Satire, or stupidity?

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My apologies if someone has already posted this (I browsed, but didn't see it... sorry if I overlooked it)...

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/81044747.html

I honestly can't tell if this guy is completely stupid, or he is trying at a some sort of tongue in cheek satire. If he is serious, how can the Strib print something like that? It doesn't make any more sense than if I wrote an editorial piece on how we should all ride elephants to work to save energy.

Either way, it does show how the locals love to take shots at the Gopher football program. .500 seasons are seen as embarrassments. For as crazy as the editorial is, browsing the "reader comments" is equally telling. One poor guy posted a comment asking the same question I am here... wondering if it is satire or actual opinion, along with the note that if it is satire, it is really poorly done. Only 3 (including me) out of something like 20 readers agreed with that statement. The rest felt the guy is really on to something, that the Gopher football program should be disbanded.

The more of this kind of stuff I read, the more I realize what an uphill climb the Gophers have with the non-fan base in this town. Not only are real fans in a tiny minority, but they actually might be outnumbered by people who cheer for Gopher failure.

Anyway, what a waste of print space.
 

I'd like to think it's Satire, but the joke could have been made off the cuff in two sentences and hardly warranted an entire article. Therefore, one can only assume it's an ignorant, but dead serious opinion.
 

Wow. Just wow.

Given the allusions to Swift's 'Modest Proposal' (where Swift argued that poor, Irish children should be eaten) I'm fairly certain this is satire. But it's just brutal satire.
 

Personally, I always love it when community college professors try and be brilliant about subjects such as these. Having said that, he does kind of bail himself out by at least recognizing that his idea is indeed "preposterous." Otherwise, there was no merit to anything that was said. As for the Star Tribuners, is it really any surprise that they think this is a good idea?

PS. - MBA Guy: I must admit, the first thing I thought was "so is this guy trying to channel his inner Jonathon Swift or what?" Glad to see someone else was thinking along the same lines. :D
 

satire perhaps, but i think that the University of Chicago would be an even greater institution today had it not disbanded football. it could be on par with Stanford or California had they not thrown in the towel, and the Big Ten would have been better for it as well.
 


e mail him

I wrote back to him - told him that I love the college atmosphere at TCF and that he should buy a ticket and go a game. I like the Vikes when I watch them on TV but see how many fans they would have with a poor record. The Gophers still make money even without championship records.

The guy should be working on lesson plans and keep his mouth shut.
 

Wow! Well if this were to happen, I am glad I am not a soccer player. Or a golfer. Or a tennis player. Or a track runner. Because if what he writes were to happen, you can kiss about 60% of the non-revenue sports goodbye.
 

gotomn said:
Wow! Well if this were to happen, I am glad I am not a soccer player. Or a golfer. Or a tennis player. Or a track runner. Because if what he writes were to happen, you can kiss about 60% of the non-revenue sports goodbye.
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I think basketball and hockey are the only sports that would be able to remain. Each supporting there womens counterpart.
 

This isn't satire.
This is utter stupidity and is simply a legitimate forum for the crap that is spewed all over the strib's website. I'm frickin done with the strib, what an utter insult to the University of Minnesota, that this was allowed to be printed.
This is just another support to my theory that Minnesotan sports fans are THE worst fans in the country. Cynical, ignorant, fairweather, and almost vindictive when teams are down, or seem down because they read box scores and newspaper articles instead of following/watching the actual teams. Tell me what the tickets sales would have been for the Vikings if TJack would have lead a 10-4 vikings team this year. There would be blackouts almost every week. It took a frickin HOF QB to get them season ticket sales. Watch the hand wringing if things go south next week or beyond, and watch the pack of media wolves circle when things get ugly.
Honest to $^%&, what a disgrace to Minnesota.
 



It was an opinion only, which he has.

He also has a rectum to spew $hit.

Let it go.
 

Dr.Don said:
It was an opinion only, which he has.

He also has a rectum to spew $hit.

Let it go.
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It's gone. Still I bet this is one of the comment section posters on the strib that actually went through the steps of getting an opinion piece printed. What a cesspool that website is.
 

Opinion pieces are funny that way. Everyone has an opinion. Organizations like the Strib have to make choices on what gets printed and what doesn't. I'm sure there can be a fine line between opinions that are so outlandish that they do not deserve the print space, and others that are controversial but thought provoking. Like I said earlier, what if I felt our society would be better off if we operated elephants for transportation instead of cars? If I wrote an editorial about that, would it be worth the print space?

