University of Miami, you are a thug school

The BBQ Pit
1

A bench clearing brawl between the University of Miami and Florida International. Now FIU isn’t exactly known as a football powerhouse.

Still, this is just one of the many thug incidents in the University of Miami’s proud history. Let’s take a look at your alumni:

Michael Irvin lover of cocaine

Kellen Winslow II who thinks he’s fighting a war when he taunts injured players.

Jeremy Shockey who should have majored in communication at UM with the way he shoots his mouth off.

Santana Moss who beat up a police officer during a bar fight.

Warren Sapp A druggie who thinks he is working on the plantation by making millions of dollars in the NFL.

Last but not least, Drew Rosenhaus who gives invaluable advice to the NFL’s #1 asshole, Terrell Owens.

2

Were they able to determine what precipitated the fight? Were the FIU players salty because they were losing, or was there something else going on?

I guess it doesn’t matter. No one at FIU was expecting them to win anyway.

3

I loved the wasy one guy took off his helmet, so he could use it to beat people over the head. :rolleyes"

4

I bet you look at any college football powerhouse and you’ll find a bunch of thugs. Football does tend to attract men with more criminal tendencies than, say, rowing.

And I’m not just saying that because I’m from Cincinnati.

5

There are very few bench clearing brawls in football. I just heard that 31 players, some from each school, will get a one game suspension. Yeah, that will teach them.

6

On “Mike & Mike” this morning, they played the accompanying radio broadcast. The color man, a former player, was basically saying, “yeah, that’s how we do things in our house. They ought to take it to the parking lot. I’d like to be down there. You don’t come in here and disrespect us or this is what you get.”

My paraphrasing has probably made that sound better than if you heard it live.

The U is Thug Central.

7

I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard that clip this morning. What is that guy, insane? You just don’t…encourage the fight. I hope he’s out on his ass this morning.

8

How low Miami football has sunk, on the field, is shown by the interview with one player afterwards who said something like “that’s why they’re 0-7 and we beat them”- if you are Miami, bragging about beating FIU, you know things are not going well.

I say cancel the season- it’s not like any fans down there care, and they probably wouldn’t make a bowl game anyway. I mean, a fight is a fight, but when you use a fight as an excuse to go nuts, swinging helmets, stomping and kicking players on the ground, you’ve got mental problems. Or are thugs. Or both.

BTW- who was the commentator?

9

Lamar Thomas. Who was already a bad commentator to begin with (at least, I think so), but this just takes the cake.

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I wonder if Miami will follow FIU and actually boot the main players involved. FIU also suspended, indefinitely more than 10 other players. Miami has Duke next week. A true test of the character of the program will be whether or not they take strong action that will hurt their season. Somehow, I doubt it. Not because it is Miami, but because it is a big money business.

Regrettably, this type of fight exceeded an acceptable little rumble. I watched a video of it and it was spliced, but this video showed the Miami players celebrating in a circle after the fight. If anyone watched this live and uncut, is that true? If so, whoo boy, all those kids should be booted.

In general, it seems FIU’s response has been quicker and stricter. When I was discussing this with some people at work, someone retorted that “Well FIU has nothing to lose, Miami has a lot on the line”. My response, “That is exactly the point, but not in the way you mean it. If Miami places winning over charcater then they should expect nothing different from their players.”

Let’s face it, many of this kids playing football at all major schools, would likely not be in college if it were not for their athletic ability. Many of them are filled with encouragement to be stars, and they get drunk on this minor celebrity status. I always think it is so sad when I see players like Maurice Clarett, he made his bed, now he has to lie in it (likely in Hubby’s prison), but I still feel so much compassion and wonder if he would have had better mentors and friends (or chose better ones) he would be experiencing a much better life.

I remember Randy Moss went through many of the same things, but was able to tone it down for Marshall and then was mentored by Carter on the Vikings. But I aslo think about Owens who recently tried to committ suicide. Money, fame and fortune are just not enough. These young men have empty holes in their lives and the environment they were raised in, and encouraged in, made this happen.

I reflect back even to the stories out of Columbine about how athletes were protected at the HS level. In my town, so many older people refer back to HS football as the glory days, the best moments of their lives.

The more I think about it, sports can do a lot of good with kids, but how much is the notion of competitive sports and the money/fame associated with it perpetuating a subculture that is not conducive to positive social outcomes.

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And who was fired today.

