Here is Father Leahy's official letter regarding the campus expansion.
SMQ provides a great preview of Virginia Tech.
Former Eagle Tim Bulman never gave up on his NFL dream.
Bleacher Report gives Clif Ramsey some all-ACC accolades.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Cherilus and Tribble episode over and other links
Cherilus and Tribble both agreed to probation on their bar fight arrest. Gos is also out $52,000 as part of the ruling. Now the guys just have to keep their noses clean. Because Bob Hohler wrote the article, he had to include an unrelated note about Brady Smith.
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13 comments:
Atl - stories like this (Cherilus/Tribble and Smith) serve as a sad reminder that even BC athletes are subject to the same character flaws and sense of entitlement that many top athletes are. We might hope that our Jesuit traditions shield us from the bad guys, and that all of our guys are as squeaky clean as Matty Ice, but the reality is that the BC administration needs to continue to work hard to attract student-athletes who will represent the values of the University. I think journalists like Hohler have every right to point out problem athletes on our campus, and we can only hope that the negative press drives the athletic department to screen recruits responsibly. Love the blog, bro.
Ben, I disagree. My BC friends got in bar fights and were arrested while students. The difference is no one cared. That doesn't make them bad guys either. Athletes just have to be more careful because they are high profile.
As for Hohler, I would have let this Brady Smith link pass without comment if it was the first time. He just feels the need to rehash and link every BC issue into every article.
Atl - fair enough, surely none of us want to be forever judged by our actions while at school. However, because I can sense excellent judgement on your part as a result of reading your well-informed blog, I assume that you did not have friends at BC who found themselves in situations like these. Sure, fights happen, and this Cherilus/Tribble situation is ultimately a he-said/she-said type of deal, but the fact is, Gos is 6'7", 315 lbs and he beat up a software engineer (allegedly broke his neck, actually) because the woman he was with mouthed off to a State Trooper who told them to get up and leave a table they were sitting at because BC athletes were more entitled to it. Without picking sides or making judgements, I'd say Gos is not the kind of dude I'd hang out with. Obviously, Smith's case is especially egregious. His status as high profile has nothing to do with whether or not what he did was wrong. I think it is fair to point out that BC, for the most part, does a better job than most schools at getting quality student-athletes. But we're kidding ourselves if we think we can't do a better job.
"Without picking sides or making judgements, I'd say Gos is not the kind of dude I'd hang out with."
Yeah, good thing you're not picking sides or making judgments ben. Give me a break.
To blame BC for this is idiotic, especially by saying that we can do a better job of picking guys with character. It's one thing if we are recruiting players with criminal backgrounds, which is something that many schools have shown a habit of doing (Rutgers, Miami, FSU to name a few). But none of these individuals have had the slightest whiff of a problem before enrolling, so don't blame the recruiting or the school. And to automatically lump an attempted rape (Brady Smith) with a bar fight in which the details still remain very hazy to this day is irresponsible journalism. It's not exactly a state secret that members of the Globe (and Hohler in particular) enjoy getting their shots in at BC when they can.
Since he was already intent on throwing a punch after the bell, I'm surprised Hohler didn't include the Watkins window-jump, Sean Williams, Ohliger, the gambling scandal, Scoonie Penn and Chris Herren while he was at it. The guy puts whatever negative spin he can on any BC related "news." Why not close the story with some dirt from Maney's past, rather than BCs? Giving information which would help the reader judge this guy's [lack of] credibility would just not be as much fun as tossing in something completely unrelated to dump on the big entitled athletes and the BC administration. How that paragraph makes it to press is beyond me. What a hack of a "journalist." Doesn't the Globe have editors anymore?
Read any article about anything - the end of it always discusses 'related' stories, even if the relation is tenuous.
When the T had an accident on the green line last month, the last paragraph mentioned 4 or 5 other T incidents, including one that was totally unrelated (an electrical fire that evacuated a station).
Same deal with the Fung Wah Bus story yesterday. It wasn't the Fung Wah's fault that it got run over from behind but the journalists felt it necessary and responsible to discuss its previous issues in the last paragraph.
I'm sure the Globe has plenty of editors, they're just all anti-BC.
Joe Grav is correct - check out the second to last paragraph in The Heights. Is The Heights anti-BC?
http://media.www.bcheights.com/media/storage/paper144/news/2008/04/24/News/Brady.Smith.Charged.With.Rape-3346808-page2.shtml
Ben, "But we're kidding ourselves if we think we can't do a better job." Who was or how were we supposed to screen them? Cherilus was a local kid with a good rep coming out of high school and wasn't in trouble for his first three years. Smith was a legacy with many Eagle family members. I am not saying we should become a thug house, but if you have 85 college age kids some are going to get in trouble. How BC deals with it is what matters to me. In my opinion we handled the Smith case and Gos' situation correctly.
BC is one of the most difficult schools in the country to get into now. There is an extensive screening process for prospective students by way of the application process. That should be, and mostly is, extended to all students, regardless of participation in athletics.
You'll notice, please, that I use words like 'continue to work hard,' and 'do a better job' when I express hope that BC screens players. I even pointed out that BC does a better job than most. The point is that focusing on negative media attention and excusing poor behavior because 4 or 5 out of 85 isn't too bad is taking a step in the wrong direction. It's Ever to Excel, boys, not Ever to do OK.
Ben, I don't think anyone is "excusing poor behavior" at all. ATL's point is clearly that you can't predict the future and all you can do is your best to get good kids and handle any problems appropriately if they happen.
It is awfully harsh on the administration and the players to say there was some mistake in admitting Gos and Tribble when there is a lack of credible evidence that they even did anything wrong.
Every football recruit that looks like a football player becomes a public target. What can you do about that? You can keep them out of some bars, but not all bars. You can tell them to stay out of the wrong place at the wrong time, but any place these guys go in public has the potential to be the wrong place. Who can predict that a patron will start a fight with a bar owner? Stupid to get involved we can all agree, but thats a judgment based on what the players have to lose, not about anything being morally or legally wrong about breaking up a fight.
Beyond that, we just don't know what exactly happened. The school's handling of it was consistent with the lack of evidence, in contrast to the swift action taken in Smith's case where there was evidence. What else can you ask for?
My point about the end of the article isn't just that it looks backward. I understand it is a typical journalistic convention, but that doesn't mean it can't be employed in an improper way. My point is about his selection of what to look back at, consistent with his constant negative view of BC. He's blatantly just trying to get a shot in. He even calls him a "team member" which is inaccurate and leaves the impression to an unknowing reader that he's still around.
My main problem with it, and all media reaction to BC is this - it never appreciates any of the good things we do, it only brings us down or jumps on one mistake of ours. I agree, Ben, that we shouldn't be making excuses when our players do something bad (like Smith), but it is amazing how little Boston cares about us when our hockey, basketball and football programs are doing so well, but then can't wait to jump all over us when an idiot like Smith acts that way.
I am not OK with BC athletes getting away with things, and I love the way we crack down and don't let it happen (not many other schools would kick a player like Sean Williams off the team but let him stay in school), but why does the media seem to jump on us when we were down. We graduate 96% of our athletes, most of whom are extremely personable and well spoken on TV and seem to have genuine personality. I love our athletic program and am tired of seeing people take every opportunity they can to dump on us and rarely build us up. I think, Ben, that is the point about this being "unfair". I mean couldn't they at least throw in somewhere that BC has remarkable graduation rates and disciplinary records, just to convey to the public that we are not the U reincarnated?
I once intervened in a "confrontation" at an officer's club when I was overseas in the Army. I was a First Lieutenant at the time, and I got into a lot of trouble for something I was only trying to prevent.
I wish the Massachusetts State Police sergeant,who was a part owner of the establishment, had not sort of instigated the situation. As I recall, this incident occurred during the day (a saturday afternoon, perhaps) when the players were going to celebrate one of their birthdays.
Both Cherilus(especially) and Tribble have learned a tough lesson here. From what I can see, these are two pretty upstanding individuals. Too bad all around.
The word "brawl" is the headline that people remember, unfortunately.
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