by Ryan Meehan
Tonight at 8PM Central ESPN will serve up the last installment of their critically acclaimed “30 for 30″ series with a film called “Pony Excess”. The documentary is centered around the Southern Methodist University football program receiving the death penalty for countless NCAA violations between the mid 1970s and 1986.
This of course comes of the same evening that Auburn’s Cam Newton will likely receive the Heisman trophy, under much scrutiny because of his father’s supposed demands for anywhere between $100,000 and $180,000 to play at Mississippi State University.
So, this whole thing got me thinking: As sports fans…should we take any collegiate athletics seriously? It just seems like there is so much corruption involved at every level that makes real money, we should only take the NCAA with a grain of salt.
Cam Newton is simply this year’s example. It’s pretty silly because every year they just pick one guy and make him out to be a criminal even though there are thousands of other recruits who did the same thing.
Now, I’m not saying by any means that since ”everyone is doing it” that this behavior is acceptable. That method of thinking is very dangerous to any society. Think about it: If one person started a fire, the whole earth would be ash in about 45 minutes. However, if this way of doing business is going to be commonplace, the least we can do for the fans is be honest about it. It’s pretty messed up to tell the media that a single athlete is doing something that is an NCAA violation when thousands of other athletes are getting away with the same thing.
And that’s why I don’t particularly get into college athletics, because to me it’s just a big fucking joke.
But seriously, check out “Pony Excess”. It looks really cool and the whole 30 for 30 series has been awesome. And any program featuring Eric Dickerson is bound to be a classic.
Once again thanks for visiting First Order Historians and enjoying more of the internet’s finest in user generated content.
Meehan
