I am warning right now, this is a rant. I think it is fairly well constructed, but it is a rant.
*Begin rant*
When Al Golden was hired as the new head coach and caretaker of Miami football in December, his mission was simple: return Miami to the glories past while maintaining the sterling off-field success enjoyed by the previous regime.
Now, I think we all know where this is going given the recent allegations against reserve defensive tackle Jeffrey Brown. And you are correct...but before we get there, a disclaimer. That is probably the incorrect choice of words, because no disclaimer can mitigate even the admitted actions of Brown, much less the alleged ones. But there is a scene that needs to be set.
First of all, anytime a new MFWIC comes in to town there is bound to be friction.
Golden could have acquired the Harvard football roster and probably had some players have run-ins with authorities, whether it be Residence Halls staff or Miami PD.
Randy Shannon was like a father figure to a lot of the kids on this team. Whether or not you liked the man, that is indisputable. His deaprture left a vacuum for a lot of these kids, and it is almost impossible to ask Golden to fill it right away; that leaves at least a few of these kids drifting, in a sense.
He did not recruit these players and he is probably seen by more than a few as the guy coming in to "fix them".
I can tell you that there is an automatic sense of rebellion when you are 18-22 years old and someone gets in your face and tells you what you are doing is not good enough.
Second of all, I am a firm believer that kids need to police themselves. Al Golden can not keep an eye on every kid 24 hours a day. He is a coach, not a baby sitter. And to hold him, or any coach for that matter, acocuntable for the actions of these kids is slightly ridiculous.
Keeping that in mind, let us move forward.
Since Golden took over, there have been two players charged with felonies.
The first was Ramon Buchannon being charged with violently resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. The police report sounded fishy to me, knowing Miami cops, and all in all it seemed like a college kid doing something dumb and letting it get out of hand. Getting drunk in the Grove and resisting the order to leave is something I have personally seen happen a lot of times. The charge got plead down and Buchannon reinstated to the team after being placed in an early diversion program. Here is the thing that stuck with me from that police report though:
“I’m a U.M. football player and I don’t give a f— what you do. I’ll get out of it. F— the police.”
Keep that in mind, more in a bit.
And then the Brown incident.
This is far more concerning. If you don't want to click on that hyperlink, here are the bare bones of the charges:
- Brown is sitting in room when drunk girl knocks on door and asks to use bathroom.
- Brown walks her back to her room, then returns to his.
- Time passes and Brown goes to the room he left her at to check on her well being
- Brown climbs in to her bed, removes her underwear and has sex with her as she repeatedly tells him to stop
- Brown tells his roommate to get rid of his underwear
- Brown initially tells police there was no sex involved, and then changes his story to say they did have sex when pressed
This, ladies and gentlemen, is bad however you slice it. I am the first one to say that you are innocent until proven guilty. I look at the Duke Lacrosse case from a few years back and shudder about how these things can turn in to witch hunts.
Having said that...
Think about what happens when an incident such as this is alleged at UiF or FSU. We, as Miami fans, do not stop and ask the "what if he didn't do it?" question.
We, after all, are Miami. We are better than that. Despite all the stereotypes, we are a cut above the rest, among the elite football programs both on and off the field. That is the goal and it is the way it should be.
Golden was right to kick this kid off them team, and he did so immediately. Putting yourself in this position is unacceptable and will not be tolerated under this regime.
Hoever, what scares me more than the incidents themselves is the fan reaction. Here is a sampling of some of the stuff I have read:
"Awesome, we're back to Thug U!"
"Bad guys off the field win football games."
"Good."
"Well, if he wasn't a two star she probably would have wanted to have sex (I am rephrasing) with him."
Etc.
Aside from the obvious immorality of these statements, there is a thread of thought occurring here that needs to be fleshed out immediately. And yes, I know that this is probably .1% of the fanbase that feels this way. However, the fact that anyone MIGHT think this way is troublesome to me.Recently, we have been caught up in a wave of nostalgia for the 80's and the team that became known as Thug U (somewhat inappropriately, I might add).
What we really want is a return of the swagger that was pronounced on the way into the stadium and then backed up on the field.
That was fueled by kids who worked hard on their own, took complete ownership of the program and fought like dogs for every inch. Hell yeah we want that back.
They also had a knack for getting into trouble off the field, some petty, some not.
The problem we are having as a fanbase right now is recalling one of the most basic lessons of any education: correlation is nto causation.
Ice cream sales go up in summer. So do drownings. Does ice cream cause people to drown then?
It is a silly premise. Now let's apply it to those lionized teams of the 80's.
They did bad things off the field (at times) because they were admittedly stupid.
They dominated on the field because they worked their asses off and channeled a lot of anger into football, including anger at being labeled as Thugs in the first place. Period.
To think that off-field trouble breeds on-field success is absolutely incorrect. To think that by winning games they exonerate(d) themselves for off the field wrongdoing is ridiculous. I fear that may be the message that Mr. Buchannon ran with during his drunken encounter with the police. I fear that may have lead Mr. Brown down a bad path.
No, Ramon, you won't get out of it just because you play for The U.
If accountability on the field must be improved (and it surely must), then accountability off the field can not slip.
As an alumni, I am angry that the school I love has been tarnished by this incident. As a fan, I don't see any way for our team to get better if we have players suspended and sitting on the sideline in shorts. As both, I pray that these are isolate incidents and not part of an attitude that is running rampant on this squad.
Isolated or not is a bad day all around, and for anyone to say otherwise is ignorant.
I think the team will wake up once Golden starts leaning on them in the fall. They will learn quickly that he is all business. And frankly, he better beat this lesson in hard. Because this type of behavior is unacceptable.
Already, Al has a chance to prove that he is Golden and not a Tin Man like his counterparts at other southern schools have proven to be.
In life, you find yourself in trouble when you lower your standards. We should expect excellence from these kids off the field AND on the field. I will take a million Ken Dorseys and Ed Reeds before I take another Willie Williams.
There are no excuses for behavior more in line with Williams then Reed. Not your coach getting fired. Not you feeling abandoned. Not a sense of frustration with a new boss. Not the fact that you play for The U. NO EXCUSES. Mess it up once and you sit. After all, we have all done something dumb, like get caught smoking pot or drinking underage or not wanting to leave the bar. Mess it up twice though and you're gone. And if you put yourself in position to get charged with rape AND THEN LIE TO POLICE, we have no place for you, period. If you don't like that, tough. Transfer. I know a school in the panhandle that loves to harbor repeat offenders.
*End rant*
I feel a little better now.
Always guard the inbound passer.
