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
SSIgator
September 9th, 2010
5:24 pm
Beast from the East -
The only person I ever made fun of on the highway was my ex-wife and her attorney standing beside his Mercedes on a hot summer afternoon on Highway 17 in Glynn County with the hood up and a flat tire and a major thunderstorm looming on the horizon.
No, I have not checked the Fulmer Cup standings, but if we are are only number three we need to step on it. Can’t let the puppies beat us on that one.
For What It Worth
September 9th, 2010
5:27 pm
SSI Gator you make me think of the time I when to my wife’s family gathering, they were all around a table talking about some fat guy they knew, and how fat he was, and the smallest one of them was 250 pounds, man I was not going to step in that land mine with my 170 pounds, I just sit there thinking how funny it was that they were fat, talking about how someone else was fat.
Blue Fox
September 9th, 2010
5:28 pm
As Clarence Moore used to say, another great example of the NCAA/college Plantation System at work.
Lt. Justice, USN
September 9th, 2010
5:28 pm
I’m wondering if CMR could get suspended for 4 games for dereliction of coaching duties. Back when I was in the Navy, if one of my men got busted for bad behavior, guess who had to go to Captain’s Mast with the accused? ME!!! And it was not a comfortable place to be either.
SSIgator
September 9th, 2010
5:32 pm
For What It Worth -
Your wife weighs 250 lbs. and you only weigh 170 lbs? I think it would be best if you don’t upset her. It could be ugly.
Delbert D.
September 9th, 2010
5:34 pm
Big metro areas, help me out here, guys (and the teams listed aren’t necessarily “contenders”:
LA – USC and UCLA
SF Bay area – Stanford and Cal
Seattle – Washington
Phoenix – Ariz. St.
Texas – I wouldn’t count Houston, SMU and TCU on a regular basis
DC area – Maryland
Raleigh-Durham – UNC
Chicago – Northwestern
Philadelphia – Temple
New York – Rutgers
Boston – BC
Atlanta – GT
Miami – Miami
New Orleans -Tulane
Cincinnatti – ”
Knoxville metro area is 655,000, which is larger than the Lansing, Mich area ???
AltamahaDawg
September 9th, 2010
5:39 pm
Personally I don’t have a problem with the rule. Worse to me that somebody sells a bunch of them, is the fact that lesser players at lesser school can’t get as much as big boys, if allowed, so the limit is zero.
I do have a problem with making the punishment fit what “might” happen down the road. Punish those that sell one for a grand appropriately and IF somebody sells 50 of them, punish them appropriately. The punishment for selling 50 is what should deter folks from selling 50. Not the threat of inconsistancies in the matter.
Tide Rising
September 9th, 2010
5:44 pm
SSIgator,
After you daily razzing on the other blog you need to stop by more often. We need the comedic relief. I’m out guys.
For What It Worth
September 9th, 2010
5:48 pm
SSI Gator you just made my point you think to much, that was 25 years ago and I weight 200 pounds now and my wife weights 120 pounds it was her family brite guy. I always heard the brain was the first thing to go.
SSIgator
September 9th, 2010
5:53 pm
For What It Worth -
Sorry to hear that the NutriSystem did not work out for you. Have you tried Weight Watchers?
vince howe
September 9th, 2010
5:54 pm
What a great moral lesson for my son….”hey if the lies not that bad it’s OK…..hey breaking the rules by selling a jersey for a grand is not that big of deal considering the money UGA makes on games”.
NCAA football and universities have prostituted themselves far too long for the $$$’s from TV, media, shoe companies, etc. Let’s go back to true scholar athletes….no admission exceptions for athlete, no coaches salaries greater than university presidents, recruitment numbers totally dependent on team’s graduation rate and college games only on Saturdays. Since when did NCAA football become the minor league for the NFL? Put all the above into action and I will still pay to watch the our students kick gator butt.
Alva
September 9th, 2010
5:54 pm
Green is a two-bit punk and a thug. Send him home so he can start earning his street creds.
mgdawg
September 9th, 2010
6:27 pm
I agree AJ Green should be punished, but to that extent is very excessive considering previous rulings. For those of you saying these D1 football players are struggling for money, please think before you type. These guys get all of the necessities of life; housing and a meal plan. Please don’t think that these guys eat only the food served to the rest of campus, a lot of these big schools have an athletic cafeteria not to mention the protein shakes and bars in the weight room. Most parents are having to pay for their kids meals and housing while in college so there’s some extra money. Not to mention if the parents don’t have enough money for that then the kids get a pell grant that goes straight in their pocket.
Sorry if I find it hard to believe that these athletes are struggling for money when they get so much for free that other students have to pay for.
greenbrier
September 9th, 2010
6:48 pm
When do “kids” become adults? How old is A J Green. Penalty is too high? Tell that to an 18 year old fighting in one of our two wars. He may well pay with his life if he makes a mistake of similar magnitude. When his tour of duty is finished he is not looking forward to NFL riches either.
