NCAA football 2013

[Drew]

Here's where we argue about the things 17 year olds do.

[Drew]

Donna Shalala's response to the NCAA allegations of lack of institutional control against Miami (bolded parts by me):


The University of Miami deeply regrets and takes full responsibility for those NCAA violations that are based on fact and are corroborated by multiple individuals and/or documentation. We have already self-imposed a bowl ban for an unprecedented two-year period, forfeited the opportunity to participate in an ACC championship game, and withheld student-athletes from competition.

Over the two and a half years since the University of Miami first contacted the NCAA enforcement staff about allegations of rules violations, the NCAA interviewed dozens of witnesses, including current and former Miami employees and student-athletes, and received thousands of requested documents and emails from the University. Yet despite our efforts to aid the investigation, the NCAA acknowledged on February 18, 2013 that it violated its own policies and procedures in an attempt to validate the allegations made by a convicted felon. Many of the allegations included in the Notice of Allegations remain unsubstantiated.

Now that the Notice of Allegations has been issued, let me provide some context to the investigation itself:

--Many of the charges brought forth are based on the word of a man who made a fortune by lying. The NCAA enforcement staff acknowledged to the University that if Nevin Shapiro, a convicted con man, said something more than once, it considered the allegation "corroborated"—an argument which is both ludicrous and counter to legal practice.

--Most of the sensationalized media accounts of Shapiro's claims are found nowhere in the Notice of Allegations. Despite their efforts over two and a half years, the NCAA enforcement staff could not find evidence of prostitution, expensive cars for players, expensive dinners paid for by boosters, player bounty payments, rampant alcohol and drug use, or the alleged hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts given to student-athletes, as reported in the media. The fabricated story played well—the facts did not.

--The NCAA enforcement staff failed, even after repeated requests, to interview many essential witnesses of great integrity who could have provided first-hand testimony, including, unbelievably, Paul Dee, who has since passed away, but who served as Miami Athletic Director during many of the years that violations were alleged to have occurred. How could a supposedly thorough and fair investigation not even include the Director of Athletics?

--Finally, we believe the NCAA was responsible for damaging leaks of unsubstantiated allegations over the course of the investigation. Let me be clear again: for any rule violation—substantiated and proven with facts—that the University, its employees, or student-athletes committed, we have been and should be held accountable. We have worked hard to improve our compliance oversight, and we have already self-imposed harsh sanctions.

We deeply regret any violations, but we have suffered enough. The University and counsel will work diligently to prepare our official response to the Notice of Allegations and submit it to the Committee on Infractions within the required 90-day time period.

We trust that the Committee on Infractions will provide the fairness and integrity missing during the investigative process.


The most ludicrous part is that somehow the NCAA believes something is corroborated if a guy who stole a billion dollars said it twice. My jaw literally (and I'm using this literally) hit my keyboard when I read that.

[Keller]

Donna should just make public the NoA. That would clear all of this up.

:)

[Gelston]

Hurry up season! I've been watching Top 25 Games of 2012 on ESPNU and a bunch of older shit on CSS. This time of the year sucks so much.

Maybe I'll go bark at police dogs in Florida.

[Buckwheet]

Here is hoping Derrick Henry is healthy for the opener against VT!

[Latrinsorm]

I have brayed many times previously that football is going the way of the dodo due to, you know, being built on watching grown men concuss themselves and ruin the rest of their lives.

Isn't it disquieting watching young men do the same, many of whom will never receive the arguably (given again rest-of-life debilitation) fat THE National Football League contracts?

No need to argue. Latrinsorms just don't understand.

[SHAFT]

Football isn't going anywhere. NASCAR is dangerous, that's going ok. Baseball players get hit in the head on a regular basis and MLB is doing ok. Boxing, which might be the most obvious of the bunch, is doing ok.

[tyrant-201]

Football isn't going anywhere. NASCAR is dangerous, that's going ok. Baseball players get hit in the head on a regular basis and MLB is doing ok. Boxing, which might be the most obvious of the bunch, is doing ok.

There's a point here either way. No denying football is a rough sport, and the tough contact involved in playing it does lead to long term disability/problems. Questioning whether it's right to support it I can understand, but the fact of the matter is that in this day and age the players go into it knowing the risks. They are compensated accordingly for it (some better than others). If you taper down the physicality of it, you remove the reason a lot of people watch and enjoy the game.

[Latrinsorm]

Boxing used to be the third major sport. Now it's maybe the sixth, and falling. Not sure about "ok".

David Wright got hit in the head once and it was a universal (that is, one third of New York) catastrophe, and 25 men freak out when a pitcher even comes close to hitting someone in the head. Grown-ass men. They're not rushing the field (just) because they're bored. Serious business.

.

