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Pete Thamel back for more

Well if you can't beat them, insult them, eh Pete? Petie is back with another exceptional piece of journalism to take advantage of interest in Auburn over the championship game. Knife, stab, poke....nice job.

For those of you with high blood pressure or are prone acid relux, or just don't like the taste of tripe...you may want to skip this, its another cheap shot at Auburn and the players.  NY Times Hatchet Job

 

My opinion after the jump

I honestly believe that our athletes should be actual students that represent the university in their free time...much like they do in high school. I don't believe that we should give special treatment and scholarships to students just because they are good athletes. If you can qualify and meet the university standards you get in, end of story. Thats my opinion.

 

But thats not real life, is it? College athletics is big business now, not athletic endeavors, so it has been perverted into, whatever you want to call it, what it is today. It certainly is not about the "student athlete" and it REALLY chaps my hide that some douchebag like Thamel is cooking Auburn on the spit when these same "journalitsts" would be screaming "RACISM" and "INJUSTICE" if schools sctriclty enforced their entrance requirements and didn't give a lot of these kids an opportunity to change their lives forever by getting a college education. As always, you can bring a horse to water but you can't make them drink and you can't make these kids realize what a special opportunity they are being given to get an education... but some kids just can't handle college.  That goes for regular students as well, but it is especially true of athletes who most likely didn't pay great attention to their studies before going to college in the first place. To make Auburn and other schools that have a low GPA and low graduation rate among minority athletes is just a cheap shot. We all know that the majority of these kids don't belong on campus, but there is pressure for the univerity to win in athletics and from "other interests" to enroll more minorities and income challenged students. You can debate the merits of giving into those pressures but it is a good and honorable thing to allow kids access to higher education who would not have the means to do so without a scholarship. If they aid the school by helping it raise money with their athletic prowess so be it....win, win for both parties.

Pete Thamel is a jerk and anybody that would write such a story trying to impune the integrity of a university that is, by all rights, giving these kids opportunties,  is not seeing the forrest for the trees. The college athletics system is perverted and flawed....but at the end of the day it helps a lot of people despite the fact it takes advantage of a lot of people as well. You can't have your cake and eat it to (can I throw in any more cliche's?) but thats what Thamel and a lot of "journalists" seem to want. They don't consider the ramifications and repurcusions of getting what they want, but if they can embarras Auburn while we celebrate a trip to the BCS game  in the process??? Why thats just the cherry on top of the whipped cream and meringue flambe!! Well mission accomplished Pete, why don't you go do a story on recidivism rate of urban youth from one parent familites that have been incarcerated before the age of sixteen? Lets see, who can we make the villain there?

I really wish bad things on Pete Thamel.....or was it necessary to say that? Sorry to be a downer but I need to get my game face on pretty soon and this got me .....shall we say....sufficiently cranky.

War Eagle Everybody and Enjoy the Game!!

We're all just trying to have a good time here. Don't be a jerk, and we won't have a problem with you. War Eagle!

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