Saturday, August 15, 2009

Law and Order Billionaire Style


Ripped from the headlines on AOL's main page. There's a story about sons and daughters of billionaires gone bad. Mostly they just have an inflated sense of entitlement and get caught doing drugs or trying to explain away internet videos of themselves having sex.
But the heartwarming story that caught my eye the most is this one:

" . .[T]ough love was the order of the day for Fredrick B. "Cannon" Smith, son of billionaire FedEx chief Frederick Smith. In 2007 Cannon was packed off to military academy for a year after being caught in possession of ecstasy."

Here comes the punchline:

"He is now a quarterback for the University of Miami." That's Criminal U to the rest of us. More players convicted of crimes than any other team in the country. Or something like that.


7 comments:

Jon said...

Heck, I'm living proof that you don't necessarily have to be a billionaire in order to go bad......

Anonymous said...

"Criminal U"? Oh really?

You're a complete idiot. Perhaps if you actually HAD an education, you'd know better than to malign a fine university like the University of Miami.

The University of Miami is a fine private university which has a world class medical school, an outstanding law school, a nationally ranked engineering school, and the best marine and atmospheric sciences school in the nation.

So when it comes to discussing higher education, perhaps you should stick to what you know.

Writing about your prom.

Mrs. L said...

I was maligning Miami's football program prom breath. And I'm not alone.

FROM TIME MAGAZINE NOV. 28, 2007
"The roll call of the past couple of decades is mournfully striking. A year ago this month senior Hurricane defensive lineman Bryan Pata was shot in the head and killed outside his apartment near UM's Coral Gables campus shortly after a practice. Four months earlier safety Willie Cooper was shot in the buttocks outside his Miami home. A year before that, former defensive end Jerome McDougal was shot in the abdomen in Miami in his new Mercedes just weeks before reporting to training camp for the Philadelphia Eagles. (Cooper and McDougal survived.) In 1996, linebacker Marlin Barnes was bludgeoned to death in his campus apartment. Four years earlier Shane Curry, an Indianapolis Colts defensive lineman and former UM star, was shot in the head and killed during an argument in a Cincinnati lounge parking lot.
". . .That aura often followed Hurricanes players off the field and into the NFL. Pro Bowl wide receiver Michael Irvin (UM Class of 1988) almost had his brilliant career derailed with the Dallas Cowboys when he was arrested in 1996 for cocaine possession, busted in a motel suite while sharing the coke with women he called "self-employed models." (He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation.) Pro Bowl linebacker Ray Lewis (who left UM in 1996) was arrested in 2000 for alleged involvement in the murder of two men outside an Atlanta nightclub. The murder charges against Lewis were eventually dropped. But such incidents highlight how Hurricanes alumni pioneered the kind of off-field legal trouble so many NFL players are known for today. Taylor, who in his short NFL career was fined at least seven times for infractions like late hits during games (once spitting in an opponent's face), was arrested in 2005 for threatening with a gun a group of people he accused of stealing his all-terrain vehicle. He later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault charges. Shortly after the altercation, Taylor's SUV was sprayed by bullets in a drive-by shooting, although no one was injured.
". . .UM football is known for being less scrutinizing than most 17th-century pirate vessels. But when former Hurricanes coach Larry Coker in 2004 recruited a Miami teen, linebacker Willie Williams, whose arrest record was longer than his high school transcript, [UM president Donna] Shalala intervened and demanded the high school All-American meet certain academic and behavioral standards before stepping on the field. Williams eventually transferred to another school. "

When Notre Dame and Miami played for the #1 randing way back in 1988, the game was nicknamed The Catholics Versus The Convicts.

Gee, I wonder why.

Anonymous said...

The "prom" comment touched a nerve, eh? A little hypersensitive, are we?

Well since you believe that quoting dated sources somehow bolsters your inane comments, I'll give you a few to swallow - or choke on, if you prefer. From the NYT of April 11 THIS YEAR:

"The streak lasted so long that during its span, Warren Sapp crafted a Hall of Fame-caliber professional career, retired, finished a season on “Dancing With the Stars” and began a second career as an analyst on the NFL Network... a singular period of Miami football dominance: at least one Hurricanes player has been selected in the first round in 14 consecutive N.F.L. drafts...

And it is unlikely that any program will touch Miami’s mind-boggling run early this decade, when it had four first-rounders in 2001, five in 2002, four in 2003 and an N.F.L.-record six in 2004... encouraged a culture that emphasized college and regional pride, binding the players to the campus and to one another. Its most obvious manifestation is that players, even deep into their pro careers, still return to Coral Gables to work out in the off-season.

And once the prospects came to Miami, the pros helped prepare them for their next step. Sapp and Phillips credit the influence of former Hurricanes for fostering sustained excellence. “We were not going to bend those standards,” Sapp said."

And this from Wikipedia:

"The program began in 1926 and has won five national championships (1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, 2001). Miami has won more national championships over the past thirty years than any other program. Two Hurricanes have won the prestigious Heisman Trophy and six have been inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame. In addition, the program holds the record for the longest home winning streak in NCAA history with 58 straight victories. Miami also holds a number of NFL Draft records, including most first round selections in a single draft and most consecutive drafts with at least one first round selection. Miami owns the record for the longest home winning streak in NCAA history, winning 58 straight games at the Orange Bowl. Miami also owns two of the longest winning streaks in NCAA Division I history."