Nothing is going anywhere until it does, namsayin'? Baseball was clearly America's sport until it wasn't, and that was from losing half a season to some sissy labor dispute. Football is clearly America's sport... until it isn't. Jim McMahon can't do up his own pants, okay? Kevin Millar wasn't involved in the Super Bowl Shuffle. Kurt Warner is going to shuffle out to some Rams Ring of Fame knockoff in the next 5 years and slur his words, and Tony Kornheiser's head will explode (with no slurring, and with absolutely no reference to the time he thought concussions were for whiners when he talked up Brett Favre getting concussed and coming back IN THE SAME GODDAMN GAME to throw a touch-the-down).

Football is a blood sport, and future generations will be ashamed of every one of us who hooted and hollered for it as men turned their brains into scrambled eggs.

[Latrinsorm]

Questioning whether it's right to support it I can understand, but the fact of the matter is that in this day and age the players go into it knowing the risks.Smash cut to Roger Goodell on February 3rd, 2013:

"Goodell declined to confirm that there is a proven connection between the sport and medical problems in retired players. He emphasized that the NFL is funding research to learn more about the risks and changing rules to make the game safer."

And the NCAA makes Roger Goodell look like Mother gosh-darned Theresa. The players are lied to every day by the people writing their checks, give me a break on "the players know the risks", okay?

[Gelston]

I have brayed many times previously that football is going the way of the dodo due to, you know, being built on watching grown men concuss themselves and ruin the rest of their lives.

Isn't it disquieting watching young men do the same, many of whom will never receive the arguably (given again rest-of-life debilitation) fat THE National Football League contracts?

No need to argue. Latrinsorms just don't understand.

At least it is more interesting than basketball.

[Gelston]

Smash cut to Roger Goodell on February 3rd, 2013:

"Goodell declined to confirm that there is a proven connection between the sport and medical problems in retired players. He emphasized that the NFL is funding research to learn more about the risks and changing rules to make the game safer."

And the NCAA makes Roger Goodell look like Mother gosh-darned Theresa. The players are lied to every day by the people writing their checks, give me a break on "the players know the risks", okay?

Okay. Any players with common sense know the risks. Clear? Clear.

[Latrinsorm]

How many times do you think medical doctors cite common sense in peer-review journals? Common sense is bullshit, bro, and nobody cares what nerds have to say until you can't remember how you got into the doctor's office, or how he just told you how you basically have Alzheimer's at 30 years old. (Haha, just kidding, you wouldn't care then either because you didn't remember what he said. Haha!)

Putting the burden of knowledge on an 18 year old (who has already taken dozens of hits to the head) rather than the fat cat 50 year olds who pay him $0.00 per hour is also some serious bullshit.

.

Bro, we've already read this story. It was called the Jungle, and nobody came away from that with the interpretation "it was the workers' own fault that they subjected themselves to unsafe and actively immoral workplace conditions!". Come on, now.

[Gelston]

k

[Latrinsorm]

Good talk.

[tyrant-201]

Well, not to mention, for years the mentality when someone got their bell rung was "Shake it off and get your ass back in the game." Not sure what measures NCAA football has taken lately, but NFL seems to have buckled down when it's clear a player has been concussed.

[Gelston]

Well, not to mention, for years the mentality when someone got their bell rung was "Shake it off and get your ass back in the game." Not sure what measures NCAA football has taken lately, but NFL seems to have buckled down when it's clear a player has been concussed.

Quite a few. They have made penalties for violating safety rules more severe aswell. New this year, if a player intentionally hits a defenseless player above the shoulders he will be ejected from the game. If it occurs during 2nd half, they are booted for the 1st half of their next game too. A lot of other things are still illegal, such as clipping, horse collaring, helmet to helmet, face mask, etc etc etc.

Few other things of note, if a player causes and injury time out... They must be removed and checked out. If a helmet flies off, they have to get looked at too.

[tyrant-201]

Quite a few. They have made penalties for violating safety rules more severe aswell. New this year, if a player intentionally hits a defenseless player above the shoulders he will be ejected from the game. If it occurs during 2nd half, they are booted for the 1st half of their next game too. A lot of other things are still illegal, such as clipping, horse collaring, helmet to helmet, face mask, etc etc etc.

Not sure what else either league can do and still maintain the reason people watch the game. As it is now, people are becoming more and more frustrated with rule changes.

[Gelston]

It is the first year they are doing the ejection rule. We'll see how it goes. I think the key part of it is "intent". Hopefully the Refs remember that. The ejection can be challenged as well, but I'm not sure if that would cause a pause in gameplay or just be discussions in the box while play continues.

And note, the ejection deal is only for hitting a defenseless player above the shoulders. I'm not aware of them changing penalties for the other things.

One of the recent videos they are associating with it is this. They say this would be a prime candidate for a player being ejected.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENuZHnQlqX0

[Gelston]

Oh... And one more thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYOFygjOzxg