Thursday, August 30, 2012

He Maybe Politically Incorrect, But Was He Wrong?

From ESPN: Allen Pinkett's controversial comments about Notre Dame have cost him the chance to broadcast the Fighting Irish's season opener Saturday in Dublin, Ireland -- and possibly more.
The IMG Notre Dame Radio Network announced Pinkett's discipline in a statement Thursday afternoon....
Pinkett, the former Fighting Irish running back and current radio analyst, said Wednesday on The McNeil and Spiegel Show that Notre Dame needs a few "bad citizens" in order to win.
"I've always felt like to have a successful team you've got to have a few bad citizens on the team," Pinkett said on WSCR-AM (670). "That's how Ohio State used to win all the time. They would have two or three guys that were criminals, and that just adds to the chemistry of the team. I think Notre Dame is growing because maybe they have some guys that are doing something worthy of a suspension, which creates edge on the football team.
"You can't have a football team full of choirboys. You get your butt kicked if you've got a team full of choirboys so you've got to have a little bit of edge. But the coach has to be the dictator and the ultimate ruler. Here's my opinion: You don't hand out suspensions unless you know you've got somebody behind that guy that can make plays."
Given a chance to back off his comments, Pinkett kept going.
"I absolutely meant that," Pinkett said. "The chemistry is so important on a football team. You have to have a couple of bad guys that sort of teeter on that edge to add to the flavor of the guys that are going to always do right because that just adds to the chemistry of the football team. You have to have ... you look at the teams that have won in the past they have always had a couple of criminals.http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8318038/notre-dame-fighting-irish-allen-pinkett-taken-broadcast-season-opener
While there may be some exceptions, most college and even pro football teams have trouble makers on their teams.  And if the players are honest, then you have dishonest coaches.  Rarely, in college football, do you have a completely honest coach and players who are smart and stay out of trouble..
I know, when I was going to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, (Wisconsin Badgers), I had several big time athletes in my classes and with the exception of 1 student, Darrell  Bevell who wore to class, a tie and and dress pants and took notes, every other athlete just sat around drawing cartoons or sleeping  or doing nothing at all.  Then you had athletes who didn't even go to class- all this under Barry Alvarez- and those were the well behaved athletes.  Of course, you had athletes get into trouble but the cops and the athletic director's office usually handled the problems.  And Wisconsin was considered to be one of the better run programs.  Then you have the Florida schools, any one of them, many of the Texas schools and many, many others who's programs had problems with the athletes and/or coaches.
So, what Pinkette said was true but politically incorrect.  And if you look at the Fighting Irish's football record over the past decade, you cannot argue that the choir boys of Notre Dame have not been very good.  They have only been ranked in the top 20 3 times with 2 rankings of 17 and 1 ranking of 9th in the country.
It's too bad that Allen Pinkett will have to miss a historic game this weekend as they are playing Navy in Dublin, Ireland.for telling the truth, but it had to be said.

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