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Sit for a minute and think back on the 2004 and 2005 college football
seasons, in particular USC football. What do you think of? Heisman
trophies? Why not. National Championships? Of course. A complete nation
falling in love with a University? Yep, that was there too.
Yes, USC football captured the hearts of many, I mean who could forget
Reggie and Matts blog where they would talk about all the A-list stars they
hung out with, or the photos of them with Jessica Simpson and Nick. Ask the
casual fan to name a runningback in college, and right after they ask “Whats
a runningback” and you give an explanation, I promise you about 99% of them
would have named Reggie with a 1% chance that Adrian Petersons name might
pop up or Michael Bush. That’s how widespread this exposure was and
everyone ate it up. Fuck most folks didn’t even watch the games, they’d
look at the box score for a couple minutes, be as confused as Ian while
watching a basketball game, then go read up on gossip surrounding the two
figureheads of the team.
With all that fame and constant press surrounding a major University, you
have to be very careful. Its no mystery that universities pay players, as
shitty as it is, I’ve learned to accept that at an early age, along with the
fact that not everything in professional sports is 100% legit. Its just
something they keep under the table, don’t talk about and hope nobody fucks
up and drives around a H2 that looks like X to the Z pimped it out.
Somewhere along the line of them winning championships, grabbing numerous
heismans and accruing ungodly amounts of high rated recruits, some of the
blind folk woke up and realized “hey, any other of you numbnuts think
they’re paying fucks to play?” It was right around that time that USC
started getting sloppy too. The Dwayne Jarrett shit came out about his
living accommodations. The shit really hit the fan with the Reggie Bush
house situation. Yahoo.com covered a great deal of information surrounding
Reggie’s booster exploits, so much so that finally the NCAA has been brought
around to investigating the matter.
The question of the matter is not are they guilty, as I stated, everyone
pays folks, some are just better at hiding it. The question is what is
going to happen when the sentences are handed out. Lets pause there for a
minute and think back a little further.
Most of you are younger than me, but I vividly remember 91 and 92. Five
freshmen took the clean cut universities by storm, tearing the rim down on
anyone who stood in their way. Yes, the fab five were a love them or hate
them bunch, no nation wide love. They did not wear the proper uniforms,
shorts always way too low, sagging, high fiving, shit talking, and more
swagger than the normal Kentucky/North Carolina/Duke fans could handle. My
father, in particular (also a Kentucky fan), hated them to the fullest,
called them a bunch of rowdy worthless N’s (I don’t even acknowledge my
fathers existence anymore as I grew older and less tolerant of him being a
shit, on my TS documents I have “location unknown”). Jimmy King, Ray
Jackson, Juwon Howard, Jalen Rose and Chris Webber were the anti-everything
and always made sure to deliver a resounding “fuck you” to anyone who wasn’t
with them.
In 02, Chris Webber was found to have taken cash from Michigan booster Ed
Martin, in addition four of the other players were found guilty of lesser
infractions. The punishment? The Fab Five were erased from history. All
their wins were forfeited, the final four banners taken down, and every
trace of them ever being part of Michigan was deleted from existence.
Webber cannot even associate himself with the school until 2012. Sure,
individual groups of folks were upset by this, but society, as a whole,
didn’t give a fuck.
Lets go ahead and go back to USC and their impending judgment. The cash
Chris Webber took was no free house and the NCAA and public had no problem
destroying the legacy that they left behind. None of these characters were
household names and thought to be “good youth” like the mass of adoration
surrounding Reggie, Matt and the rest of the Trojans. I cant say for sure
what is going to happen when judgment day comes for Southern California, but
I’m sure it will be a slap on the wrist compared to the rape that Michigan
encountered.