I'm going to mention this in my week in review thread as well, but I think it deserves a section of its own. Did you guys hear what happened? This may well be the real story of the week and it could possibly snowball into something much bigger.
It's a sad situation. I'm guessing the school simply cannot afford to keep the facilities in reasonably good condition or provide better transportation to away games, not to mention the coaching mess. I don't know how they are going to find a solution. They may end up cancelling the season. I'm following the story.
I know the team voted not to play... All the reasons are unclear to me. I'm interested to hear what you guys think.
Gipper asks a decent question.. at the same time, if a school subjects the players to what they endured at Grambling, are the players not within their rights to sue (perhaps for financial restitution) for having their lives endangered? That's a 2 way street. If you haven't seen the pictures, they are pretty awful. There is mold everywhere in the facilities and they've had reported staph infections. Worse than that, the equipment the players were wearing often contained large portions of mold. We're not talking microscopic spore evidence, we're talking huge black spots on the equipment. The weight room is unsafe. There's tiles coming up off of the ceiling and the floor. The weight benches are busted open on the padding. I know a lot will be made of the travel conditions, but I don't think they'll get much traction or sympathy there. In fact, if I was them, I'd drop that issue totally. Like the President said in the TV interview, 'This is Grambling. This is the standard. This is Eddie Robinson and all the legends.' He's right, it is. So where the hell is that money going?!? Right now, the conditions those kids are playing in and training with aren't even 3rd world. The mold issue is just unforgivable. Everyone should be fired. That's not hyperbole. everyfuckingbody should be fired. They are knowingly risking the health, and lives, of those players subjecting them to that.. Then to turn around and blame the coach?! Nah.... At some point in time, a few people are going to have to stop attacking the players and blame these schools. I just don't see how you can defend Grambling (the school) here. And before anyone else tries to justify it, look at the pictures and honestly answer the question.. would you subject your children or grand-children to those conditions?
Here's an interesting read on their budget reduction plan from 2010-11. The state budget cuts are rough, and I wonder if the rest of the schools in Louisiana faced similar slashing (assuming those numbers are correct) http://www.gram.edu/offices/adminis...ocation/docs/Budget Reduction Plan Review.pdf Also, for those totally out of the loop on the story, here's a good breakdown of what's going on. It sounds like the budget and a generalisimo President are to blame.. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20131018/grambling-football/
Corey, you beat me to it. I had read the second story. It looks like petty politics are partly to blame, but that's only part of the story.
The players are coming back and the school has agreed to fix the weight room at the end of the year... $32k.. that doesn't seem like a lot of money when you're talking about an overhaul of a training facility. After reading more on all this, I'd be very curious to see the rest of the financials for the state of Louisiana. Everyone else is improving their facilities, but Grambling keeps getting less money??!! Williams had the right idea by creating a 'football booster' club to raise money specifically for football. That's the way you keep your football program funded, and those funds from being stolen by Administrators as well as Title IX programs. It's a very common practice. I see one of the big scuttle butts was over this very issue because the school wanted to get their hands on that money, so they whacked Williams. It sounds like their President has a 'little dictator' thing going on. It just stinks of bad administration from top to bottom. Those 'sport only' booster clubs are literally the only way college athletics survive (for men) in the post-Title IX world. I know they are also widely unpopular with school Administrators that I've spoken to because they feel they should be able to get their hands on it. The bottom line is that they are legal and Williams is a great ambassador for the University. He can reach out to alums and companies to get donations. I read somewhere they were doing tight rationing on Muscle Milk. That's insane. Muscle Milk just gives that stuff away to schools with any sort of profile in exchange for advertising. At almost any DI school, you can walk into their training area and grab a box/bottle of that stuff like it's water. How are these guys living so 3rd world?!?