I don’t know when I’ve laughed any harder in the last few weeks. Somebody else has it out for the Jayhawks. As much as I like Bill Self, I equally dislike the team and the university he works for. All schools have the same stuff going on. The kids will be kids. That’s a fact.
I’m sure the Tiger and Wildcat Fans are in heaven right about now. They are talking somewhere near that water cooler by the pearly gates. They are talking about KU and Darrell Arthur.
Arthur has been linked to a report that he had a grade or two changed for him while he was in high school. This was done to keep him “eligible” to play and to eventually get the scholarship from KU. That’s the bombshell. Actually, it isn’t all that big of a deal to me. They can keep their national title for all I care. I’m just glad that something like this came out.
What the whole story goes to show is that this kind of crap happens all the time for star athletes. These guys get pushed through all the time. It is a problem for teachers who are trying to grade these kids fairly. They have to deal with crooked school administrators who are more concerned with the “bigger picture”. At the end of the day (thanks, Herm Edwards), it is the student-athlete who ends up losing out.
Let me introduce you to the star high school football player from Niceville, FL. I met this guy when I was stationed at Eglin AFB. He was a pretty good guy. We shared a lot of good meals and great laughs. I played keyboards, he played drums. The guy, by far, made the best wings of anyone I’ve tasted in this country. He was an awesome landscaper. He owned his own business. He also specialized in floors. He put a great shine on floors at the high school and hospital that he worked at.
How is he similar to Darrell Arthur? He couldn’t read. I’m not saying that about Arthur, I am saying this about the guy from Florida. He was passed through school when he failed classes because the school wanted him on the field. You said I said he owned his own business, right? Yeah, he did. Who did the reading for him? His then-wife.
I used to eat at a local breakfast eatery with this guy all the time. It was a local establishment. They had some of the best breakfast in town. We would sit there and order from the menu all the time. Now, nevermind the fact that his speech wasn’t 100% the King’s English. I would order from the menu and he would order from what was in the back. He never ordered off the menu. His request would always be specific. He would want “a couple pancakes, eggs and sausage”. They had no problems doing it ‘A la carte’.
Finally, I had to ask the guy if he could read. I gave him something to read and he would look at it and laugh. When he told me that he couldn’t read, he was most ashamed. Here he was in his mid thirties and illiterate. He had a nice family, and a good home. That didn’t matter. The reason he had to work so hard with his hands was directly related to the fact that he couldn’t read. Did I mention that he knew how to install sprinkler systems? Yeah, he did it all.
He said the school turned his D’s and F’s to C’s and B’s. As a kid, he didn’t mind. He knew it would keep him playing. Now, he regrets it. Who was at fault? Him or the school system? He would go on to tell me that they didn’t care about him because he was just “another dumb black kid”. In other words, the white school system didn’t mind leaving him in the corner and not challenging him to read. What did they care?
You see, there are more of these kinds of guys than there are Darrell Arthur types out there. Everyone doesn’t have Arthur’s athletic ability. You have to wonder why he’s going pro. Maybe he knew that this would leak out.
In a day when the NCAA is more concerned with making money, they need to really look at what’s going on in the development of these student athletes.
I’ll leave you with this. Should the NCAA or KU forfeit their 2008 National Championship and all the games that Arthur played, if this turns out to be true?
Discuss.
