Well, I give Hugh Freeze a little credit about signing Chad “I’m going to go to my car and get my AK-47 and spray this place.” Kelly. He’s not tap dancing around his decision much.
“I’m not gonna sugar-coat anything,” Freeze told FOX Sports on Wednesday. “I’m not extremely confident that I can do that (say that Kelly isn’t gonna embarrass the Ole Miss program.) I’m not going to sit here and make promises. I know this: I believe kids certainly have value and deserve second and even third chances. I like the kid. I know that he has struggled with decisions in the social realm of things. I do think I have a gift for that. I’m not saying I can change him, but I sure think it’s worth the risk.
“Everybody gets tied up in the social media world and in the media world and (says), ‘Man, he can embarrass your program.’ Well, here’s the way I see it: I see it as you’re balancing an opportunity for a young man to change his life and his course and his story as opposed to me having some embarrassment on my program. You know what, I’ve been embarrassed before and I’ll be embarrassed again. To me, that scale is always balanced if you think it is at all salvageable and giving a young man a chance. That is the way I’ve always operated. If the worst thing that happens to me is that I’ll be embarrassed, well, I’ll be all right.”
At least he admits what’s going on. The reality is that he’s no different that Petrino or Saban on making that call. Except that neither Petrino nor Saban have a sense of embarrassment.
Get The Picture 
Imagine the reaction of the Atlanta media if CMR did any of the things that other SEC coaches have done recently.
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“I know this: I believe kids certainly have value and deserve second and even third chances.”
So, that whole, “kids/people deserve a second chance” mantra has now been bumped up to “third chances”? I guess by 2019 we’ll have added even more chances, in which a coach will be quoted as saying something like: “he’s a really good kid, and yea he beat that woman up while on probation, but I know deep down in my heart that he deserves a 5th chance.”
If we as a society are going to continue to comfort people by allaying them of consequences in the form of 3, 4, or 5 chances or more, then we might as well eliminate punishment altogether, in which our society will quickly erode into a Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome type of environments.
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I thought that was already the plan?
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Maybe it would be easier if we just go ahead and assign the “number of second chances” a player gets to his position. A starting QB gets 5, a starting tailback 4, and on and on till we get to the 2nd string kicker who gets no second chances. That would make things easier for everyone.
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We could call it the Garcia Rule
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Saban and Paterno? Jeebus Bluto, I don’t like the results Sauron gets on the field, either, but comparing him to Paterno?
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Perhaps you should read my post again… more slowly. 😉
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Ok.
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Ah shit, boss…that statue thing there, it crossed my eyes. mea by God culpa?
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Don’t give it another thought. Brain farts hit us all.
But does anyone else think that someone on here didn’t get their Post Toasties this morning? Either that or my reading comprehension has turned into a medium-sized stroke.
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He said Petrino, not Paterno.
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It’s difficult for Paterno to recruit at a high level anymore
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Are you making a comment on Joe’s current zip code? 🙂
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If he is I’d say Paterno is in a recruiting hotbed……
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good on you Mike.
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You wouldn’t be Mike from FU would you? If so, you must be ecstatic that McElwain pulled the fat out of the fire.
Think he knew about the coach from Texas replacing the coach that left for the Dophins in time to inform Ce Ce? Nah, he couldn’t start on that kind of foot, could he?
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Sorry, not Mike from FU. I took my daughter to Disney last weekend and told her to hold her breath as we went through Gainesville so she wouldn’t inhale any stupidity.
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What a great Dad you are!
Taught my boys to crook their little fingers and leave the middle finger straight out whenever they saw that symbol. Boy, was I embarrassed when we got off the tour train in Fiorenza, Italy. Sheesh.
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Haha, that’s pretty funny. I have to be extremely careful with my kid because she picks up anything I do very quickly.
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I’d be a lot more impressed with Freeze if he balanced one side of his scale with the “opportunity for Kelly to win us ballgames” rather than the “opportunity for a young man to change his life”.
Also, it would be nice if he was more honest about the embarrassment he is bringing onto the university rather than himself.
Oh yeah… and I’d also like a pony.
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+1 Do any of us really think Kelly would be given a second chance if the coach didn’t think he could make a difference in his team. Let’s see a third stringer get some of those 3rd chances and then Freeze can talk about this. The better you play the more chances you get. This is total PR BS.
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Thought Freeze’s “me, me, me” overloaded his concern for the player’s future. The kid ain’t worried. If he screws up there’s still Saban, Malzahn and Pater…uh..Petrino… uhh… meant ‘Bama, Auburn and Loueyville. 🙂
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This.
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I think you nailed it Gravity. Bluto’s points out the bullshit these coaches put out there as if they are the embodiment of charity by giving the kid a second chance when we all know that if that kid couldn’t help their program, no second chance would be given.
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Yes, the third and fourth stringers always seem to be beyond rehabilitation.
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How bout a Mulligan?….in that sentence where you put Saban and PETRINO next to each other, I wish Saban would go back to the NFL, too, but putting him in the same sentence with PETRINO seems a bit of a reach to me, Jonathon Taylor notwithstanding. After considerable research, I can find no evidence Saban has any interest in motorcycles.
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*anymore.
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I’m sure Freeze would be this forgiving if Kelly was a long snapper instead of a quarterback.
There’s “second chances” and then there’s “keeping a documented shithead around because you need him as a player”. Don’t insult our intelligence by pretending they are the same thing.
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Saban/Petrino/Freeze policy: The number of chances equals the star rating of the player in question.
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Amen and Amen.
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Succinct as it is true.
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Anyone is worth a second chance; if I think they will help me win….
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I can’t wait for the day CMR does this to see the knee jerk media reaction
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The player wouldn’t last long.
Too many people in Athens would be waiting in the weeds, if you know what I mean.
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Gee, thought that I read that Freeze really researched the QB in depth before giving him another social chance. He checked out the nightclub and found out they were open past hours and that was the reason for the kid’s continu…uhh…first social fail.
If Freeze is that concerned, what about the other QBs already on the team? They must be thrilled that they are second fiddle to a social miscreant.
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Freeze is all “me, me, me” with the embarrassment talk. It’s not about that. It’s about the innocent student at Ole Miss that this kid may victimize. That’s the risk to be weighed – not Freeze’s alleged potential embarrassment.
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