So, my problem isn't the strange opinion (there are a lot of people out there with wacky opinions and that will always be so), my issue is with the Strib staff meeting and saying... "yeah, print that," to something that strange, uninformed, useless, etc.
 

This is nothing more than

An orchestrate attempt by Lester bagman and Vikings to use the Gophers as an unworthy recipient of state help. It has nothing to do with what is best for the Gophers, and eveything to do with the barrage of not so suttle stories releasted to the media. It keeps them in the news and attempts to make their claim for a billion worthy.

And what would be the best thing for the U to do? Rather than use the stadium and team as a front porch of the U. How about making Football the most important thing at the U? That's how you win National Championships.
 



I guess this is unrelated but I thought I'd share a secret about an article I find myself reading over and over and over again on the STRIB website. I just can't seem to put it down. It is called "File Not Found." I plan to read it a couple more times today and every other day this week. It is a quick read, but very addicting.
 

Ole said:
This isn't satire.
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Agree, he's serious. The Robert Maynard Hutchins that he mentions was a contraversial U of Chicago president. He not only got rid of athletics, he also booted religion off campus because he thought that both were distractions to learning. Hutchins also hated exercise. I think that his famous quote was something like, "every time I have an urge to exericse, I lay down until it passes."
 

bigtenchamps1899 said:
satire perhaps, but i think that the University of Chicago would be an even greater institution today had it not disbanded football. it could be on par with Stanford or California had they not thrown in the towel, and the Big Ten would have been better for it as well.
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They are on par with Stanford and Cal academically. They are one of our greatest learning institutions. Especially in the field of Economics.
 

Also holy *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!# dudes this is so hilariously satire.
 

Khaliq said:
Also holy *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!# dudes this is so hilariously satire.
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Really got to disagree. This guy is serious and many local idiots will read his crap and ignorantly agree with it. Funny, what would their reaction be if it all went down and the Vikings still rejected it.
 

Khaliq said:
They are on par with Stanford and Cal academically. They are one of our greatest learning institutions. Especially in the field of Economics.
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I think he meant that Chicago could have kept big time sports and been a great school.
 

Ole said:
Really got to disagree. This guy is serious and many local idiots will read his crap and ignorantly agree with it. Funny, what would their reaction be if it all went down and the Vikings still rejected it.
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It's either satire or trolling. There are a lot of very compelling cases for eliminating college athletics and he didn't outline any of them.
 

A very absurd opinion piece. He asks "why not" trying to put the ball in our court. That's something you do to trick people into accepting poor propositions. Instead, he has to tell us why it is a good idea to give his ideas serious consideration.

He has a few points, but if you take a close look at them, you can see the absurdity of them. His first one boils down to "The University of Chicago did this, therefore so should we." He utterly fails to tell us why we should do it just because Chicago did it. Northwestern and Stanford, two very fine colleges made different choices than Chicago did. Yet this hasn't hurt their academics. Plus, while Chicago is a very good school, not that many people have heard of it.

His second point is that coaches get paid a lot of money. But football brings in a lot of money, and coaches here aren't paid a lot in comparison to many other coaches. If you support the minor sports at the U, then you must support football, because football revenues keep these other programs afloat.

His third point is that there are too many bowls. Perhaps there are, perhaps there aren't. But in no way does this lead to the conclusion that the U should drop football. A sub-point he makes here is that the Gophers played in the Insight Bowl. But even if the bowl is meaningless as he puts it, it still adds no weight to his position. The point he attempts to make is also hypocritical - if he thinks that football should be dropped because it hinders education and because coaches are paid too much, then it shouldn't make any difference to him what bowl the Gophers play in.

He moves on to the claim that we should drop down a level, and thus would no longer need TCF Stadium. Of course, it would be just about obscene for a school the size of the U to be playing at the I-AA level. He suggests renting the stadiums of schools such as Hamline or St. Thomas. But even if we accepted his absurd idea, attendance would still be high enough that none of the existing stadiums would be large enough. He conveniently forgets that these other schools would also be playing in those stadiums, meaning that we would have to play around their schedules. Even if we did drop to I-AA, we'd need at least 25,000 seats.

He then delves deeper into absurdity, claiming that this would "Call the Viking's bluff". He then goes on to claim that the Vikings are NOT bluffing about moving. If, as he claims, the Vikings have no intention to remain here, then what is the point to even attempting to get a new Vikings stadium? Spite? The Vikings have been quote clear that a college stadium is not up to their demands. This stadium would not persuade the Vikings to remain here.

Not once does he provide a speck of logic to support his position. It's just a long smack piece.
 

