« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

MEMBER DIARY

Leave the OSU players alone already

By: ashland_avenue (Diary)  |  May 26th, 2011 at 02:25 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

When I was a senior in high school, Mother sat me down for a talk.  “Let’s talk about college.  You can go anywhere you want as long as you live at home, work for your father, and pay for it yourself.”  Then the discussion was over.

I went to a high school where the only student anyone ever recalls getting into Harvard had an overpowering fastball and was All City pitcher.  Most of my friends either commuted, as I did, or attended one of the state universities away.

All of this came to mind this week, with headlines blaring that Ohio State athletes may have sold memorabilia earned while playing on its teams.

Media reports indentify one of the alleged violators as ex-Ohio State football player Ray Small.

Small said he used the money he got to cover his typical costs of living.

“We have apartments, car notes,” he said. “So you got things like that and you look around and you’re like, ‘Well I got (four) of them, I can sell one or two and get some money to pay this rent.”

I find it hard to criticize a player for converting a championship ring to cash for things like apartment rent or car payments.

Re car payments, on completing a four year degree commuting, I moved East to attend graduate school.  It was in a leafy, New England town graced with both a state university and an Ivy League college.  In the days when a VW bug was under $2,000, there was in the town a Porsche with license plates reading COORS.

I don’t think the Porsche came from playing football or throwing an overwhelming fastball.  I begrudge neither the beer scion’s free ride through an Ivy, nor my classmate’s fastball which got him into Harvard.  Incidentally the former baseball pitcher is a named partner these days in a very successful law firm.

Nor do I think that anyone should come down hard on a kid who sells his championship ring to pay the rent.  He earned it, he sold it, he spent it.  Leave him alone already.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/26/ray-small-ohio-state-sold-rings-cash_n_867342.html

Incidentally, I hate Ohio State.

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • http://www.gmsplace.com/ civil truth

    Fundamentally, the corruption here is the dogma in our society, one that has come to believe that our talents are not gifts from God but rather commercial assets to be exploited for money and adulation.

    And once you’ve buying into these prevailing values, you’ve lost your moral compass and end up selling your birthright for porridge.

    So I mostly feel sorrow for these athletes, who have sold out so cheaply, sorrow at the vacuity of it all.

    And for a society that does not see how far it has fallen into worshiping the idol of mammon, that senses something amiss but years ago threw away the tools to understand.

  • ashland_avenue

    A stretch to conclude that he sold his birthright.

    • http://www.gmsplace.com/ civil truth

      The corruption is the prostituting of one’s talents – an attitude which yields bad fruit like selling the ring. Violating rules is another fruit.

      Selling the ring is symptomatic of the larger moral confusion of our age that I referred to in my earlier comment, and as such is probably more an unthinking going along with the zeitgeist rather than committing a conscious wrong.

      Another sign of what Screwtape was celebrating in his Toast:

      Instead of this, what have we had tonight? There was a municipal authority with Graft sauce. But personally I could not detect in him the flavour of a really passionate and brutal avarice such as delighted one in the great tycoons of the last century. Was he not unmistakably a Little Man

  • powertothepeople

    but as Rightwingmom states, rules are rules.

    There are strict rules in college ball that every player and coach has to agree to and sign that they agree. They can not profit from football in any way shape or form outside of sanctioned scholarships. He won those things while playing football and sold them while still playing football of going to school.This is a major no no in college football and is along the same lines as taking a rent free apartment or a paid for car. He knew the rules, he willfully broke them. Being hungry is not an excuse for stealing nor is “needing rent money” an excuse for breaking NCAA rules that he agreed to follow.

    • ashland_avenue

      As you say, we have rules that define the ways in which we live together. And much of life is how those rules are interpreted and enforced.

      If, for example, you want to come out for the rigid enforcement of rules come hell or high water, you could make the case that Navy SEALS who captured terrorists in Iraq may have done something wrong in tossing off a punch. It would be, and has been, a gross miscarriage of justice to go down that route.

      Futher, you don’t really understand economics and a free economy if you deem giving out a discount as somehow breaking rules. My father had a business (in which I worked) selling big ticket items. The ticketed price was only the beginning of a discussion.

      You don’t seriously believe that every Ford Focus sold by a dealer goes out for the same price?

      Selling tattoos at a discounted price to high profile athletes isnt necessarily a gift. It’s a sale.

      Your position of pricing rigidity reminds me of argument between two fathers on hilltop overlooking an Armenian village. The argument was over whose son was smarter.

      One father asked the other to take out a dollar bill. OK, he said to his son, what is the square root of this serial number? Sure enough the kid did it in his head, and again and again.

      My son is much smarter than that, the other father said. Turning to his boy, the second father asked: What is two plus two?

      Easy, the boy said. Are we buying or selling?

      If your complaint was that these athletes had taken money from gamblers to throw a game, I would be your strongest ally. But, suggesting that by getting cut rate tatoos and selling something they had earned that these were somehow miscreants, I can’t agree.

