RUGator

Consider the following “hypothetical:”

-how much incentive is there for reporters to investigate “fishy” incidents involving celebrity athletes if the networks they work for are subsidized by companies who sponsor the athletes they cover?

Said differently,

-if company “X” is paying “X” athlete “X” dollars to use their products and that same company pays “X” network “X” advertising dollars, how motivated will that network be to uncover “inconvenient truths” about “X” athlete?

Say what you will about public figures and private lives. There is a price to be paid. And silly questions from an accidental observer.

Insightful article in the New York Times regarding the current state of affairs of the University of Michigan football team.

Please go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/sports/ncaafootball/20michigan.html?_r=1&hp#

Whenever I see this figure attached to anything, I think, “but it’s the .1 that concerns me.”

Why would someone spend this much of their “own” money to be a mayor?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/nyregion/24mayor.html?_r=1&hp

I got fired today. Was sort of cool.

Awaiting my loop today, Mr. Trump rode by. It IS his course, you know.

So I “pointed” to him. His response?

You got it.

I got “fired” as he pointed right back at me.

I loved it.

I loved it because he always makes time to give the caddies a friendly greeting. And to give us some good-natured teasing too.

Can’t make it up.

-We had to pay the State of NJ $15.00 to file a form indicating that my mother-in-law owed no estate tax.

-Is the College World Series ever going to end?

-Heard the story of a caddy who lived in a Banyan tree on the golf course where he worked. He’d put his garbage in a plastic bag which he’d hang from a branch every morning for the grounds crew to dispose of.

-Had a golfer I was caddying for (while he rode in a cart and I carried his bag) tell me that, as a teacher, I had a “racket.”

From today’s front page on Yahoo Sports comes this article by Dan Wetzel regarding John Calipari. What a “shocker.”

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news;_ylt=AnSFRwZ_xVqIcWIx2P5syT85nYcB?slug=dw-calipari052809&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Virtue. Diligence. Brotherly love.

Those three words were (are) our “cardinal principles.” At the time, I thought I knew what they meant.

I had no idea.

Almost thirty years later, I’ve come to a better understanding.

One of my Sigma Phi Epsilon brothers has come upon some severe life difficulties. And while I don’t need to elaborate, it’ll suffice to say that he needs our help.

An email was sent out to my fraternity brothers outlining his plight. The responses? “What does he need? Where do I send the check? What else can I do?”

Every one of them.

Without question.

From men I grew up with.

Thirty years ago.

Virtue. Diligence. Brotherly love.

Eat your heart out, Harvey Korman!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/business/27geithner.html?_r=1&hp

I read somewhere that when a plane is in flight, it’s basically off course most of time. But its radar system, knowing its destination, continually makes the proper adjustments to get it back on track and ultimately to where it’s going.

And with us too?

In December of 1994, I was that plane.

In a bookstore, I happened upon “Coaching Football” by Tom Flores and Bob O’Connor. I was going somewhere yet nowhere. In chapter 2, entitled “Why We Play the Game,” there’s a section devoted to an overview of how Homer C. Rice (former Georgia Tech athletic director and college and professional coach) talks about how he went from dirt poverty to those lofty postions. I was intrigued. He discussed the role that football played in his success, how the game taught him to overcome adversity, and how to set goals. I was motivated to reach out to him, so I wrote him a letter.

He responded by sending me a very personal letter and a book that he had written called “The Attitude Technique.” This book became my “radar system” as I, with blind faith, implemented the practices that he used to successfully transform his life. He also mentioned another book which his father had given to him when he was a young boy. That book was called “I Dare You,” by William Danforth (the founder of The Ralston Purina Company). “I Dare You” is about how to live the “Four Square Life” (and if you ever buy any product made by Purina, you’ll notice that the company’s logo is the “four square checkerboard.”) That checkerboard is based on Danforth’s “four square” philosophy for living. After more letter writing to other coaches, I was astonished to discover that many of these same coaches had used Rice’s “Attitude Technique” as part of their team’s overall football program.

Both books and the subsequent correspondence I had with Homer Rice, literally changed my life. Since then, I have purchased multiple copies of “I Dare You” which I give to my students to read on a rotating basis. Every student gets one week to read the book, sign and date it upon completion, and return it to me to pass along to the next pair of students to read.

So “I Dare You.” If not now, when. Remember this: all can, some will, but most won’t. Which group are you in?