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High school athlete sentenced to "no sports"

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Oggiedoggie, Sep 18, 2009.

  1. Twoback

    Twoback Active Member

    Bullcrap.
    If the kid had scholarship offers, that means he had some future in his sport. It's not about whether he can go play 18 on the weekends. It's about something he's good at and that offers him some chance of a better future being taken away by a grandstanding judge. If the kid belongs in jail, fine. Put him in jail. If the kid belongs on the street, he should be free to pursue legal, beneficial activities. There's nothing to indicate involvement in sports made this kid any more prone to commit a crime. The judge just wanted a headline, and he got it. Again, there is no place on the bench for this kind of nonsense.
     
  2. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    I do see your point, but to me, this is at best a boderline kid. He needs help if he is going to straighten out. I don't like a decision that makes it much less likely for him to do that.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 1, 2015
  3. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    I think the thought of going to jail for 8 years, or whatever it is, would give me all the motivation I needed to stay out of trouble. That's just me.
     
  4. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Me too, but I would never shoot somebody in the face with a BB gun, either, so we're dealing with somebody whose thought process is a bit different from yours and mine.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 1, 2015
  5. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    I think it's safe to say the only thing this sentence does is point the judge toward an eventual career as John Boehner's successor (same district). This person sounds like someone who's been in trouble for a long time, and sad to say probably will get in trouble again no matter what the sentence.
     
  6. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    I agree with your second to last sentence, and as I said initially, I thought five years of no sports was too harsh. 1-2 years would be fine. The kid needs to learn the lesson. But he's not going to learn it if he feels that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. A 19-year-old barely thinks five days ahead, much less five years.

    As far as the kid having a future taken away from him by a judge, that's BS. First, the kid took his own future away by shooting the BB gun. Second, the kid can get ahead of life another way. It's called studying, and it's what the majority of us mere mortals do to get ahead.

    I'll tell a quick story of something that happened to me one summer as a camp counselor in a rich kids camp.

    We had a system of punishments set up for our bunk (6-9 year olds). They had timeouts, lost cantine privileges and (for most severest punishment), shoveled horse manure of the riding ponies during their free periods. The horse manure duty usually did the job, and the kids would behave after 1 or 2 sessions.

    Except for one 8-year-old, who, no matter how many days of horse duty, continued to misbehave. Mouthing off, hitting the other kids, etc. Nothing worked, until the day that I told him he couldn't join his travel soccer team for a road game against another camp.

    Kid started bawling, and cried for the entire day. The director of the camp even tried to get me to rescind it (I suspected because he wanted to win the game). I told him that if he rescinded it, that I wouldn't lift another finger to help out for the rest of camp. Director let me implement the punishment.

    That night, I didn't spend any money at the bar, because every counselor who was fed up with the kid bought me a drink. The kid behaved himself pretty well for the rest of the camp.

    On the last day, the kid's parents came to me and said they had letters written by their son complaining about me. The parents then thanked me, because their son had told his friends prior to camp that he was going to misbehave so badly that he would get kicked out.

    So you see, sometimes, you have to get the kid's attention. While I said that five years without sports was too harsh, a year or two is guaranteed to get his attention. And just maybe, instead of pouting and feeling sorry for himself, he'll hit the books and get into college anyways.
     
  7. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    You really think your method of dealing with an 8-year-old behaving like a little shit applies well to a violent 19-year-old?

    Over the years I have spoken to many athletes who were troubled in one way or another as teenagers. Time and again, they told me it was some aspect of athletics that kept them afloat long enough to straighten out. Maybe it was a coach who figured out how to handle them. Maybe it was a the opportunity to go to college on a scholarship. Maybe it was the desire to keep playing.

    I mentioned earlier a take-out piece I did years ago on academic eligibility in high school. I was shocked at how many teachers, parents, administrators and coaches told me that the last thing you want to do is take the sport away from a kid who is struggling to find his way. When you do, they are much more likely to get worse than better.

    The bottom line is we do agree regarding the judge's sentence. One or two years would have made a hell of a lot more sense, as long as he stipulated that the kid had to be perfect during that time to return to the field. No problems. Keep his grades up. No slip-ups. Perfect.
     
  8. Twoback

    Twoback Active Member

    No.
    Taking sports away makes no sense. Period. There is no logic to saying to someone, "This is what you do well, and I'm going to take it away because I can." Sports is not a criminal activity. It cannot be perceived as such. It cannot be equated to such. The demonization of sports is not acceptable. We do not demonize other positive activities in this manner. Why sports?
     
  9. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Maybe because athletes are put on a very high pedestal, even though, in the great scheme of life, what they do has as much importance as tiddlywinks.

    That's not to say that sports is important. Obviously, getting exercise is majorly important for one's health. And it's fun to do, and it can be inspiring.

    But that's all it is. A few years ago in SI, I read a story of a high school in Texas spending something like $18 million to build a football stadium, while the kids were going without books. The principal, when asked, responded that 10,000 people weren't cheering on the kids to pass a science exam.

    I wanted to wring that principal's neck and ask him, "So, when 10,000 people have heart attacks, do you want them to die, or do you want the science student to save their lives?"

    It's about priorities. Yeah, how the U.S. did against the USSR in the Olympics during the Cold War was important for our morale. But we still had the nukes (and so did they). Was it more important to do well in the Olympics, or build weapons that could prevent our annihilation?
     
  10. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Sports can also be a source of discipline. It can provide challenges that make a person grow. And I do think you were a tad too dismissive its role in providing entertainment and the occasional moment of inspiration.

    Were that school in Texas's priorities out of whack? Absolutely. But that really has nothing to do with the case discussed in this thread. It does point to some resentment toward athletes and athletics, which seems to be showing up in a number of posts in this thread.

    Is it silly that people are so passionate about sports? Maybe, but those passions do exist and they do matter. I was in a foul mood for about an hour after the Steelers lost on Sunday and I felt silly about it the whole time. But that's how I felt. Then I moved on to the next thing in my day. Maybe sports shouldn't matter so much to so many of us, but they do.

    Does any of that mean that this kid should get off easy because he is a jock? Absolutely not. He got off easy because that is what the victim and his family asked for. If anything, I believe the fact that he is an athlete is the only reason the judge imposed any punishment beyond the jail time. That is a problem in our society. Jocks sometimes get off easy when they fuck up because of who they are, but sometimes the law comes down on them even harder because some judge needs a little more attention or he wants to show what a tough guy he is.

    Taking athletics away from the kid for so long that his career will be pretty much over when the sentence runs out wasn't productive. It is much more likely to make the kid do worse things than better. Maybe that will deter some other jock from behaving like an idiot, but I sincerely doubt it. The judge could have done a hell of a lot better with a shorter suspension from sports, giving the kid an opportunity to earn his way back by straightening out his life, but he chose to make a show of things instead.
     
  11. Twoback

    Twoback Active Member

    OOP, Plaxico Burress -- you remember him? Dropped a likely TD pass against NE in the 2004/2005 playoffs? -- agrees today as he starts a prison sentence that is based entirely on his celebrity.
     
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