Very nice write-up by Paul Crewe at And the Valley Shook, contemplating the differences between genuine character issues and plain ole stupidity. http://www.andthevalleyshook.com/2013/5/1/4288610/jeremy-hill-and-young-people-doing-stupid-stuff
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/attorney-lsus-hill-heckled-past-222654275--ncaaf.html Hill's attorney is talking. Apparently Hill was heckled about his past legal trouble of sexual assault on a 14-year-old girl which precipitated the fight. And the second individual, who knocked out the victim, is apparently not an LSU athlete and Hill did not know him. She denied comment on why Hill lied to the police about being there and involved in the fight. Now, the attorney for the victim will be talking next. Hopefully the Baton Rouge police will STFU about it all.
The lightbulb finally went off? Can I get an Amen? This has become a distressingly common experience under Les's rule. Too many on this board make excuses for bad behavior. But make no mistake that this negatively colors LSU in the rest of the country and damages the brand. Remember all the thuggery in Miami? Remember how it made you feel about U. Miami? Thug U? After awhile one didnt care what the facts were anymore about the latest Miami incident, it was just another nail in the coffin; minds were already made up about Thug U.
Miami was labeled 'Thug U' as much for their antics on the field as off. EVERY major D-1 school has players arrested. Sure, it doesn't paint LSU in the best light when it happens, but we are FAR from being Thug U 2.
Miles cannot possibly know which players are going to act up in the future or which players are going to be great citizens. Looking at the big picture we have been extremely fortunate at lsu so I think they evidently do a pretty good job on recruiting. Especially when compared to those schools listed in this thread.
A lot of these kids come from questionable backgrounds and were literally not raised to know any better. The education and parenting model in Louisiana, and the South in general, has been broken for decades, and it produces kids that don't know how to make good choices. Unfortunately, these are the same kids that are naturally athletic, possibly from being reliant on sports as an outlet in their crappy lives. It's as much society's and circumstance's fault as it is the kids'.
