Quote:
Originally Posted by dozerbuck
I have a feeling that the student athletes at those schools don't look at football as a "side gig" and I think its pretty lousy that you make an assumption like that. I have a feeling that Tyrell Sutton doesn't view football as a "side" activity, and I dont think those kids at Stanford were just happy about being at Stanford when they beat USC.
This kid will be the first in his family to go to college, and to go for free has to be an amazing feeling....especially for a sport he has just starting
to play. So, if getting a free education is the first thing that pops into his mind should be something you applaude, not criticize.
Kids that don't take things for granted are the first ones in the weight room....the first ones at study table...the type of student athletes that make a program proud. They are the leaders and the backbone of everyteam.
There have been plenty of Hall of Fame football players that realize football isn't the end all be all. I actually find it quite refreshing that he his excited about the free education and not complaining about the money that the school is stealing from him.
Im sorry, I just can't see a negative in that  |
Okay, I guess I worded that awkwardly. I didn't mean that they don't care about it there. I guess the opening paragraph just struck me as weird and a bit out of the ordinary for the type of football player that you normally see get an offer from Jim Tressel:
?I was in the band. I?m in love with playing drums. I?ve been playing the drums all of my life. I played football in grade school a little bit.
Freshman year I didn?t want to. Sophomore year I thought about it, but then I didn?t want to. Our football team won state that year, so I was having a lot of fun in the band.
Last year I started working with the football team and then I stopped because it wasn?t for me at the time. Once nothing was rolling around with the band, I played a little bit of basketball, but there was nothing too big there. My coaches kept telling me, ?man, if you want to be, you?re a division I football player. You just have to work at it.? It took a lot for me to really trust that. My best friend is
Darius Ashley. He and my other friend
Stephon Ball were saying that I should come out and that it would be a great experience and that I would have a lot of fun. So I decided to do it.
I really just wanted to get college paid for. That was my main goal."
Again, not that big of a deal and I'm not trying to downgrade him. But, as a St. X student who played sports, I knew that there were a lot of kids who used sports as a way to get accepted to the college of their choice (Ivy league for example) or as a way to get a college scholarship. A lot of the ones who did that but didn't really love the sport they were playing quit after a year or two or after the first injury they got. They went on to receive great educations, great jobs and are good people. Their parents are proud of them and they did a great thing by working hard and finding a way to get college paid for. But, they were just using sports as a means to an end and did not care as much about winning NC's, being great players, etc.
Just an observation as an outsider after being struck by a couple comments in his interview. I'm not drawing a conclusion, but more throwing the question out there to people who have more knowledge. Does Greg love football? If he doesn't, does that have an effect on his ability to gut it out through the tough times (injuries, being buried on a depth chart, etc.)?