The Case of Famous Jameis

Athletes and high profile people can’t do many things in their lives like normal people can.  They can’t go out to the mall without getting mobbed for photos; they can’t save money by buying economy plane tickets because some chatty Cathy will sit next to them and talk their ear off like in the Aaron Rodgers “discount double check commercial.” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2G5DfGA5VY

Recently celeb sucking fame seekers have ruined another common area of pleasure for a-listers, the bedroom.  Currently we are dealing with the fall out of just such a case of rape claims.  Jameis Winston, the Florida State freshman quarterback who has taken the country by storm this year and is the front runner to win the Heisman Trophy, has been accused of raping a woman nine months ago. 

Now, normally rape cases should be taken very seriously, but there are some serious issues with this story.  She initially filed the report saying her attacker was between 5’9” and 5’11” tall, Winston is 6’4”.  Being a person of such height I find it highly inconceivable that someone could make that big of a mistake.  I mean if he looks like he’s 5’10” I don’t even want to think about how short girls must think I am when I go out. 

There are some very serious issues like the recent news that Winston’s DNA has been found on her underwear.  I mean normally that would lock up a case.  How can it not be rape if the man’s sperm is found on the inside of her panties?  (On a side note I’m curious to what exactly happened to her panties after the alleged rape happened to preserve his man juice so perfectly.) 

Winston has maintained that the sex he had with the woman was consensual.  When we consider the other cases that have occurred within the last couple years that stance may not be farfetched.  Two other high profile rape cases ended up being false accusations. 

Bernie Fine, the former assistant coach of the Syracuse Orange, was accused of repeatedly raping two ball boys.  He was promptly fired (which was probably smart by Syracuse).  Later on he was found to be innocent of these charges and counter sued the boys on the grounds of defamation and slander. 

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/a_chronology_of_the_bernie_fin.html

Also everyone remembers the Duke lacrosse team fiasco.  If somehow you’ve forgotten a woman accused the whole team of rape, they ended up being punished, were acquitted of the charges and then she killed her boyfriend, classic case of crazy. 

That’s why over the last couple years these rape accusations have become a little more muddied than they have been in the past.

If the accusation of Winston turns out to be false and it costs him the Heisman, it’ll be a damn shame.  He has clearly earned it this far into the season, but with this hanging over his head many voters will be turned off from voting for him.

So I say down with the celeb sucking trash.  Let famous people be famous for being better than you and go about living your life.  If you need to get pregnant to get famous then do it the classy way, have eight children and beg VH1 to give you your own television show.  And that’s all I have to say about that.    

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/24/duke-lacrosse-rape-guilty-murder-boyfriend

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/22/justice/florida-state-university-quarterback-investigation/

Simple Idea #5: Make all college sports D-3

From the ridiculous amounts of hours that Division 1 student athletes spend in practice to their lack of academic prowess, there are many reasons why D-1sports should no longer exist. In large schools it is not common for everyone to know everyone but at most ones students are never mixed into student body. At most D-3 schools, student-athletes may room with each other but most of the time they are in the same building as regular students. When students know their athletes, imagine how much more excited the student body would be for each game. Another advantage for the sport itself would be the lack of athletic scholarships. If a coach would want to recruit a poor kid, they would have to make sure it was a poor kid with good grades so that they can give them academic money. Since colleges should be about expanding a kid's horizon and not just a minor league for the NFL or NBA, maybe those leagues should look into another way to develop talent for those not able to afford college. Or maybe the NCAA could loosen up their amateur status and allow for professional teams to pay for a kid's education and allow him to develop in college. Since coaches won't have scholarships they won't be tempted to play scholarship kids over walk ons even if the walk on is better because no one on the team would have a guaranteed spot, making sure each kid works that much harder to reach the next level. Another thing would be that with limited practice time students athletes would be able to focus on their academics instead of being an athlete. If this happens, maybe D-1 athletes will be able to get good jobs out of college, I don't have numbers but from what I've seen on TV, not all of them have great lives. D-3 athletics make both the school and the athletes better, a few weeks ago a saw a picture of a Penn State athlete signing an autograph for a fellow student, maybe that says a lot about both what happened at Penn State and the D-1 Athletics in general.

D-2 Sports are just poor schools who want to play at a D-1 level, no school chooses to be D-2

The Student-Athlete

For some time now there’s been a debate about college student-athletes and whether they should be paid to play. The answer is an emphatic no. For most premier division-I athletes they do not have to pay to attend school, as their athletic prowess has earned them a free education. The cost of attending one of these large schools in today’s world is astronomical and almost all of the kids attending school need some type of scholarship, loan, grant, or financial aid. The last time I checked having your education paid for is, in essence, being paid to play.

Why should today’s student-athletes be paid to play on top of a free education? They are already being paid and do not need to receive added benefits on top of this. This is turning into a labor union scenario where, in the beginning, the union tries to get basic needs for it constituents. This always quickly turns into asking for more vacation time, and then sick time, and then they need their birthdays off, and even in some instances unions have asked for their spouse’s birthdays off. This seems odd to me, but maybe I’m just crazy. In the end the union asks for so much it ends up like the little boy who cried wolf and the situation turns into something ugly. If we pay our student-athletes to play what will they want next? It is irrational and ridiculous to give kids free education at some of the best schools in the country and have to pay them on top of that.

Many colleges in these hard economic times are having a tough time as it is allocating enough money for scholarships for their players, paying salaries for coaches, and, oh yeah, that little thing called education too. How in the world are they going to be able to pay for all that AND pay for their top athletes to play too? This will result in schools cutting sports, reducing money that should be put into education, and all in all making it hard for colleges to get by. Where did the joy of playing sports just to play sports go? The best athletes in NCAA sports will end up getting paid in a short time anyway, once they go pro.

The beauty of watching NCAA sports is that the kids are playing for the love of the game. They play because its something they’re good at and that they have enjoyed doing for their entire childhood. They don’t do it for the money, the fame, or the publicity. For every John Wall there’s 25 Mark Tituses. They play because on Saturday afternoons they get to hit people for millions of people to see, because on Wednesday nights they can throw down a monster dunk on national television, and they play because in the end its what they love to do. They don’t need to be paid, let the fans enjoy this last stronghold of innocence and let’s protect the beauty of the student-athlete.