Editorial: A troubling pattern of misconduct at U

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Bronko Nagurski Gopher said:
although i know you like to "believe" you are correct when it comes to just about everything (that is certainly a trait that comes with age....you remind me of my 60 yr old father!) chances are that this "type" of alumni/supporter you just described is not even a u of m athletics booster in the first place.

so while it is important to have a positive image in the eyes of the public as much as possible (even if you are being unfairly targeted by the mpls star tribune editorial staff/writers) i am not as worried as you may be when it comes to what some loud-mouthed, like to hear themselves bitch, non-boosters (especially if they are not even u of m alumni) think about a few isolated incidents.
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AKA Bronko Nagurski Gopher
 

gopher1956 said:
Nice one - Sure it is fine to steal, start fights, fight with cops. Anything to have a "winning" progarm.
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I can't tell from the posts, so maybe you can help me out....are you a badger or a hawkeye?

I, personally, am not willing to sacrifice morals/standards to have a winning program. I just have reasonable morals and standards, and am willing to give stupid kids a chance to straighten up. If you're not a troll, you honestly cheer for the Gophers, and you think that kids getting drunk/into fights and not being kicked off the team is a sign that we're trying to sell our souls for a winning program, I'm deeply sorry for the boring, constipated life you surely lead.
 

Tax Payers Paid for Stadium

Student athletes need to stay out of trouble. Some of the gopherholers seem to condone criminal activity by ahtletes. What a sad state of affairs. Win at all costs does not work. Lets expect the best out of the athletes and not the worst.
 

gopher1956 said:
WE the tax payers - pay for the buidings, the professors, the NEW stadium, and for most of the tuition. You know it alls that condone crimal activity inorder to have a "winning" program are a bunch of losers without a life. Get real.
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Since we're paying for the buildings and infrastructure then we're indirectly paying for all students that attend the U. Why the double standard then?

when a new multi-million dollar research building (funded by taxpayer dollars) goes up should we hold the students that use that building to a higher standard? Perhaps we should, but we wouldn't. Why? Because nobody is particularly interested in the behavior of the students that use a new research building.
 

gopher1956 said:
Student athletes need to stay out of trouble. Some of the gopherholers seem to condone criminal activity by ahtletes. What a sad state of affairs. Win at all costs does not work. Lets expect the best out of the athletes and not the worst.
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...just a hunch, but I'm gonna say badger. Welcome to the GopherHole, troll. Have fun doing whatever it is you think you're doing.
 


gopher1956 said:
Student athletes need to stay out of trouble. Some of the gopherholers seem to condone criminal activity by ahtletes. What a sad state of affairs. Win at all costs does not work. Lets expect the best out of the athletes and not the worst.
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1.) no kidding. and so do non-athletes.

2.) no one is asking for a win at all costs environment and i (and would guess many other non-gopherholers as well as gopherholers would agree) don't believe that is what coach brewster or coach smith or coach lucia are buidling in their respective buildings. 99% of their teams are good kids who have worked hard, stayed out of trouble and put in work in the classroom.

2a.) like any other FBS university/college there are some kids (who might be athletes) who make stupid choices in their young lifes, they learn and grow from them and life goes on. you seem intent on pushing a false-idea that what i just described is somehow unique to the u of m. guess what? it is not. not even close.

3.) i am going to let you go now as something tells me that you may need to get on back to KFAN so you can continue listening to good ole' d-bag dan barriero while he spews more lies and b.s. about the u of m to his mouth-breathing listeners.

4.) i think most of us do expect the best from athletes. we also expect the best from everyone else in our lives. you sir just seem to have an axe to grind and also seem intent to holding them to what i would consider is a false higher-standard.
 


