I’ve got a little assignment for all you middle-aged, middle class folks who have written and spoken harshly over the past few weeks about how kids like Rambo and Ogletree should have known to behave just like you would have in their circumstances because… well, because it’s so damned obvious to you.
Anyway, take a look at Justin Scott-Wesley’s G-Day story and share with us in the comments any similar experiences you went through when you were growing up.
Wait, what? You don’t have any? Imagine my surprise.
Maybe you should think a little more before judging. Just sayin’.
(By the way, any of you who do have similar stories, you have my sympathies, of course. No need to post – I was just making a rhetorical point.)
Get The Picture 
I read an article about successful women. Doctors, lawyers and indian chief type of success. They all agreed that the biggest thing they had in common was a very close relationship to their Dad. Each pointed to that relationship as the biggest influence on their careers. Interesting.
. “Fathers are far more than just ‘second adults’ in the home,”. “Involved fathers bring positive benefits to their children that no other person is as likely to bring.”
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Couldn’t agree more. There’s no excuse for infractions such as armed robbery, assaulting a police officer or thievery, but the righteous indignation by some in our fan base over what amount to “dumb college kid” offenses is a tremendous waste of time. Throw in the fact that most of these folk are white, middle aged and middle-to-upper class (as am I) and it indeed suggests a cultural disconnect rather than a moral one. Given that the player/student-fan age gap for our demographic is only going to grow more pronounced over time, we’re in for some miserable Saturdays BTH unless we recognize that gamedays and the University are increasingly not about us. As Wooderson said in Dazed and Confused: “That’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older and they stay the same age.”
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Amen, Senator. I know there is a lot of single moms out there doing the best they can but there is no debate that a children (especially boys) need a strong positive male figure (Dad, granddad, uncle) who is there for them everyday. Good luck to Justin, who by all accounts has been a model citizen, even though he came from not so great family circumstances.
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“I know there is a lot of single moms out there doing the best they can”
Single moms having multiple children with multiple partners only
exacerbate their situation. More than 70% of African American children are born out of wedlock and that is symptomatic of the state of the African American home. Lack of a involved father figure is huge part of stability and character development but there are contributing factors such as inappropriate role models — sports and entertainment figures and various types of outlaws — and a lack of parental involvement in the children’s schooling.
“Certainly it does not help to be poor, discriminated against etc., but the telling factor in academic performance is the attitude and work ethic children bring to the classroom. This is of course shaped by parents and also pop culture.”
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We have welfare to thank for that when first instituted it would only help IF there was no father in the house. So to get their families help they left and then it became the norm and now society is really hurt by this situation. It has to do with poverty as much as race and as long as we tie it to cultural we are fooling ourselves. We need to help families stay families.
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But Senator, a lot of those kids did behave exactly like I did when I was in their circumstances at their age. Ah, to be young and immortal.
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+1
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Ogletree is from Newnan. Not exactly the ghetto. Solid family with both Mother and Father in the house. Sorry, he doesn’t fit your poor black kid sterotype. He was always considered a good kid around town, my feeling is there are still some bad influences in Athens that need to be weeded out.
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Bobo?
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Mike, you just got me by both rib cages. Perfect timing of humor. Love it.
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Dbag?
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There’s less bad influence in Athens than there is in Newnan. Have you ever lived in Athens? Im middle class white and not middle aged(Thank God). I smoked pot when i was in Athens. Kids smoke pot. Always have always will
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Did I miss something? It seems from that story he is close to his Dad. Why was he locked up? We don’t know. Can’t make excuse for anyone based on that story. But maybe you are correct,,,,,we should be judging the way parents act as much as the way the kids do. Does anyone know if JSW’s dad was in the home in the past?
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That’s why I have nothing but respect for Randy Shannon.
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DB – I hope your last statement is facetious, but I can’t tell.
There are “some bad influences in Athens”? The entire town is a bad influence, and probably has been for over 200 years. Alcohol, drugs, flesh, etc., its all right there, waiting for you – its not too hard to find, and most of the time it will just find you. Here’s a hint – those are all the reasons most kids (and even more so, some rich kids) enjoy going off to college.
