” the jersey, case closed. If he gave it to his. What if he gave it to a friend who sold it? I played in two non-BCS bowls (pre-BCS). I gave a bowl watch to my dad. He used to give me $20 after every home game. the fact the buyer was an agent means nothing. as you point out, Green will need an agent within the year. this is B.S. and I don’t even like UGA (ACC!)
Bryan
September 9th, 2010
2:39 pm
So the tools can’t even win the debate on their own blogs?
HugoStiglitz
September 9th, 2010
2:40 pm
I cant believe some of you are dumb enough to actually believe RamblinWrecker is actually a Tech fan. Come on guys, you are smarter then that aren’t you?
Give me a break
September 9th, 2010
2:40 pm
Still waiting to hear details about all of these incidents that GT or the Atlanta PD are sweeping under the rug? Ramblinwrecker aka closet Dawg fan, do tell.