[College Sports News]

Members of the football team volunteered with the Fun 4 Kidz organization and provided football inst...Click here for full story or visit www.hurricanesports.com for more.

Football works with Fun 4 Kidz organization

[simple simon]

do you really want Miami football players (thugs) working with your kids ?

[Lefty Noob]

Originally Posted by simple simon

do you really want Miami football players (thugs) working with your kids ?

Come on, simon... this ain't "The U" of Jimmy Johnson anymore. Read up a bit on Randy Shannon. The new coach is a character-and-grades-first kind of guy, and I really want to see him do well this season. Seems like a real class act who's doing things the right way.

[simple simon]

hey he may be a great coach that gets them to behave.......but they havent shown me anything past last years brawl yet

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Dude, if you had been there for the brawl you would have seen a whole other side to the story. I'm not arguing that Merriweather and Reddick didn't go overboard -- there's no question about it -- but to play the whole 'thug U' card from watching ESPN's lopsided take is just too convenient.

They were baited into that fight for two whole quarters, and the refs did next to nothing to stop it. It should not have happened, and the lack of control that Coker had over the guys who went all Braveheart at the Orange bowl was a huge nail in his coffin. But, had the same scenario played out at ANY, repeat, ANY major school lacking in discipline from the coaching department, you would have seen the same result. And there are more than a few.

But no one wants to admit that there is a fine line between swagger and bedlam in college football. Programs need to intimidate, to "protect this house," to stand over crushed opponents; these outbreaks occur a couple of times a year in every stage of football, especially at the college level -- it just gets amplified when it happens in Miami because they are a convenient target for ESPN et al to point the finger at, and away from the real problems.

And if you're going to automatically equate Miami football players to thugs, then you obviously have never met one, or been around the campus and team. Some of the most stand-up community figures in Coral Gables are/were UM football players. It's sad that these giant media outlets can take a lazy approach to what they call journalism, but even sadder that so many buy into it.

That is all.