To start with they aren't my friends and I seldom go there. But it's a pretty funny chart. I see you dodged the article.
I didn't dodge the article at all....it's absurd. The young man doesn't think that an intentional effort to maim/injure a helpless player should be subject to punishment......I disagree and shudder at the consequences. I did see however Urby's explanation for only 1/2 game suspension.....Spikes only got one eye. He went on to explain that had he gotten them both, he was out for the whole game.
However apparently there was one real eye injury on the Georgia team that required stitches. Perhaps this culprit will get enough of a suspension to satisfy some. Eye Injury Requires Stitches
BT, tell me why I'm not surprised that you know more about what happened in that game that the coaches and players of the two teams involved. Some things change, others don't.
Bill, Whether Spikes is suspended for 1 minute or one year makes no difference to me... I was not the recipient of the gouging. From that statement you saw in the article, I actually hear one of two things: 1) He was guilty of the initial issue and that vindicated the retaliation, or... 2) he didn't really say that. As Judge Judy says: "It doesn't have the ring of truth. If it doesn't make sense, it isn't true."
I sure don't Bill, but when I saw the video, I was looking closely at what Spkes was digging for under the kids helmet through his facemask when I suddenly realized that the ball was too big to possibly fit......and then I considered the possibility that the kid had mistakenly used Spikes' mouthpiece instead of his own and he was politely looking to retrieve it.....but then Urbie came down hard on him with his 1st half -v- Vandy sitdown and simply assumed the worst.....gimme a break.
Let me see Terry, the newspaper article was from an Athens Ga newspaper, the home of the University of Georgia. A beautiful place by the way, we drive though there frequently when we go to Florida. However I am pretty comfortable that if Eley was quoted in the hometown paper that he probably made the comment. Strange place to print that kid of lie wouldn't you think? Eley didn't have even a scratch on his face to the best of my knowledge. However there was Georgia player than had to have stitches above his eye as I am sure you saw in the bold part of the article I copied, and linked. Maybe we can get a movement to get a suspension there.
Here's a more in depth article about Ealey's comments. We Are Just Out There Having Fun Doesn't seem the offended party thinks Spikes is a thug.
Really doesn't have much significance IMHO. Sometimes I watch Cops When I'm bored. They always have an episode where they are called out for a domestic disturbance, usually a crackhead and a crackwhore living together. She's cowering in the corner clearly having gotten beaten, and the cops jump on the offending boyfriend, hubby, etc and cuff him and start to drag him out. She then attacks the cops saying Leave him alone he didn't do anything! Victims of assualt don't always file charges. That's my opinion of the UGA players assertion that Spikes didn't deserve to get suspended.
Well Terry wouldn't you think that he would have just kept his mouth shut instead of saying nothing should be done? Regardless I think action was called for and some was taken. The only issue seems to be with some that it wasn't enough.
Agreed that action was necessary but not enough was taken in the opinion of most people who aren't Gators. I haven't read any national columnists who don't think Urban should have done more. To me the thing is that he had Vandy coming up and the Gator defense could be missing 3 starters and still handled them, so sitting him for the whole game wouldn't have even hurt the team. But I'm not going to worry about it anymore, I've had my say here and I'm moving on I've got more problems to worry about with my own teams than to worry about whether or not Urban Meyer has done the right thing or not.
Terry, I don't give a hoot what most columnists think, for the most part they are more interested in sensationalism than reality and once you are in a position where the Gators are these days taking cheap shots at the Gators is a great way to increase your readers. I do however care a great deal about people like you who put thought into these type situations. For a great part of my working life I supervised a large number of people, mostly construction and maintenance folks and on more than one occasion some sort of discipline was necessary. What I found was that the length or severity was not the important issue but the act of taking some type of action was what really mattered. That I was best off to the best of my ability to do it in a way that preserved the person. That is what I think Meyer did. Spikes career at Florida has been incident free, he came back this season after being sure he would drafted high this season. He has been a leader and a hard worker. He made a mistake, it was national news. It will likely affect whether or not he makes all American and even possibly his draft status. One writer wrote the real punishment is the hit to his reputation. I happen to agree with that philosophy and it fits with my personal experience mentioned above. We don't need him for Vandy but he is part of our team and I believe the action taken was sufficient. But I do appreciate the open mind you approach many of these situations, I can't say that about everyone.
I might add one more thing, when taking action it is also important to take into consideration the person and what their background and previous history are and take that into consideration.