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I weep for my beloved conference.

Once again, thanks Swoffie, you miserable baby-blue twit.

13

I feel genuinely bad for Maurice Clarett.

He goes to Ohio State, a freshman out of High School and is by far the best freshman running back OSU has ever seen. He almost single handedly wins the national championship game. His stock could not have been higher.

I think it’s incredibly likely Ohio State was all but paying Clarett to play football for him. When he got in trouble in 2003 and it looked like he could cause NCAA interest in dirty dealings within the program (such as preferential academic treatment and outright paying of players) they revoke his scholarship. This guy had basically one shot in life, and that was football.

I have no idea if he ever could have developed into an NFL caliber player. But he rushed for 1200 yards as a freshman and 18 touch downs. Years later he had an embarrassing 40-time at the NFL Combine, but that was at twenty pounds over weight and years of being away from proper training.

With his scholarship, and future prospects gone, he throws a hail mary pass and attempts to get NFL regulations overthrown judicially, this doesn’t work. So he can’t play football anymore. At this point he gets influenced strongly by the “wrong crowd” he’s given money, accommodations and etc by people with strong gang-ties. He ends up being represented by David Kenner in his lawsuit against the NFL, ultimately living with Kenner.

Amazingly, when all is said and done and Clarett has been out of high school for three years, he actually gets drafted in the third round and could have gotten aroudn $500,000 guaranteed. Instead, Kenner advises him to take a contract with no guaranteed money, but millions in incentive bonuses if Clarett manages to become a star in his early years in the NFL. Everyone around Clarett managed to convince this kid that he could be an NFL star pretty quickly. That the $500,000 in guaranteed money was peanuts compared to what he would be getting once he was rushing for over 1,000 yards a season in the NFL. The real probability of that happening before Clarett spent years in NFL-level training is near zero, he hadn’t played football in years and was out of shape.

At this point he supposedly owed Kenner over $1m in legal fees, so it is no surprise Kenner advised him to take the incentive laden deal as opposed to the guaranteed money. When Clarett was released by the Broncos he was left without any hope whatsoever. No money, deep in debt, and the only people who had really helped him out since being put on suspension with Ohio State had been friends and associates of his with strong gang ties. It’s really no surprise this guy turned towards crime.

I don’t forgive him for the crimes he committed or his bad judgement. But I think when a major college football program like Ohio State recruits a kid who is obviously not that bright, solely because he’s a great football player and will make them millions in revenue, they owe him something. They owe him guidance, they shouldn’t entice him with incentives that violate NCAA regulations and put his college football career in jeopardy. And they certainly shouldn’t take away his scholarship in an attempt to fend off an NCAA investigation into their own corruption.

14

Go Trojans! Protection for her, sensitivity for him!

15

Ah, sweet memories of the Fiesta Bowl in 1986 come flooding back to me, when Penn State upset Miami. Penn State, in Joe Paterno fashion, arrives nicely dressed, quiet and reserved. Miami shows up in fatigues, taunting - and has their asses handed to them on the field.

I’ve also enjoyed some people who have been suggesting that Miami’s thuggery is some sort of isolated or recent development. Yeah, who’d have ever thought of Miami doing something like that brawl on the field before?

16

Methinks there is a disturbing cultural aspect to the whole “you disrespecting me?!? BLAM BLAM BLAM!” thing. Why is being respected so important to those people? Respect is something to be earned. Thugs, by definition, deserve no respect. Peabrained fuckwits deserve no respect. Wearing a bunch of gold chains is not a measure by which respect is earned. Not being able to put together a simple declarative sentence without butchering the English language is not something that earns respect. Respect, my ass.

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My problem is, there are certain situations in life, where some people think, OK something out of the ordinary is happening, I can do something here that I wouldn’t ordinarily do, and it’s OK (such as vandalism during riots, looting during floods, and fights during football games). I don’t agree, but in sports certain type players think “onfield fight, they started it, I can now hit someone and get away with it, because it’s a fight”. What kind of person would stomp another person on the head, or beat them with a helmet, just because they have the opportunity to? Especially someone who really hasn’t harmed you in any way. Oh yeah I forgot, they disprected Miami’s home field. :rolleyes:

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I’m sure the Titans have obtained a list of all those involved to use in next year’s draft.

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Them, or Cincinnati.

20

The Miami color guy who was praising the fight has been fired. Link