The righteous indignation from people who pretend like they never drove after drinking a little too much, never smoked a doobie, never cut a class, always obeyed the speed limit, never got in arguments with their girlfriends, and completely avoided situations where anything like that occurs, is pathetic.
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Cheez, I know, but what if you did ALL of them and some more thingies you didn’t list?
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I did. It was GREAT!!!
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Yeah……at least the parts I remember.
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Said it before and I’ll say it again, I think we’re too strict on minor violations. I also believe the players should get a cut of the huge amount of money cfb generates.
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If in fact the GA DOC did let everything turn out well, then I am impressed, who would have thunk. Not for the Dad is this important, although it is, but for JSW, helping to keep a good kid on track.
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You take any sample of 85 college-aged kids in a given year and there are definitely going to be a handful of arrests among the group for traffic offenses (driving w/o insurance, driving on susp. license, bench warrants for outstanding tickets or failure to appear, etc). College students are usually strapped for cash and this contributes to many of these offenses. Miss an insurance payment so your tag and license gets suspended. You can’t pay a ticket so you ignore it or skip court and get a bench warrant. There is no excuse for DUI but this is the age where you go out to bars and clubs and start drinking.
And just imagine if all college students were drug tested…. positive tests for marijuana would be the norm. I don’t want a team full of potheads, but I can’t cast aspersions on Rambo for dabbling in some Chronic on Spring Break.
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+1. If they are gonna test the football team after spring break they need to test the entire student body and all the faculty and while they are at it –Michael Adams. Let’s see exactly who has what in his/her system.
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I think that you are right on target with that suggestion. Without warning.
By the way, anyone see the news this A.M. where Obama will entertain a national discussion/debate on legalization? The drug countries are pushing this as the final answer to stopping illegal drug war. Obama not so sure , but is willing to talk about it.
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Say anything to get the youth vote…
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From what I read, he already has had the youth vote for several years. He said today that he was willing to talk/debate about it, but is not a proponent for legalization, in fact, he has had a hard stance toward pot in the last two years. Doesn’t sound like he will do anything except risk some middle aged white votes that he has fewest votes from anyway. But, you can be assured that the out-of-touch Republicans will try to create a pirana-feast out of it rather than participate in something our country and drug countries need badly to fight the war on drugs.
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I am not sure about his current incarceration, but Johnny Lee Wesley has been to state prison 5 times dating back to 1990. All past convictions were for sale of cocaine. I got this information from the Ga. Dept of Corrections website.
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Are you saying life’s past circumstances have some bearing on the present and future? I knew you were a damn liberal.
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I always think it is all about an individual’s ability to control gratification and being able to delay this in a more appropriate time.
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Sometimes delaying it gets you past the age of enjoyment. And some things are passed into law that are downright defeating to an open and caring society. Others sometimes bear the burden of being prosecuted of laws enacted without understanding, perception and sensitivity to societal mores. Miscegenation and segregation laws still have favor in many minds who would put them back on the books if half the chance comes up. The life of a dark-skinned person is hard to contemplate if you consider yourself white. I can remember when , if you saw a slow car on the highway, you usually would find a person of color driving. The white-skinned take was that the person didn’t know how to drive since owning and driving cars was new to that dumb and ignorant person in the South; whereas, the truth of the matter was that the person didn’t want to get caught in any snare of the law because it seemed, that once tabbed, it persisted through the rest of their lives;therefore, they drove at least 10 miles slower than the speed limit in avoidance.
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By the way, no matter the studies, I don’t see all the single-parent female success stories out in front of studies. They are too numerous. And many of them involve athletes and specifically, football players. Think of them on Mother’s Day. It will do you good.
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Roll a fattie for me Cojones, cause I just ain’t that high yet. I like ya, I’m not fickle,but that is some silly shit right there. I don’t mind tellin’ ya. Go read Ogbu’s “Shaker Heights” . Here I’ll help ya cause I like ya even when you piss me off.