I am an u of m grad from 1980, my wife is u of m grad, my daughter just graduated from the U of M and my son attends the U of M in IT. I have probably attended more games than you ever will and I have given more $ to the U than you will ever make in your life. I expect the student athletes to stay out of troble and out of the police blotter,
 

stevedave23 said:
Since we're paying for the buildings and infrastructure then we're indirectly paying for all students that attend the U. Why the double standard then?

when a new multi-million dollar research building (funded by taxpayer dollars) goes up should we hold the students that use that building to a higher standard? Perhaps we should, but we wouldn't. Why? Because nobody is particularly interested in the behavior of the students that use a new research building.
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so true. and i can guarantee you that there are non-athlete scholarship (these ones actually ARE funded by mn taxpayers) students in those research buildings (and the medical school, and the dental school) who actually DO smoke weed, do other drugs and get drunk on a regular basis. yet it is somehow different if an athlete drinks a few beers and happens to get caught. then some of you want them kicked off the team and out of school.

i honestly do believe that for some of you it has everything to do with race and nothing to do with actually wanting what you consider to be "justice".

some of you are MAJOR hypocrites.........and probably "closet racists" too. there are still a lot of those in minnesota........and this is coming from a white guy in the suburbs!
 



Nothing to do with Race

This is about following the law and the student code of conduct. Every student and athlete needs for floow the rules of society. Looks like you think there are one set of rules for the athletes and another for the rest of us.
 

stevedave23 said:
I sort of see your point.

Our tax dollars do fund the buildings and other parts of the university itself.

I just want to be clear that our tax dollars DO NOT pay for their scholarships.
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If they are an in-state student, our tax dollars pay for the difference between in-state and out of state tuition. That is what the state funding is for.
 

gopher1956 said:
This is about following the law and the student code of conduct. Every student and athlete needs for floow the rules of society. Looks like you think there are one set of rules for the athletes and another for the rest of us.
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No, YOU are saying there should be one set of rules for athletes and another for the rest of us. College kids do stupid things (well, many of them do. Some of the more boring and pathetic among them may stay completely within the rule of law their entire lives). The athletes are the ones who lose their schollies for it.
 

Ski U Mah Gopher said:
If they are an in-state student, our tax dollars pay for the difference between in-state and out of state tuition. That is what the state funding is for.
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Ok, is that any different than non-athletes?

similarly, if our tax dollars that pay for the buildings and the stadium is considered paying for their education then aren't we paying for every student that attends the U?

when a new multi-million dollar research building is built (with tax dollars) do we hold the students that use that building to a higher set of standards? Perhaps we should but we don't. Why? Because nobody is really that concerned about the behavior of those students.
 



Bronko Nagurski Gopher said:
....you remind me of my 60 yr old father!
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Man, that's low to suggest that I could have raised a kid like you! Is there no limit to how low you can go? Moderators, I demand that you get rid of this hurtful, personal attack.
 

Bronko Nagurski Gopher said:
so true. and i can guarantee you that there are non-athlete scholarship (these ones actually ARE funded by mn taxpayers) students in those research buildings (and the medical school, and the dental school) who actually DO smoke weed, do other drugs and get drunk on a regular basis. yet it is somehow different if an athlete drinks a few beers and happens to get caught. then some of you want them kicked off the team and out of school.

i honestly do believe that for some of you it has everything to do with race and nothing to do with actually wanting what you consider to be "justice".

some of you are MAJOR hypocrites.........and probably "closet racists" too. there are still a lot of those in minnesota........and this is coming from a white guy in the suburbs!
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Just the thugs and thieves. Especially the recidivist offenders. How many 4th chances can one justify?
 

Where there's smoke, there's fire. So, we should care about and shine light upon a potential problem within the athletic department regarding coaches and players. However, does this onslaught of publicly aired offenses (cutting across various sports and some of which seem fairly trivial, or at least commonplace) suggest to any of you, as it does to me, the hardball moves of some influential person or persons out to submarine U athletics? Who? Why? After all, do we need headlined newspaper articles in a major metropolitan newspaper dealing with police breaking up what was a potential fight?
 

maxwellsmart said:
does this onslaught of publicly aired offenses (cutting across various sports and some of which seem fairly trivial, or at least commonplace) suggest to any of you, as it does to me, the hardball moves of some influential person or persons out to submarine U athletics? Who? Why? After all, do we need headlined newspaper articles in a major metropolitan newspaper dealing with police breaking up what was a potential fight?
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I don't know why but for some reason when it comes to misconduct of athletes some people in this state want to go way behind reason with a knee jerk reaction. Not sure if it's an inferiority complex, a holier than thou attitude or what?


I can remember when the basketball scandal happened and after the NCAA had already imposed it's punishment on the U, some people were calling for the abolishment of the basketball program altogether. Seriously? Get rid of the program forever?