Tim Rupert
September 9th, 2010
6:54 pm
I agree, Tony. It makes no since to give him four games. I could see two, especially after they just gave the Alabama kid just two and for doing essentially the same thing. I think they will reduce it on appeal but why not just make it two games from the start? Go Dawgs.
O'brian Jones
September 9th, 2010
6:56 pm
Please DO NOT underestimate the intelligence of A.J. Green! Tony, hit the proverbial “nail on the head!” However, some athletes have figured it out and are now beating these universities at their own game. Yes, they know the rules and the consequences that ensue! They don’t mind the results. Heck, a kid like A.J. has enough sense to know, that even if I never take another snap this season, and stay healthy, I will walk away a good pick in the draft, based on my prior performance; thus, I don’t run the risk of ruining my chance of possibly making NFL millions rather than “feathering UGA’s financial nest” with a potential college career injury for the current football season. All he has to say is, “I made a bad mistake; please forgive me….it wont happen again..etc…..NCAA’s response…”Your suspended!” A.J’s internal response…’it worked!”
Sandek
September 9th, 2010
7:01 pm
Green is just another arrogant, but stupid, dawgtard. He knew he was breaking the rules when he sold the jersey, and he knew the guy was an agent, which makes him even more arrogant.
Just one more illiterate thug from UGA.
Fball Realist
September 9th, 2010
7:29 pm
AJ ain’t worried—in a few months, he’ll be bringing in so much bling he’ll have agents and ladies all over him! He’ll coast till January and then do some serious training for the combines and wait for all that money to start falling from the sky!! AJ—first round draft—bank on it!
nashdawg
September 9th, 2010
8:26 pm
It is all about the money. Stipend for the players and I dont care if they volleyball or not CT_Jacket. Geez go bug the GT site.
Coffee Bluff DAWG
September 9th, 2010
8:28 pm
Sandek,
You don’t know what you’re talking about. The guy he sold it to (Chris Hawkins) misrepresented himself as a financial advisor and memorabilia collector.
Trying to help out AJ’s family is not the definition of a thug.
Mitch
September 9th, 2010
8:49 pm
I don’t buy this poor athlete stuff. First, his loyalty should lay with his teammates. He put himself and a quick buck ahead of his teammates. Green was one of the select few young men that were given the honor of serving an internship at a premier SEC school. This internship has allowed him to receive topnotch coaching at considerable cost to the University. The coaching, media exposure and big game experience that the University provided him has put him in a position to land a very desirable and lucrative job. Teachers also serve an unpaid internship for a much less lucrative job. Teaching interns actually teach the class while the teacher observes and trains and receives all of the pay. Athletes serving a football internship receive top notch medical care, free training with world class personal trainers and facilities, a full paid scholarship many teens would kill for, free meals, free housing, free books, free individual tutors, goody bags worth considerable money if they make it to a bowl and lots of other benefits most of us would love to have. Student athletes are better compensated for their internship than any other student that works in return for experience and training in thier field.
Big time?? Not
September 9th, 2010
9:12 pm
Four tickets, four hot dogs, four cokes
Robert
September 9th, 2010
9:22 pm
I don’t think it is excessive at all. This guy probably has taken money from Uga boosters since he has been there. At any rate, there is a rule against taking money from agent, and he broke it. I think he should be out for the remainder of his term of elegibility.
Glynn Dawg
September 9th, 2010
10:02 pm
How could you be so wrong ? The school spends thousands of dollars on various sports, many of which are funded by football, and you are whining that some athlete is not getting a “straight” deal because he can’t be a millionaire while going through an entirely free farm system and receiving a hundred thousand dollar education, on his way to becoming a millionaire for real. Are you sure you want me or any other taxpayer to fund a higher tuition or more money for books so these athletes can make money when they are eighteen rather than nineteen ? Screw that. Restore the total student athlete, but don’t even think that I am going to pay a higher tariff to make up for the shortfall because some prima donna is selling his own jerseys and the bookstores can’t.
AFinPC
September 9th, 2010
10:33 pm
Seriously Barnhart?!
Your articles this year are lacking so far…How about you quit the lame tv crap, and actually do some research into something and write an article that’s worth a crap?! I was a big fan of yours over the last couple of years, but the AJC is obviously your part-time job.
DO SOMETHING!
Mudcatjoe
September 9th, 2010
10:39 pm
Why you can’t be mad at AJ? Because you have an enormous man crush on Mark Richt and anything in Bulldog red!! Your reporting is so biased. And then they put you on the Ga. Tech network to talk Bulldog crap!!
college football
September 9th, 2010
10:39 pm
A.J. Green wa F…ing screwed by the NCAA .
Palladin
September 9th, 2010
11:02 pm
So Auburn won 17-14, but Ziemba injured his knee. I don’t know how serious it is.
raymond
September 9th, 2010
11:08 pm
Well I’m mad at him, it’s another case of greed taking over.
Rob
September 10th, 2010
12:01 am
If you look for Georgia jerseys at secstore.com there are eighteen #8 jerseys on page 1. No name on the back, but why so many #8 choices? A random choice? Come on. This jersey is being sold by the University, the conference, and the NCAA because it is the number worn by a future top five draft pick named A.J. Green. The double standard here is blatant.
