Ohio State's Reality Check
So, the Ohio State Bucheye's have lost 5 players and a coach to scandalous sale of memorabilia, cars, honor, pride and just plain good taste. But, quite frankly, the most outrageous thing I've heard in connection with this far too predictable debacle is a comment made by a commentator defending the actions of the miscreant athletes. This man actually said the colleges were to blame for making the players work for nothing but three hots and a cot. Excuse me, but as someone who had to work and pay her own way through college on $5/week for food and as many roommates as you could squeeze into off campus housing (my record was 9 of us in a basement apartment with one bathroom), I would have loved the sweet deal these football players were given. They have a college education handed to them, whether or not they deserve it academically, just because they can play ball! They could go to class, they could study, they could leave school with a degree--all for free! Of course a great many of them don't attend, crack a book or graduate. Why? Not because they don't have the opportunity but because they are simply too lazy and spoiled to think they have to work for a living.
I know, I know, the pseudo sympathetic out there are already excusing the athletes' bad behavior by siting impoverished background, sub-standard schools, and minority status. Horse manure! The poor and minorities are just as likely to know right from wrong as the wealthy and empowered. The history of this country is filled with people who educated themselves beyond odds, who made the most of whatever schooling was available; who fought against all manner of handicaps and did so with honor. The Ohio State footballs players could have chosen good and responsible behavior but did not.
In every university in this country there are hundreds of students who are having to make it through school with little or no financial help. They are working two jobs, studying when they should be sleeping and living on macaroni and cheese but they are getting a college education--the hard way. They are every bit as gifted at science, mathematics, history, literature, geography, or the arts as the football players are at their game, but no on is offering them the same scholarships because the alumni don't pay to watch students think. These athletes that took advantage of their player status are nothing more than spoiled brats. There is no excuse for them. Ohio State needs to weed them out and then ask themselves this: In the long run, who is going to benefit mankind and Ohio State more, self-indulgent ball players or serious scholars?
I know, I know, the pseudo sympathetic out there are already excusing the athletes' bad behavior by siting impoverished background, sub-standard schools, and minority status. Horse manure! The poor and minorities are just as likely to know right from wrong as the wealthy and empowered. The history of this country is filled with people who educated themselves beyond odds, who made the most of whatever schooling was available; who fought against all manner of handicaps and did so with honor. The Ohio State footballs players could have chosen good and responsible behavior but did not.
In every university in this country there are hundreds of students who are having to make it through school with little or no financial help. They are working two jobs, studying when they should be sleeping and living on macaroni and cheese but they are getting a college education--the hard way. They are every bit as gifted at science, mathematics, history, literature, geography, or the arts as the football players are at their game, but no on is offering them the same scholarships because the alumni don't pay to watch students think. These athletes that took advantage of their player status are nothing more than spoiled brats. There is no excuse for them. Ohio State needs to weed them out and then ask themselves this: In the long run, who is going to benefit mankind and Ohio State more, self-indulgent ball players or serious scholars?
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