I understand punishments and even self imposed sanctions but I don't see the wisdom in going way beyond reason with a knee jerk reaction.

Lastly, I'd like to ask, if a softball player at the U of M (on a full scholarship) were involved in a fight or misdemeanor crime do you think it would be a top 3 sports story? Would it even make the newspapers?
 

stevedave23 said:
I don't know why but for some reason when it comes to misconduct of athletes some people in this state want to go way behind reason with a knee jerk reaction. Not sure if it's an inferiority complex, a holier than thou attitude or what?


I can remember when the basketball scandal happened and after the NCAA had already imposed it's punishment on the U, some people were calling for the abolishment of the basketball program altogether. Seriously? Get rid of the program forever?

I understand punishments and even self imposed sanctions but I don't see the wisdom in going way beyond reason with a knee jerk reaction.

Lastly, I'd like to ask, if a softball player at the U of M (on a full scholarship) were involved in a fight or misdemeanor crime do you think it would be a top 3 sports story? Would it even make the newspapers?
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No...but it would if softball attracted 50,000 fans for each home game, had regional radio coverage and national TV exposure on a regular basis.
 

NewEngland_Gold said:
No...but it would if softball attracted 50,000 fans for each home game, had regional radio coverage and national TV exposure on a regular basis.
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A number of the reports have been proven true. Now, with every TV station and newspaper in the state sending reporters all over the U on a daily basis since the first of this stuff broke yeah, even minor sports would make the papers.

Crime, race, past misdeeds. past awards for journalism, resentment by the public of coddling athletes, too much losing, new stadiums taxes, anti-elites spending.....hell, problems at the University are a BONANZA for the local media.

If some of the charges are true that's a BIGGER win for them, and if they're not, don't hold your breath waiting for a retraction. They honestly won't make any effort pointing out their mistakes.
 

Iceland12 said:
A number of the reports have been proven true. Now, with every TV station and newspaper in the state sending reporters all over the U on a daily basis since the first of this stuff broke yeah, even minor sports would make the papers.

Crime, race, past misdeeds. past awards for journalism, resentment by the public of coddling athletes, too much losing, new stadiums taxes, anti-elites spending.....hell, problems at the University are a BONANZA for the local media.

If some of the charges are true that's a BIGGER win for them, and if they're not, don't hold your breath waiting for a retraction. They honestly won't make any effort pointing out their mistakes.
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Reality..."Big Life, Big Stage, Big Ten"
 

Just Stay Out of Trouble

It is not hard to stay out of the newspaper. Do NOT get in fights, do NOT get aressted, do NOT get tassered by police, listen to the police when they ask you to do something, do NOT shop lift. Not to hard.
 

gopher1956 said:
It is not hard to stay out of the newspaper. Do NOT get in fights, do NOT get aressted, do NOT get tassered by police, listen to the police when they ask you to do something, do NOT shop lift. Not to hard.
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Seemingly obvious 1956, but not completely true.

You are right about the bad guys. If they didn't do those things none of this would have been started. The point being made was once you've had some players who DO those things, NOT doing them won't keep you out of the papers. Once you have everybody looking there's going to be stories printed whether there true or not.

It's always amusing thinking about the millions of people who scream about "the liberal media" or the "clowns at Fox News" who suddenly think that all stories are true if they fit into their own beliefs.The days of "two sources" and worries about false accusations are long past. "If it bleeds it leads" is the motto that most media places abide by now.

The problem then becomes the thousands of people out there, some even on this board, who not only believe everything they've read and heard (strangely only if it's negative) but they get great delight in it.

There are players who did things they shouldn't have and should be punished for it. There are players who didn't do those things that will be accused. There are people who are ferreting out injustice. There are people who are interested in selling papers, entertaining their audience or settling scores who don't care if what they're saying is true or not.

Then there are fans who don't want to see their school's reputation sullied. Fans who don't care as long as they win and doucebags who can't possibly be happier seeing those players acting how they just knew they were going to act.

It's sometimes hard to tell who's who, sometimes it's not and really 1956 what's the point in trying. People are going to believe what they want to and no argument or story is going to change that regardless of how reasoned or compelling it is.
 

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