Click to access Ogbu%27s%20theory%20of%20academic%20disengagement.pdf
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Read part of it in the 90s and rebuttal arguments as well. What point are you making? I don’t have any idea what you are calling “silly shit”. I lived that described and more. Perhaps if you weren’t exposed to it daily and get your info from others, you wouldn’t have experienced those things. Perhaps you haven’t seen a form of slavery, but I have. The local sheriff would arrest AAs Fri and Sat nights. One particularly was a repeat offender each year. He was bailed out by our local postman and told he had to work it off(because he had no money) by doing work on the postman’s estate(big columned plantation-like home and property he inherited) and he reduced the $1000 (final costs of drinking moonshine and being proscecuted as a moonshiner, not as a drunk) by a pittance each day until the guy had worked all year and had no money to show for it, then repeat the process for the next year. Details will take too long on here, but it was acceptable behavior between the law and black people and society when I grew up(all my teen years were in the 50s).
If it’s about women raising their children in a single parenting home, I suggest you take a look at who SEC coaches meet with and try to please when recruiting one of these kids.
I have no clue as to what you are referring to as “silly shit”. Care to explain?
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Absolutely right! This is one ol’ Dawg who thinks of it every single Mother’s Day. My Mom divorced my alcoholic father when I was 4 and finished raising 6 kids alone. Rarely saw my Dad, even after he got sober. But 5 of us have college degrees (4 from UGA); 3 have advanced degrees; and now so many honor students among my Mom’s grandkids I’ve lost count. So I guess we made it!
But it wasn’t easy, I can tell you. My wife was also raised by a tough single mom, and there are few sports, school or other kid events that we don’t both attend. We know “being there” is a 2 parent thing.
So these young men who make the grades, do the hard athletic work, keep their noses clean (even if they do have occasional lapses) all have my respect–but, yes, I have even greater regard for the tough single moms behind those that didn’t have both parents around, had to have eyes in back of their heads, had to sacrifice sleep, social life, alone time to make it happen for their kids, relentlessly, every damn day. God love ’em all!
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Good for you …. I wish my father a SAC/WO was drunk more often. Might have taken some of his focus off me. Anyway, his grandsons adore him. Go figure. His grandsons are doing very well. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
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Slaw Dawg- Hines Ward’s Mom comes to mind.
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honestly I’m more frustrated with the UGA administration than I am with Ogletree and Rambo. Yeah what they did was stupid and selfish and no just because a lot of college age kids, smart responsible kids included, smoke marijuana occasionally, it doesn’t make it ok. However, from the perspective of the administration in the case of the football team you’re basically doing risk management for 85 athletes. Out of a population that big it’s almost guaranteed someone will be smoking weed. I really have a problem with making your drug testing so strict as to hamstring yourself. I know a big part of this is an overreaction on the part of Adams but drug testing and other stupid pointless practices combine to make a significant barrier to our team taking the next step to being an elite program.
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I repeat. Test Adams and the faculty. You’ll have more fail than the football team–I guarentee it.
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You might check’em as well for drinkin’ at TWLOCP.
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Sorry to be contrary. But Daddy in the picture or bad home life or not, you learn at an early age smoking pot or stealing a bicycle/motorcycle helmet is wrong. Wrong is wrong.
Smoking weed is trivial but still wrong is wrong.
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Stealing is definitely wrong but smoking pot is not immoral. I wish it was as clear as wrong is wrong.
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My brother and I stole tobacco and papers from our Dad when learning to first smoke. I was 12 and he was nearly 14. We drove stake-body GMC truck, pickup truck, car, tractors and a Willy’s Army jeep over a large property my Dad managed. No license. Scofflaws? Yep. Stole (we called it “filched”) from our Dad? Yep. Rolled and smoked dem “Roll-Your-Own”s? Yep. We didn’t have the courage to smoke in front of him until we both were 18.