It is worth noting that there are two current class action suits against the NCAA by former players over the use of their likeness without compensation. Here’s a NY times article from the spring:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/sports/ncaabasketball/11colleges.html
NCAA
September 10th, 2010
12:36 am
Rob,
If AJ don’t like it he can just quit college altogether and pay for his own instruction, his own publicity, his own food, and his own damn rent. Nick Saban is a money grubber right. AJ can just hire him for 5 million a year for expert instruction. And rather than the NCAA showing all those highlight clips which generates tons of free publicity AJ can just hire a PR firm and advertising firm to show free video clips on prime time ESPN to get the word out about how talented he is. It will only cost him a couple million. No big deal. Georgia never did anything for him. And of course he never benefited from all the mountians of free publicity and media hype that surrounded him and all the free highlight reels. Naw. He never benefited from any of all that tons of publicity and marketing which is basically free did he? Freaking idiot!
NCAA
September 10th, 2010
12:41 am
Rob,
Once again you are a fool. The suit is over images after the players left amateur status and became professionals. they know they can’t get compensated while still competing as amateurs. Read the article fool.
help, I live in Ga
September 10th, 2010
5:30 am
General Neyland, you’re a suck-up! AJ took money from an Agent. Period. The only difference between him and Reggie Bush is that Reggie had the agent take care of his family as well.
Give me a friggin break. The reason guys like AJ break the rules is that status quo media types are there for every step of his career, telling him that he deserves special treatment. So he starts to believe they he can break the rules and call it “selling an Independance Bowl Jersey for $1000″
Puh-leese. Give it a rest AJC propagandists.
voice of reason
September 10th, 2010
8:05 am
Wow!!! So much to cover and so little time!! Well lets begin.
1. Yes. Julio Jones isn’t nearly as good as AJ Green. I don’t even think this is up for debate.
2. Yes. Tech’s players are just as stupid as any other school’s players in the southeast, minus Duke and Vandy.
3. Yes. Tech has the worst fan base in collegiate sports.
4. Yes. Saban will leave Alabama very shortly.
5. Yes. If Alabama was forced to use only their own homegrown players they would finish in the bottom of the conference every single year.
Hope that helps.
Bayers
September 10th, 2010
8:06 am
Just as EVERYONE thought. They guy is as much an “agent” as you and I are. What a pathetic, desperate display by the NCAA. A former player is an agent? Really? What a joke.
mick
September 10th, 2010
8:10 am
I just don’t understand why the NCAA used a very stupid and broad definition of “agent” in order to consider whoever bought the jersey to be one? It’s like they were trying to pin anything on Green since they couldn’t get him on attending the party.
BAMA dude
September 10th, 2010
10:27 am
6. voice of reason is still waiting for that special day to come where his dawgs will be more than a run-of-the-mill program
not a hipocrit like tech fans
September 10th, 2010
10:29 am
dude, you want to talk about thugs? have you ever heard nesbit speak???? dude,, no way he is taking the normal curriculum at tech…
BAMA dude
September 10th, 2010
10:30 am
Hey not a hipocrit- I think the word you were looking for is “hypocrite”
Tech magnet
September 10th, 2010
11:13 am
Awww!!! Is little BAMA dude still upset he got his butt kicked on here yesterday? LOL!!! Voice of Reason, you are dead on!!!! Props to you for speaking the truth.
Tech magnet
September 10th, 2010
11:13 am
Bama fans correcting people’s grammar now? LOLLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!
BAMA stud
September 10th, 2010
11:20 am
so what if I enjoy sitting on parking cones in the nude?
Go USC!
September 10th, 2010
12:29 pm
Excuses, excuses, excuses… a lie is a lie no matter how big or how little! Bad choices have bad consequences. We all need to teach our children right from wrong – - not right or wrong on a sliding scale depending on how many people you hurt or how much money you did or didn’t get.
These players are being paid with a free education – we need to encourage them to take full advantage of all this opportunity – just in case their body gives out and they have something more to fall back on then an old football jersey!
Tech magnet
September 10th, 2010
2:20 pm
Go USC = shamed Tech fan in disguise
D. Glaze
September 10th, 2010
5:16 pm
Every writer seems to not remember that these athletes are getting scholarships that are worth a great deal of money. They are getting paid! I have sons that I only can wish they could have the same opportunity.
Palladin
September 11th, 2010
10:10 am
Tech magnet
September 10th, 2010
11:13 am
Bama fans correcting people’s grammar now? LOLLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!
What do you expect them to do? Bama fans have no need for desperate smack talk since their football team is making their dominance evident on the field of play. Being a fan of a truly elite team renders these football blogs a rather boring exercise. One must find something to alleviate the tedium of reading the half-baked rants of the jealous.
Brogens Hero
September 12th, 2010
10:12 pm
I love the bugs players excuse Kansas wanted it more. Well at least they admitted they suck!