Notable team records

* Consecutive Wins: 34, 2000-02
* Consecutive Regular Season Wins: 39, 2000-03
* Consecutive Home Wins: 58, 1985-94 (NCAA record)
* Consecutive Road Wins: 20, 1984-86
* Consecutive Games without being shut out: 188, 1979-94
* Consecutive Shutouts of Opponent: 4, 1926, 1936, 1941
* Consecutive Games without a tie score: 345, 1966-95 (NCAA adopted tiebreaker in 1996)
* NFL Draft Record, Most players drafted in the first round in a single year: 6, 2004
* NFL Draft Record, Most consecutive years having player selected in first round: 14, 1995-2008

As for "Catholics vs Convicts", your ignorance is glaring. The phrase is just the result of Notre Dame T-shirt sellers. At the time, even Miami QB Steve Walsh noted that Miami actually had more Catholics on its team than Notre Dame, including himself and the entire offensive line.

So much for spin.

And since you live in Big Ten country and want to discuss college football convicts, let's not forget Maurice Clarett, the OSU thug who "won" the 2003 national championship against Miami, and hasn't played a single down of organized football since - what with his multiple convictions for robbery, and still serving a 7 1/2 yr prison sentence.

Not a single Miami player has a record - or prison time - that even comes close.

So those who live in little glass blogs...

What college did YOU attend again? Did you? Did you even attend prom? We really should establish your own academic "credentials" before you get any credibility whatsoever in attacking a multiple national championship and multiple NCAA record breaking Division 1 program. Not to mention by association, all the other truly outstanding academic programs and schools at the University of Miami.

Anyone can talk the talk.

Pity you're so incapable of walking the walk.

Mrs. L said...

The only person who has been hypersensitive is you.

I attended Duke and graduated from Northwestern. My immediate family also has degrees from Notre Dame, Iowa, Stanford, University of Chicago and Smith. Law degrees, masters degrees, and an M.D.

For some reason you seem to think that I wrote about my prom. I only mentioned a souvenir glass that was saved from my daughter's prom.

Apparently reading for comprehension is not one of your strong suits.

So give it a rest.

Anonymous said...

A weak response. But befitting a weak argument - and an even weaker intellect.

How ironic that someone who attended the school that is the home of the infamous Duke lacrosse scandal would be so quick to rush to ill-advised judgment about another school. In keeping with your fondness for renaming academic institutions, maybe I should call Duke "Lacrosse Scandal U." LSU! Nice, huh?

Or Northwestern? Hardly untainted either. Have you conveniently forgotten the scandals involving the school's athletic teams that led to the convictions of 11 people, including 1994 star tailback Dennis Lundy, who admitted to intentionally fumbling the ball at the goal line against Iowa so he could win a bet. Or the two Northwestern basketball players convicted of trying to fix three games in exchange for bribes from gamblers. Or the four former Northwestern football players convicted of perjury for lying to grand juries that were investigating betting at the school. How about "Gambling U." as their new moniker? Or more accurately: "Convicted Gamblers U."?

I repeat: those who live in glass blogs... really are in no position to throw stones.

The prom comment was certainly not a reference to your daughter's souvenir glass. It was a reference to your own questionable background. Don't flatter yourself into believing that I actually read all of your rambling screeds dedicated to nothing.

But I do wonder if you even bother to read half the things you post beforehand. Because your own Time Magazine article began by pointing out tragedies that had befallen the Miami program, some resulting in death. However in your warped misinterpretation, these sad events - in each case where Miami players were the victims and not the assailants as your own article so clearly points out - are used to bolster your already specious contention that Miami is known as "Criminal U".

That and the fact that the very same article concludes with: "But when former Hurricanes coach Larry Coker in 2004 recruited a Miami teen, linebacker Willie Williams, whose arrest record was longer than his high school transcript, [UM president Donna] Shalala intervened and demanded the high school All-American meet certain academic and behavioral standards before stepping on the field. Williams eventually transferred to another school." So "Criminal U."? Hardly.

Only in your own sad, confused and clearly byzantine world.

Because critical and analytical thinking are certainly not your strong suits. Apparently neither capacity was required of you at either Duke or Northwestern.

Your "blog" itself is Exhibit A of that sad reality.

As for the educational backgrounds of your family, which you somehow believe salvage your ineffectual rebuttal? Their vitas are not your vita - and are about as relevant, as exculpatory and as probative, as the fact that the Miami player you originally derided, has a multi-billionaire for a father. Because that would indeed be checkmate, dearie.

Incidentally, as we know, HIS immediate relative founded FedEx, a successful, multi-national corporation.

And graduated from Yale.

So what have we learned here - beyond the fact that you have ably demonstrated that you possess no capacity whatsoever for retraction or correction even under the most blatant of circumstances? Because that's all it would have taken to have ended this long ago.

But beyond that, we have learned little really. But that a self-styled matronly, midwestern blogger, with clearly more time on her hands than common sense in her head, feels she can mount her trusty little keyboard stead and ride around the "internets" dispensing her own worthless, yet unending brand of largely useless detritus, and hurl unfounded invectives at will - all while blindly believing she can do so with complete impunity.

Wrong again. You publish inane and indefensible garbage - and inevitably someone will call you on it.

As the legend goes, Catherine the Great: sometimes when you try to ride the horse...

The horse rides you.

Mrs. L said...

Ah, Grasshopper, unlike Miami, Duke and NU athletes have not had their careers cut short by bullets. Nor did either school waste a minute to recruit a current quarterback with an arrest record for drugs.

Since you have impugned the quality of my education, why not let an impartial jury make that call.

Hmmm, according to US News and World Report, among tier 1 schools, Duke is ranked 8th, Northwestern 12th, and Miami 51st. Miami is a tier 1 school?

I retract nothing. Nothing I have said needs correction. I'm entitled to my opinion, which stands.

Your argument from the start has been specious; your continued harangue is just the noise of a bully on a playground.

So much rage must be exhausting. How frustrating for you that I feel no need to mount a spirited defense.

Clearly you have me confused with someone who gives a shit.