We had great respect for our Mom and Dad who raised 4 in the country. My Dad was 5′ 8″, 143lbs top weight and I was the smallest of his 3 sons at 6’2”, over 200lbs, but we respected his discipline of us. The point is that we are all responsible of who we are. The fact that we had strong shoulders to stand on made us lucky, but not so country isolated that we weren’t taught to be sensitive to others who weren’t so lucky. We never knowingly “stole” a thing in our lives, but you can see we weren’t angels whereas we were brought up in a fine family environment. Made me pause when judging others who weren’t so lucky.
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I’ll probably get blasted for this, but I simply ain’t buying what you’re selling here, Bluto. Is it a tragedy that the kid has had to grow up with his father in prison? Absolutely. But does that make him unable to comprehend the English language when Richt says, “Don’t smoke weed. Don’t do it. If you do, you will be suspended at least one game. If you don’t believe me, I’ll put you in touch with a dozen people who didn’t believe me either.”
No matter how much you point out how my upbringing differed from that of the average UGA football player, you won’t get me to feel sorry for someone whi chose to break a rule that was thoroughly, repeatedly explained to him.
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I’m not expecting you to feel sorry for them. As you point out, they broke rules which had been clearly set for them.
What I do wish folks would do is realize that they’re just kids, kids who in many cases come out of very different backgrounds than those who are passing judgment on them do. Richt understands that. Too bad a lot of the fan base doesn’t.
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I think there are several reasons for the middle-class, white-man venom.
I think it’s partly due to the anonymity of the Internet (btw how did you know my race?).
But I think the majority of it comes from this: most of us never had the chance to play big-time college football for our favorite team. We see these guys having the chance of a lifetime – and screwing it up.
Took my family to a Japanese steak house tonight. Sat next to a young man who is about to join the Navy. He had scholarship offers from Troy and Cincinnati, but a knee injury in the third game of the year ended all that. Fine young man. I’ll bet if he could play right now he wouldn’t hang out at the spice rack getting ready to hit a lick.
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Yeah, but kids screw up. We did. Not in our favorite sport that we were not good enough to play, but in those areas we were good enough to play in. My undergraduate major professor admonished me for “hijinxs” (one of the more embarrassing ones was being asked by him to step outside his class where the Ga St Patrol was standing to ask questions about the sign stolen from above their post entrance the night before) that he thought deprived me of higher honors. Go figure. Who is the stupid one now, me, or the athlete throwing away his chance at honors? Hard to compare, but easy to understand.
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I’m not quite seeing the comparison. Rambo and Ogletree broke the rules. It is what it is. But this kid hasn’t broken any rules. He was dealt a tough situation that he, near as I can tell, has turned into a wonderful moment for himself and his family.
Best story of the year so far. Hopefully the father can get his life back on track and enjoy his son’s time as a Georgia football player. It’s pretty special in the grand scheme. Only a select few get to experience it.
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Sorry Blutarsky, but you’re just being an ass on this one. I’ve never before read you as being on a high horse.
Separately, I can’t imagine what JSW is going through.
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Honestly, I don’t think I’m the one on the horse.
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If you are, you aren’t alone. Different horses, different heights.
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The Old Spice guy is on a horse
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By the way, it was gratifying watching him play yesterday and gratifying to not only see him take his own life upon his shoulders, but share it with his family. We got us another fine receiver in the armada. And a good man to cheer onward while he’s a Dawg.
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I agree with the drug testing because I feel there is more to life than winning at all costs and when the players that make it to the NFL get there I want them not to end up in prison because of entitlement. It is illegal and they should follow the law. I also understand that young adults believe that bad things won’t happen to them so they don’t think they will be the one tested. Peer pressure will help stop that as well as consitently enforcing the rules. When it is not done you end up like Florida. I hope Rambo learns from this his career has had mountain top moments and deep valleys. I don’t think I could have endured the loss of a child and hit the field for my team. I hate they way the fanbase forgets all his has given to UGA. Tree did come from a great home and I bet his Mom is pulling her hair out at his lack of judgement. I hope the entire team learns from this spring break and pulls together and we see some fantastic performances from new players wanting to make a big statement.
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