Look, I don't know--I'm just going by the info available to all of us...but there IS something out of whack in the way the NCAA both pursues and apportions out blame and punishment.
Meanwhile, let me share something that happened early this afternoon...
For the 2nd time in 3 days, I was among colleagues (this time at lunch) who were talking football (in this case college, mostly Longhorn football). One had extra tix to this week's game here against BYU and another was interested in the cost, and the discussion had seggwayed (sp?) into one about what the students pay now here for home games and what some of us remembered about how it worked when and where WE went to school. When I commented how it was at UF back in the day, and how one might go about it NOW, I hadn't gotten very far before I realized there was some muttering going on at the fringe of our group of a dozen and a half or so guys ("What's this bullsh*t?", "Yeah, he's a GATOR...", "I HATE the Gators... hate that Tebow and ALL that sh*t!" and another guy put his fist out there for him to pop that one's with and said, "Oh definitely, and now that Muschamp is whining and trying to defend that cheater..."). When my head whipped around and I looked straight at the fellow who said that last line, he hesitated and said to ME, "I'm from Orlando", as if that explained it, somehow. I asked, "So what particular Florida team do YOU root for?", and sure enough, he replied, "Oh, FSU fan, for sure.", to which I said, "Well, there you go...you and I definitely part ways from here--but by saying that about Shariff Floyd, I can't tell if you're purposefully ignoring the truth, or just displaying the kind of pin-headed ignorance that is a mark of the second-rate education y'all get over there in Tallahassee". As he looked around for support I continued, "Don't look to any of THEM for guidance--these are mostly Texans, and Longhorns at that, who know about as much about team loyalty as they do about SURFING--and they hate the Gators, Tebow and Muschamp for the same reason you and everyone ELSE does--'cause every damn one of ya wishes you had what we had, whether it's the tight mutual support of Gator Nation, the string of great coaches (with Muschamp now looking like maybe the best of 'em all, gonna be with us for a WHILE--and these poor fools had him and couldn't KEEP him), or a young man like Tim Tebow, who you KNOW you wish was yours and would have LOVED him if he had been...y'all just sound stupid and small saying anything else, and actually bad-mouthing him is just so pathetic..."
At this point I took a breath and looked around at the faces at the tables in our corner of that sports bar/restaurant and had to laugh: they all looked, to varying degrees, "like they'd been slapped upside the head"! I said with a smile, "This shocks you? This is what it means to be a Florida Gator: We defend ourselves and each other. It's life-long, too. Win or lose, we stand together, against the world if necessary. You come after one, you come after all. And one more thing: WE REALLY CARE. Nothing is forgotten. We don't just lie down, for ANYTHING. So go ahead and hate us: it just feeds the fire."
At this point, after a pause, I broke the awkward silence by saying, "Hey, at least you're not a Miami-guy, a Hurricane...would have saved y'all a lecture, though--I would have just said 'You're DEAD to me' and that would have been the end of it..." to which several people chuckled and the 'Nole-guy said, "No, I always hated those thugs, all cheaters..." and the conversation picked up and moved on to stuff everyone could (mostly) agree on.
I was left thinking about what I'd said, how it came ripping out of me full blown, right from the gut--as if I didn't have to think about it but obviously it had been brewing there inside and didn't take a whole lot to be triggered. I guess Coach Boom's statement had been the final piece to be added, then time plus the right key, in this case ANOTHER Hater making ANOTHER dumb Gator-put-down right there to my face, unlocking that box.
No point being thin-skinned, I know, especially out here in a place like Longhorn-country, but then again, everything I said is true, and I AM proud to stand by it--to LIVE by it, which I guess , in retrospect, is exactly what I was doing.
So, as usual, Gators, I guess we all just circle the wagons, suck it up and move on. Shariff's back for Tennessee, looks like we've got one HELL of a coach (and his staff, from Big Charles on down is no slouch either, BTW), and no matter HOW much we improve over last year, we've STILL got one brutal stretch coming up starting in a few weeks--and there will almost certainly be setbacks. Someone once said, "How he handles adversity determines the mark of a champion." I am more sure than ever that we are heading for that kind of dominance again now; how we learn from and deal with the difficulties we are sure to encounter, and how quickly and completely we recover from the setbacks, will be the clearest indicator of how far we have to go, and how soon we'll get there. Most of all, remember: we stick together, buckle down and trust our coaches and the resiliency of this Gator TEAM.
Easier said than done, but less so when that "TRUST" is there.
