This is, pardon my French, 100% unadulterated crap:
… A awful lot of people have paid money to receive the diploma that graces their wall, and those people want that piece of paper to mean something.
Had Evans stayed in place, that diploma would have been cheapened by the memory of a regrettable mug shot and the image of red lingerie…
Assuming the truth of everything in that police report, Damon Evans deserves to be gone for the simple reason that anyone exercising such poor judgment has no business being in charge of a multi-million dollar operation that depends in significant part on the good will of thousands of fans.
But his recklessness has nothing to do with the value of my diploma. You know who did affect the value of my diploma?
The people whom Jan Kemp fingered.
Jim Harrick, Jr.
Funny thing about both of those situations: the athletic director wasn’t purged. Pleading ignorance – in one case, about a situation involving the eligibility of players whom the AD also coached and in another, about a coach and his father whose careers prior to their arrival in Athens were aswirl in controversy – was enough to keep Vince Dooley off the hook. It worked for Michael Adams, too.
So please don’t try to bullshit me about academics here and my degree. A guy who screwed with those is passing judgment on Damon Evans’ career as I type this.
Get The Picture 
After the “red panties” tidbit came out, I figured Evans had until about Wednesday.
This idea that a DUI or adultery “devalues the diploma” as ridiculous. If that were the case how “cheap” would a Harvard diploma be?
Public image and black eye is completely different than the “value of a diploma” in the world. Have some perspective.
LikeLike
Mark is a moron and you are spot on. Nothing hurt UGA more than Harrick Jr’s little test being put out there for all the world to see. The crap I’ve taken from other schools about that makes this a tempest in a tea pot.
LikeLike
You should ask those people what beginner basketball written tests are like at their universities.
LikeLike
I just thank God we disbanded basketball at Auburn after Sonny Smith left.
Wait. We did disband it, didn’t we?
LikeLike
Evans was gone before the blue lights popped up in his rear view mirror. She said her and Evans had been seeing each other for about two weeks. Who cares about the color of her panties. Why were they off in the car. You don’t think when a GSP officer approaches your vehicle that he is not checking out the entire vehicle, contents, and passengers. I don’t know where he got his diploma but he took down Evans by the book. Every question the officer asked is relevant and important from a highway safety point. Not only were they drunk but it raises the question if more than texting was going in the vehicle. How did the AD come in contact with her?
There are and were freshmen who could have out thought and reacted better than Evans did in that situation. For what ever that means.
Evans did not take away from my diploma and my respect for UGA. Individuals make decisions. Evans started making poor ones for awhile and got away with it. Look at the overall team results the past few years. The big three at UGA never moved off the dime under him.
Now more on the blue light in the rear view mirror.
Maybe the Board of Regents should look back at the role of Adams in all of this. Judgement and leadership starts at the top. Evans decision making is not the only failure at UGA. Harrick and Donnan are a few vehicles that set on the side of the road.
Let’s not put someone in the AD slot just because they are a UGA graduate and has past associations. Let’s move out of the box (that is the phase all those know it all bloggers used to use on football). Evans was never my choice. Go back and look at the list.
It is time for some leadership from the Regents and the Athletic Board. If they have any character, class, respect, and loyalty to UGA they will start thinking and making sound decisions. Let’s see where they go.
Evans blew up his contract with UGA when he contacted her (and are there others?). What legal settlement? Most alums are working their butts off to make a living, give to UGA, support their families, churches, and communities, and Evans has a half million a year comp pkg. Give us a break…hell no he should have been gone two days ago.
LikeLike
Exactly, his screw ups had as much to do with my diploma as a player getting a speeding ticket on a scooter.
LikeLike
This. UGA Athletic Department != UGA
Bradley is right that Evans had to go, but his columns on the matter have been as ham-fisted as could be. The man has lost the ability to write about sports coherently.
LikeLike
Everyone knows that, sadly, this hiring will not leave a(nother) stain on Adams legacy. If anything, Evans has been a good AD these past couple years, running a model program in many ways. His personal failings will taint that history of good work, but while he’s in the flash pan now, in 5-10 years it is very possible we may look back on his tenure as the begining of a dominant run in Georgia athletics. I don’t say this to excuse his clearly negligent actions of the past week, but instead to remind people that prior to Thursday, we were not complaining about the man’s leadership on many topics. Let’s try to keep on mind some of the man’s successes when we turn to burn down his legacy as a successful young AD, who through his own personal failings undid a promising career.
LikeLike
Three things.
1. I think this probably devalued red panties more that it devalued my diploma.
2. I’d like to actually hear Bradley’s line of reasoning out loud…
Potential employer to HR recruiter: “Looks like Castleberry graduated Summa Cum Laude from UGA. That’s a pretty good school, right?”
Recruiter: “Well, it was until a few weeks ago. Did you hear their Athletic Director was arrested for DUI? He was trying to stash his passenger’s red panties, too. We’ve decided we won’t recruit on campus anymore. That whole school must be a dumpster fire.”
3. Just damn.
LikeLike
i think my degrees are well protected from panties, what with all the marshall fellows and us supreme court clerks we are churning out.
the thing about bradley isn’t just stupidity, it’s that he is sooo lazy.
LikeLike
Oddly, Georgia Tech degrees are also protected from panties… but for much different reasons.
LikeLike
One more, before it is back to work. Bradley may want to cast this re diploma, Atlanta Braves, and etc. Here is a stretch, but what was Bradley’s take on Woods. Where did Woods get his diploma? Did Evans buy a fire hydrate with his comp pkg? Writers like Bradley give Woods a pass because he is a professional or did not graduate from UGA. Perhaps Evans thought he would (wood) get a pass too like Woods from the writers.
