If you haven't heard by now Miami is in a lot of trouble for being a naughty program. Convicted Ponzi Schemer Nevin Shapiro has decided to come forward admitting to many millions of dollars of improper benefits he provided for players from 2002-2010. "Lil' Luke" as he was known in team circles was guilty of three things, 1.) Having a nickname that made him sound like the member of the Sopranos that gets kicked in the nuts all the time and then his scene "magically" gets cut from the show. 2.) Funding many acts that are both illegal in terms of NCAA Bylaw and that are ACTUALLY illegal. 3.) Being that guy, who goes on a "shooting rampage" and then "turns the gun on himself". If you're going to be a jerkass and mess up your favorite team, speaking as a fan, keep it to yourself instead of securing yourself a book deal and ruining everyone else's good time.
I've wondered for years why kids continue to take their talents to South Beach. Urban Dictionary defines "I'll be taking my talents to South Beach" as:
1. To inform someone that the current situation is no longer working.
2. F*** off.
3. You're not doing it for me anymore, or what you offer is lacking.
What the other schools were offering was indeed lacking and this helps explain why from 2006-2010 Miami was averaging a 14th place recruiting class while finishing with a crap record. A question in my mind though, is that there are schools that finished in front of them in recruiting with far more middling success on the field. What are those schools doing? But I digress.
This article sums up how I have felt about Football and Men's Basketball for a couple years now. It is brilliant. Do you believe in earning money for doing good work? Do you think it's fair that with my favorite Greg Jones jersey the only person in the entire world who cannot make money on that jersey is Greg Jones? Yeah me either. If any article can change your mind on a scholarship being adequate compensation for football players generating 100 million dollars in revenue for their school, it's this one.
The kids at Miami committed a series of very serious violations. Death penalty to Miami football serious violations. After reading what I have in this article and several others, after spending many hours debating that a scholarship is not adequate recompense while the school makes millions of dollars on the backs of these kids. The only thing I feel firmly planted in saying on the subject is that many of these violations are ridiculous and that most things in life, you can watch the show and enjoy or you can peel back the facade, see the dirty underside and learn to love it anyway. That's what I've done with college football.
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