Tuesday, March 9, 2010

College "Sports".

Good Afternoon Folks:

Well brace yourself folks, once again I am in a mood to "Harp" on the subject of College Sports.

I take it as a sign of the denigration of our society , when so called "Sports" take the upper hand in our Educational Institutions.

Time was, a College or University was a place where young people went to gain an Education in order to make themselves more employable, a place of respect, where Scholars were esteemed, and when one graduated from their chosen Educational venue, one could take pride in their education, and society as a whole generally benefited from their efforts.

Now it seems that Colleges are simply a place for far to many people to go for no other reason than to play "Sports", and hopefully get a free ride to a lucrative Professional career.

I would find not as much fault in this loophole in our Educational System, if the players in these sports also studied for and received a measurable education, obeyed not just Criminal laws, but generally accepted moral guidelines, which decent people are expected to follow to become good citizens, and contributors to an improving society.

But today, thanks to those people who don't care what a young person does, or what variety of laws they break, just as long as they show up for practice, hungover or not, and be ready for game day.

I guess the fault lies with all of us, in not absolutely insisting that our children be able to attend such an institution with a realistic probability that they would get a good education, in a safe environment for learning, and learn valuable lessons, to be of value to not just themselves and their families, but to society as a whole and succeed in being a good and contributing part of our society.

What started me on this current "Rant", was an Associated Press article in our local paper about an incident in a Texas College.

It concerned an event at Division II Texas A&M-Commerce, when several members of the University's Football Team were arrested on drug charges.
The Schools Student Newspaper ran a front page article about the players arrest, and distributed some Two Thousand copies around the campus, presumably in free vending machines.

The article went on to say that football team players went around the Campus, removing every one of the copies of this edition, and, though the article doesn't say, presumably destroying the papers.

But to throw salt on an already grievous wound, the Football Coach was quoted as saying "I'm proud of my players for doing that". The article says that the Coach, one Guy Morriss, was disciplined for his words, but, typical for what passes for Associated Press Journalistic excellence, doesn't spell out what said discipline amounted to, saying only that someone or something called "Jolly" declined to discuss details. We are left to wonder whether "jolly" if a living person, is the President of the College, The Athletic Director or maybe the towel boy for the team.

We are also left to not only shake our heads at the apparent unbelief in Normal Ethical behavior in our Colleges and Universities, but at the sloppiness of the Associated Press.

Perhaps the A.P. writer graduated from A&M-Commerce?

This is a sad state of affairs in itself, but even sadder when we stop to think that this kind of behavior goes on all the time, and all we can do is shake our heads in disbelief , and wonder why so many decent honorable young people are no longer able to afford to attend one of these Institutions of Higher Learning.

Until and if, we as a society stand up on our hind legs and say "NO MORE" willl this sorry state of affairs end, and our Politicians and Academic Officials get their heads out of their asses, will the collective intelligence of this great Nation once again to embark on the path to our former place of pride in our Institutions and their Faculties.

What Say You?


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