Since Evans has been on board, UGA and Vandy’s big three men’s program has no national title among the SEC’s East division teams. All the others have at least one. There is no big three at UGA. He wasted time and resources with his first round ball hire. Granted the athletic program has had financial success. I lay that at the feet of the system Coach Dooley put in place, the current associate AD and department employees, and the coaches. Look more closely at the other East division programs. They are ahead of UGA.
I think it will be important for the Board, President, and others to make sure this was an isolated event and there is nothing in Evans past to come back…like Donnan’s hidden contract.
LikeLike
What are you calling the big three of men’s sports? I would assume football, basketball and baseball, in which case Kentucky and Tennessee haven’t won a national championship during Evan’s term either. SCU just won one, but that’s their only national title ever, and the UGA baseball team was 2 craptastic innings away from winning one. The only SEC East program we fall short of is UF, but everyone else does too.
LikeLike
I’ll concede that Evans went down in an unfathomable, spectacular blaze of Hefnerian glory. The likes of which we have never seen.
But…
This was the failure of a man to exercise self control. Period.
Sorry Bradley, I just checked my diploma and it did not turn ugly like Dorian Gray’s picture.
Oh, yeah and what is also unfathomable is that there are people out there who still read AJC.
LikeLike
I rather enjoy the cat piss stench of desperation coming from the AJC as they die a slow death.
LikeLike
I think Lord Acton hit the nail on the head with DE about absolute power corrupting. I can bet Damon’s new “friend” didn’t graduate with any Latin words on her diploma. I don’t think the “powerful AD at Georgia” drivel she spewed at the GSP officer was original, either. Evans had a week or so to school her on this. Mr. and Mrs. Furhmann must be SO proud. The worst thing (almost as bad as the crying) is that he obviously lied to MA about the circumstances of the arrest — no way would he have been allowed to have the PC if Adams had known the truth. Maybe part of his settlement should include having Suzanne give him one of her brass sets. She might not be a paragon of virtue, but there’s a woman who doesn’t carry Kleenex.
LikeLike
+1
LikeLike
Nothing wrong with or false about what Bradley wrote there.
He didn’t say the degree would be rendered worthless. Just the value of the brand somewhat cheapened. He’s right.
LikeLike
Do you honestly think any legit employer would factor that into your worth, even on a subconscious level?
LikeLike
I am not sure why people still refuse to see that what Bradley is doing is simply to anger or piss off people online so as to get more hits and chatter
Everyone knows that our diplomas won’t be cheapened as there is nothing even slightly to show that….but saying it makes blogs link to it and boards to talk about it
LikeLike
Exactly.
What’s funny is that the AJC boards will light-up with folks who aren’t even UGA grads, or for that matter, grads of any college whatsoever.
LikeLike
Senator, you keep trying to say the Harrick thing is worse than this, but it falls flat every time.
Harrick didn’t put people’s LIVES in danger.
Evans actions are far, far worse than Harrick’s. It isn’t even close.
I’d rather have 10 more Harrick incidents before another AD driving dunk.
LikeLike
The point I am making: driving drunk needs to be taken a lot more seriously (as does adultery). A couple of bogus grades is really meaningless compared to putting innocent people’s lives at risk when you drive drunk, or destroying your wife and kids via adultery.
LikeLike
The comparison between the Evans and Harrick matters is not which involved the morally more reprehensible wrongdoing. The comparison is which of the two reflected more poorly on the University of Georgia. Unless you think Evans’s decision to drive drunk was a direct result of his association with the University, the Harrick scandal was far worse because it involved official academic policies of the University.
LikeLike
Doesn’t matter.
Coaches are already inherently perceived as sneaky, and are even encouraged to walk the razor’s edge of the rules to win.
The executives of the school are the grown ups.
Furthermore, it cannot be stressed enough that driving drunk and adultery are far worse than a couple of bogus grades.
LikeLike
You’re missing the point, Muck.
LikeLike
No, you are.
Adultery and drunk driving hurt a lot more people than a couple of faux grades.
Lets be honest. Do you really think the average D1 football or basketball student earns 100% of their grades? Of course they don’t. It is a business, and we are all kidding ourselves if we think there is across the board credibility there.
LikeLike
Muck, you’re really stretching your point here. Whom does adultery hurt outside of the families affected? That’s a number that’s a whole lot lower than the number of people with Georgia diplomas.
LikeLike
Does this mean a Stanford degree doesn’t mean as much now because Tiger Woods turned out to be a pervert and a cheater?
God I hate Mark Bradley…. damned fool.
LikeLike
Yeah, and a Harvard degree is worthless because JFK was screwing Marilyn Monroe on the side. Mark Bradley is an idiot.
LikeLike
Our degrees are now cheapened because Mark Bradley is a friggin idiot.
LikeLike
I’m just imagining what my degree would look like with some red panties draped over them.
LikeLike
What’s all the fuss, I did a pretty good job of devaluing my own diploma by sporting a solid C average.
LikeLike
Mark Bradley’s degree is now cheapened because of Adolf Rupp’s racism and point shaving, Eddie Sutton’s random envelopes filled with $1k, Rick Pitino’s floor sex, and Calipari’s vacated final fours.
LikeLike
Mark Bradley is a pot stirrer and nothing else. He is enrolled in the Terrence Moore school of journalism which mainly involves constant beratement of the local popular university in order to be view as “controversial”. I believe that he should be banned from even entering the stadium and made to watch ballgames from the bridge. I think he is the estranged brother of Lane Kiffin.
LikeLike
Pingback: The Damon Evans Situation Could Have Been Worse; Time to Move On « The Grit Tree