I’m guessing that most of you have heard by now that Georgia’s Pro Day got a little complicated because the pro scouts couldn’t be on the field with the quarterback who was A.J.’s choice for throwing.
What you may not know is how involved Richt got in resolving the situation.
… For all the hustle and bustle, arguably the most active man during Tuesday morning’s controversy was UGA head coach Mark Richt.
He was all over the practice field, talking with Whitfield, Green, Durham and NFL officials, trying to figure out a resolution acceptable to everyone.
And Richt eventually found one.
That didn’t just help out former Georgia players like Green and Durham. It also was a big deal to Roper, the quarterback who didn’t play for him.
… Scouts watched as Roper connected on 61 of 64 passes – in Whitfield’s estimation – and Green and Durham took turns making nice grabs.
“I can’t say enough,” Roper said of Richt. “This is basically my shot. I know it helps his players out, too. But that’s not why he did it. He’s a good person. He and I were talking when I was transferring about possibly here, so we had a relationship.
“He’s a great man, first of all. And I think that really shows in times like these.”
Considering that this was swirling about on the same day that Richt’s team was scheduled to be back on the field for spring practice, you’ve got to give the man credit.
Get The Picture 
He still shoulda gone for it on 4th and short.
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He did against Clemson in ’02 from our own 27!
He had brass ones then.
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Just another affirmation of what we already knew. He is a classy individual.
It would be great to see a “nice guy” finish first. Coach Richt should have enough karma built up to start having things go his way for a while.
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Boy, ain’t that the truth.
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What’s the over/under that the NCAA finds some rule somewhere that makes this a secondary recruiting violation?
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They’ll find one I’m sure.
How about Durham running that 4.4?
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I had the same thought when I read it!
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So the NFL has stupid rules, too. WTF reason could there possibly be for a rule like that to exist? This is what happens when you give monopoly power for an entire industry (pro football) to a small dangerously inbred group and the only possible employer for these players is the NFL. The government never should have let the AFL and the NFL merge. We’re going to see a bigger and even worse manifestation as the lockout proceeds this year.
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The NFL has concerns that a draft eligible QB would begin to monopolize Pro Day workouts.
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Thanks for the explanation and it is good to know that there is at least some rationale for the rule. That said, I think the cure is worse than the disease and certainly in this case the interpretation ( the guy is lives 46 miles away rather than 25 or whatever the allowable distance is under the rule) is pretty silly.
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The NFL doesn’t have monopoly status. In fact, far from it (see ufl xfl etc). The only professional sport that is exempt from Anti-trust laws is MLB created back in the early 20th centuries, challenged many times, but still exists.
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The only government-created sports monopoly (i.e. exempt from US anti-trust laws) is Major League Baseball. However, if you don’t think the NFL has a monopoly position in professional football in the US you probably also still believe in the Tooth Fairy. All monopolies do not have to be created by government action. Most are not–they simply evolve as the bigger fish take over the smaller fish or drive them out of business. As an aside, have you noticed how the price of satellite radio has gone up and the service has gone down since Sirius and XM merged?
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Ok, well if you’re going to question my intelligence by making your clever tooth fairy line (nice fresh material) , the reason SiriusXM was allowed to go through as a merger and is NOT a monopoly is because it’s competition is not other satellite companies but the different mediums to listen to live broadcasts i.e. AM and FM radio and Internet Radio which are it’s actual competition. If you don’t want to pay for SiriusXM, pull up I Heart Radio or one of the hundreds of other internet radio services on your phone.
And no, I don’t think the NFL has a “monopoly position” (is that like Ventnor Avenue?) any more than any other professional sports league. In fact out of all the major sports, more viable leagues pop up to compete against the NFL than any other league (in fact the UFL is being created as we speak, on top of as I said earlier, the XFL, Arena League, USFL).
So will you please tell me what should the government do then (as if we don’t have enough intervention in our lives, but I digress)? Should they break up the NFL into two complete and distinct leagues called the AFC and NFC in the name of fair trade? Mandate that another league exist so that we can have half the best players in one league and half in another?
Athletes want to compete against the best competition available and will always gravitate toward the league that puts out the best product, regardless of any intervention (the exact reason the USFL failed, despite its viable financial backing).
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more viable leagues pop up to compete against the NFL than any other league? I thought the reason the USFL, the Arena League, the XFL, etc all folded was because they weren’t, well, ummmm….viable.
Coke has Pepsi. Microsoft has Apple. The NFL has……what? The Lingerie Football League?
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Viable because they got off the ground. Remind me of those other Hockey, baseball and basketball leagues that existed.
Once again, what do you want the government to do? Answer me that.
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Nothing. I never said government should do anything about pro football now. The mistake was made in the 60s when the merger between the two leagues was approved. Too late to do anything now. PD, not wanting to get into a pissing contest with you but you demonstrate a complete lack of understanding about anti-trust law. It’s about market share and the definition of the market size. However you want to spin it SiriusXM has a monopoly in satellite radio and acts like it. Will internet radio catch up and pass satellite radio? I certainly hope so.
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Does the NFL have “monopoly status” as you term it? Is there an Arab in the Middle East? I would never have bought the Falcons if it did not. What a great position to be in! We have no significant competition in professional football for the largest TV market in the world. Cities bid against each other with perks and tax breaks to get our league to place a team there or for one of the existing teams to move there. We can armtwist a city and sometimes an entire state into financing our business by building a stadium for the team to use. Can you imagine a city doing that if there was another viable pro football league with a team that would move there for free? I plan on holding up Atlanta and the State of Georgia for a new domed stadium to rival that monster Jerry Jones got built in Texas. No matter that Atlanta already has a perfectly good domed stadium that is only about 20 years old. If they won’t build the thing I am going to take my team and go to LA. HELLO HOLLYWOOD! Is this a great country or what? Now if we can just figure out a way to get that pesky NCAA football off national TV we’ll really have it made.
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So it is safe to assume that Richt was PK’s source for this …
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/03/22/mail/index.html
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I hope the Bengals do draft Julio. It is a dead zone out there.
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Was it me or did Richt look like he had lost some weight in that photo? I really hope he has that would be a great sign that he has everything in his life under control and in order. I think there has to be a correlation between Richt’s weight gain and program woes.
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I’ve heard him say he blimps up during football and (especially) recruiting season and then slims down once that is over.
If anyone has heard Andy Landers speak, he has some real gems about being “treated” to meals on recruiting visits.
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Oh, brother.
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Still waiting for someone to say Richt recruited Roper as a tight-end.
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I expected nothing less from CMR. Since we are talking about pro day and the draft, what happens if the NFL is tied up in court and there is no draft? Green cannot go back to college and he can’t sign an NFL contract since the players union has been disbanded. Could some owner hire him under a personal contract as Trump did with Walker? I don’t see how such a contract could be voided if Jerry Jones offered Green a job, or Arthur Blank for that matter. Then when NFL play resumed said owner could say “Green isn’t selling widgets anymore, now he will play football.”
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This is one in a million examples of what a marvelous human being Mark Richt is.
Now we can all just hope he gets the success he deserves to go along with it.
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