What goes around comes around - Congrats on being an @ss AJ!
In a span of 5 hours...........Lance talks with Oprah, AJ caught having the munchies, Manti is dating / formerly dating "George Glass", and Notre Dame tries selling some Gold, Magic Beans in a press conference!
I didn't see the press conference, but why is Notre Dame getting heat? They couldn't have been in on it (although I agree that's a weird that no one in the PR stuff did a simple check).
I never once said he didn't take responsibility. You originally said this...
"Good kid, beyond dumb mistake."
Rescooter then said, "While I usually agree with you Sportsfan, I would not consider AJ to be a
good kid. In my book, good kids take responsibilities for their actions, respect authority, think
about the consequences of their actions, and avoid burning bridges. AJ has shown himself to be a
self-entitled, responsibilty shirking, media grabbing, hypocrite that has no problem destroying
relationships for his own end. I have no time for him ... and I think those initially coming to his
defense are jumping off that bandwagon in droves."
I agree with him. What I want to know is, why you think he is a good kid? I have never seen him
exemplify the characteristics that would make him a good kid. That's why I asked you why you
thought that way. I never attacked him or you, I was simply asking why you felt that way.
For the record, I not believe you attacked me. I do however believe you have formed a much too strong opinion on a severely limited amount of information.
Okay to answer your question (I do notice you never answered mine), I believe AJ is a good kid because he was willing to work to accomplish his goal of a earning a scholarship. Because i know him to be a good son, friend, teamate and person (although like the rest of us, he is not perfect).
Now why don't you answer my question?
No wonder he needed the scholarship - Mary Jane costs money.
He made a dumb mistake in attacking Kill through the media and to top it off he now does something illegal....lets face it the guy has no brains. He's just stupid!
Aaaaalways. lolNews Flash: AJ Barker announces that Mom's best friend does not exist. He was the victim of an Internet Hoax.
For the record, I not believe you attacked me. I do however believe you have formed a much too strong opinion on a severely limited amount of information.
Okay to answer your question (I do notice you never answered mine), I believe AJ is a good kid because he was willing to work to accomplish his goal of a earning a scholarship. Because i know him to be a good son, friend, teamate and person (although like the rest of us, he is not perfect).
Now why don't you answer my question?
Wasn't your question to me if I knew whether or not he has taken any responsibility? I stated in my last post that I never said anything bad about him. All I asked was why you felt he was a good kid. I have not seen any traits that led me to that same belief. I guess if you're looking for an answer more than that....no. I do not know either way if he has taken responsibility. I have never met the kid, and that is why I have not attacked him, even though I believe he could not have handled his situation any worse.
I do not agree with your assessment that he is a good teammate, however. Good teammates would handle the matter internally when the year was finished, and not cause the negative publicity toward his team the way he did.
My man, a team would not tape up the student equipment manager when he came to clean out AJ's locker for a "bad" teammate. You are entitled to your opinion but the folks who actually know him would disagree with it.
What I'm saying is critique the situation not the person because frankly you don't know enough about the person.
Internally? Assuming AJ was correct (again would not be fair for me to assume he is), but if he was; by internally, are you suggesting he should have been screwed over and remained silent so it could happen to the next person? By speaking up publicly if it where to happen again or if another player or players say something of a similar nature folks will more readily take notice. From an internal stand point my experience is that AD's protect the school first and foremost, look at Notre Dame now and Penn State last season.
What we do know is AJ made a bone headed decision to smoke weed when the best he could hope for was to get high versus this. That decision makes it fair game to question the validity of other decisions (and accusations) he has made. However, nothing has happened to suggest he is a bad person.
Most importantly, who gets awarded Barker's Fullmer Cup points?
Also, I thought Fargo Flash said he was in Houston less than 24 hours before getting arrested.
News Flash: AJ Barker announces that Mom's best friend does not exist. He was the victim of an Internet Hoax.
you ever driven in TX with outta state plates?
Or rental car plates. Plausible deniability for smuggling drugs - "But officer, I've never seen those bales before...it's a rental car".
Source: My father-in-law is a prison guard in "deep" east Texas.
The whole issue from the beginning was credibility. Was A.J. barker credible in saying he was abused and manipulated by Coach Kill?
Most would say Kill was more credible since he has a track record with thousands of other players.
Now we see what A.J.'s credibility is worth. Jack and S#%$ and Jack left town.
However, I'm sure besides the required blurbs and snippets, the media will largely ignore this.
Who did the national write up again on coach abuse? New York Times or Yahoo sports or someone? Yeah that guy will obviously ignore this turn of events, and any even small amount of damage done to the program by A.J will be untouched.
I have a problem with this. An incredibly selfish player quits the team by starting a media storm alleging abuse and scandal. The media bites hard, piles on a coach working to steady a troubled ship, and then moves on without a follow up.
I fully expected Barker to flame out in Houston too, alleging some similar BS.
This is even more hilarious, now he may not even be playing D1 next year due to the drug implications the NCAA will have to look into.
The whole issue from the beginning was credibility. Was A.J. barker credible in saying he was abused and manipulated by Coach Kill?
Most would say Kill was more credible since he has a track record with thousands of other players.
Now we see what A.J.'s credibility is worth. Jack and S#%$ and Jack left town.
However, I'm sure besides the required blurbs and snippets, the media will largely ignore this.
Who did the national write up again on coach abuse? New York Times or Yahoo sports or someone? Yeah that guy will obviously ignore this turn of events, and any even small amount of damage done to the program by A.J will be untouched.
I have a problem with this. An incredibly selfish player quits the team by starting a media storm alleging abuse and scandal. The media bites hard, piles on a coach working to steady a troubled ship, and then moves on without a follow up.
I fully expected Barker to flame out in Houston too, alleging some similar BS.
This is even more hilarious, now he may not even be playing D1 next year due to the drug implications the NCAA will have to look into.
Like you've said, none of us really know AJ. He might be a magnificent teammate, but we do know that he went about quitting a team in the most attention grabbing way possible while trying to take the wind out of a big game (Sr. Day I believe) for his teammates. On his way out, he also attempted to pull other people into his drama (Phil Nelson, who then rejected it). Now, it could have just been a really bad decision of how to handle things, but his actions were unfortunate for his teammates.
As for keeping quiet, well, I think we all know that AJ Barker could have kept quiet for a little longer and let the football players enjoy their season. He could have done a lot of things, but his tirade was simply NOT the way to go about it. It's been said here about a thousand times, it was the form and timing of his rant, not the content. If he would have written out a half way decent email that wasn't filled with absolute nonsense (mom's friend, not icing, etc) saying that Jerry Kill abuses his players, it would have been taken seriously. He lost all credibility for me.
As to AJ being a bad person, I completely agree. I think he's a young kid who doesn't have his head screwed on straight and I think he's a baby. That said, we've seen nothing to suggest he's a bad person, just a bit immature. I really do hope he figures it out but I will say that I'm glad he's not on the roster anymore.
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