      There is such a thing in sports, and in Washington, and in life as judgment. In this case, I believe judgment argues that the actions described above are not a big deal.

      • powertothepeople

        this has zero to do with the political world or this sites mission, you can excuse his actions all you want but that does not negate the fact he knew the rules, agreed to abide by them, signed a contract with the NCAA stating he knew the rules (they are on the form) and that hell or high water he would abide by them.

        Next, I said nothing about tattoos, but if he had money for a tattoo no matter the discount, then that blows his “I needed rent money” argument right out of the water. If a person has money to blow on tattoos, then they have no excuse when they can not afford rent. And if they are blowing money on tats, not paying their rent, it is most likely they spend a bunch of money of things that are not necessary such as clubs, booze, designer clothes, etc. So again, do not feel sorry for a person like that.

        See when people grow out of their teen years and into maturity (some people are well past the teen years and still not mature) they start to respect the law, follow the law, no matter how petty a kid may think the law to be. See that is the difference between children and adults, kids only want to follow rules they like, adults follow the rules because it is the right thing to do. So not sure what the “cute” little story about the Armenian fathers and their sons has to do with any of this, but whatever floats your boat.

        Again, your understand economics comment has no bearing on what I posted. Try reading sometimes, it will help you keep up. But since you brought it up, you should really make sure you understand what you claim another does not understand. The NCAA’s rules are quite clear. Since it seems you have an issue with comprehension, I will use the tat issue and make it simple just for you. A player who plays for an NCAA school can not accept any form of compensation or they are in trouble. Now, if the tat shop was having a discount day where anyone who came in or everyone who meets the discounts demands gets the discount, then it is fine. But if the discount is given just because he is the football star, it is a violation of NCAA rules. You can piss and moan about the rules, but they are there for a purpose and they are getting tough on it because all over the country players are cheating and being bought to play. But then again, I made no tattoo comment. But then again, you would have known that if you would have actually read my reply and you would have known about the rules and the way it works had you spent more time learning “economics” even though economics have nothing to do with this and if you would have taken the time to read the NCAA rules and why they are in place.

        College ball has these rules, no matter how dumb you think they are, to ensure the purity of the game and to keep rich donors and rich schools from buying players. They have these rules, such as grade rules, to make sure as well as they can that schools do not ruin their players chances at a great education just so they spend all their time playing football of which may never make them a dime after graduation.

        So anywho, this is not political in any way, my stating of NCAA rules and the clear fact he broke the rules and needs to pay the price has nothing to do with your perception the SEALS broke the rules, Never said anything about tats even though you are way off on that one too, and just so you know, economics has nothing to do with any of this.

  • rightwingmom52

    the athletes broke them and rightly deserve the punishment. Not to mention that Small may have used his money to pay the rent, but most of the players got discounted services at the tatoo parlor. Hardly a necessity.

  • congressworksforus

    As you said, the athletes broke the rules an rightly deserve the punishment.

    Not the University.

    This is where the NCAA rules fall flat. The school gets nailed because, as Ray Small said:

    “They explain the rules to you, but as a kid you’re not really listening to all of them rules,” Small said. “You go out and you just, people show you so much love, you don’t even think about the rules. You’re just like ‘Ah man, it’s cool.’ You take it, and next thing you know the NCAA is down your back.”

    (H/T: USAToday)

    Seems to me these colleges do what they’re supposed to, the players (aka dumb kids) do stupid stuff, but the college and the next set of kids pay the price.

    Sounds a bit like dumping $14.3 T of debt on future generations to me…

  • rightwingmom52

    I hesitate to even post this response because I agree with pttp that I’m not sure what this diary has to do with a political site except to the extent that the attitude therein seems to be on par with that of society today, not to mention that some athletes today seem to think the rules don’t apply. Sounds a bit liberal to me. I’ll try to tie things together.

    I agree that it’s not fair for one team to have to pay the penalty for what a previous team did. The NCAA should change that rule. But in this case, you win as a team, you lose as a team, and you suffer punishment for breaking the rules as a team. Any one of the players could have done the right thing for the team and reported the violation. The coach (who should be fired) could have done the right thing instead of covering up the violations for a year and allowing players who should have been ineligible to play. It certainly wasn’t fair to Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl, or for the players on all the teams OSU beat in 2010, or the Big 10 conference teams.

    I have no sympathy for Small. First he says he wasn’t listening to the rules, then he says most athletes “don’t even think about rules.” Then he implies it’s okay to break rules because everybody’s doing it. Sounds kinda like the entitlement bit we hear from liberals, doesn’t it?

    I know kids do stupid things (having been one and had one), but athletes are given an opportunity to display their talent and perhaps parlay that into something after college plus get a free of charge education. Breaking a “little” rule is like telling a little, white lie. It’s still wrong, and if you grow up thinking it’s okay, eventually you start overlooking the “big” rules. The trouble with society today is that too much bad behavior and rule-breaking is excused, covered up or overlooked in order to achieve the desired end result. It’s never too early to learn that you have to pay for your mistakes.

    Just an opinion from an SEC fan.