If it is satire, he did a really bad job of it. Satire is supposed to be subtle, but not so subtle that nobody can figure out what he really meant to say.
 

you know its bad

when articles like this are solicited by the paper. Soon the rag we call the star tribune will be history. I certainly would not get your panties in a bind over this lunacy. I can't remember the movie or the real quote but it goes like this-" opinions are like rectums....everybody has one. Chuck is probably so proud to be published he is running all over buying up copies for his pals and family. Give the guy a break, this is the pinnacle of his accomplishments in journalism.
 

book said:
I wrote back to him - told him that I love the college atmosphere at TCF and that he should buy a ticket and go a game. I like the Vikes when I watch them on TV but see how many fans they would have with a poor record. The Gophers still make money even without championship records.

The guy should be working on lesson plans and keep his mouth shut.
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Poor record? How about last season when they were hosting a playoff game and had to get an extension from the NFL to avoid a blackout. What a rabid fan base.
 

Khaliq said:
They are on par with Stanford and Cal academically. They are one of our greatest learning institutions. Especially in the field of Economics.
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i didn't say anything about academics. i would have to say that U of C is most likely the best undergrad education one can receive in the states (though cost is very prohibitive), and of course the law school, graduate school of business and medical schools are all top notch.

however, what goes along with being a great institution is name recognition. U of C has none outside of the well-informed. to people on both coasts it is a regional institution (except to those savvy about post secondary education) and, in fact, i know from experience that many people outside the midwest know very little about U of C and it has to be explained to them that it is not a state school (similar to Boston University, people hear the name and assume public school).

the Ivies have name recognition, Stanford and Cal have name recognition, the U of C does not (neither does Boston University, another school without a Div. I football program).

while i think that i could make a good argument for U of C not being on par with Stanford and Cal academically, it would be speculative. i do think that Chicago would be an even stronger institution today if it was still a member of the Big Ten.
 

denguegopher said:
Agree, he's serious. The Robert Maynard Hutchins that he mentions was a contraversial U of Chicago president. He not only got rid of athletics, he also booted religion off campus because he thought that both were distractions to learning. Hutchins also hated exercise. I think that his famous quote was something like, "every time I have an urge to exericse, I lay down until it passes."
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interesting. i hadn't heard of Hutchins before this, but i had read about the politics that went into dropping football.

however, he did not get rid of athletics (just football), nor did he boot religion off campus (i took a class in the divinity school).
 

bigtenchamps1899 said:
interesting. i hadn't heard of Hutchins before this, but i had read about the politics that went into dropping football.

however, he did not get rid of athletics (just football), nor did he boot religion off campus (i took a class in the divinity school).
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Thank you Bigtenchamops, I stand corrected. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maynard_Hutchins Under the "Chicago Tenure" heading this is discussed. Its also interesting that during his presidency he managed to greatly decrease giving to the university and reduce the college's national exposure. Perhaps a lesson there?
 

A Google of "Chuck Chalberg" resulted in a hit that is a website featuring student reviews of college instructors. One of Chalberg's student reviews read as follows:

"Terrible, terrible, terrible. The worst teacher I've ever had. Extensive knowledge of the subject matter, but the social skills of a constipated hornet. Extremely condescending and his conceit is not in any way justified. A windbag and a jerk."

Enough said.
 

It's satire, folks. I've taken a summer course from this individual despite my advanced age. It was called something like"Sports in America" where we looked at the treatment of sports in American culture. Chalberg is a sports fan--quite knowledgeable--and a good instructor unlike the student he probably failed. He might be showing his bias because he had the connections to get Ted Brown to come into the class and talk about how pro athletes are treated and regarded. However, he knows better than to think this might happen. He's making fun of the university of committing all of the time and effort for those results. He's also making a point about the priorities of a university. Satire is supposed to cause controversy and get people to look at things in a new light because it's preposterous.

I don't agree with him and think it's not very good. I also think it reveals the negativity the Tribune has towards the Gophers. However, it's a free country. You're free to write or print as well as free to ignore or boycott.
 

gopheraddict said:
A Google of "Chuck Chalberg" resulted in a hit that is a website featuring student reviews of college instructors. One of Chalberg's student reviews read as follows:

"Terrible, terrible, terrible. The worst teacher I've ever had. Extensive knowledge of the subject matter, but the social skills of a constipated hornet. Extremely condescending and his conceit is not in any way justified. A windbag and a jerk."

Enough said.
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Plus, he's at Normandale, the pinnacle of higher learning in the upper midwest, am I right?
 

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