That damned Phillips!
john...@bc.edu
Why do some of you continue to hope that Lawrence Phillips will
achieve great things in the NFL? I can honestly say that I wish
Lawrence Phillips had never come to the University of Nebraska.
Imagine all of the pain and heartache that could have been avoided had
that fool never set foot on the campus! And as for his future, I
could not care less.
I believe in giving people second chances. But LP is a man to whom
second, third, and fourth chances had been given, and he still
couldn't straighten himself out. Remember: we are not talking about
a guy with just a bad attitude; we are talking about a real danger to
the general public, WHO BEAT UP A WOMAN.
Some might argue that without him, NU wouldn't have won the National
Titles. I disagree. But even if that is so, were the titles worth
trading our shimmering reputation as one of the cleanest great teams
in the nation for the sad NU-criminal reputation which will hound us
forever? I love the team, every year, but as for the savages who have
tarnished the name of Husker football because of their idiotic and
criminal behavior... I'd rather they had been Hurricanes or Seminoles
from the get go.
-Dan Johnson
R. Bruce Magee
john...@bc.edu wrote:
: I love the team, every year, but as for the savages who have
: tarnished the name of Husker football because of their idiotic and
: criminal behavior... I'd rather they had been Hurricanes or Seminoles
: from the get go.
Dan, it's good to see you get that off your chest! What a thread
this'll bound to be!
I'm not a psychologist, though my wife is. We've had many conversations
about Lawrence Phillips and similar "savages". Some known facts about
Phillips: Black and having that against"\ him as a youngster in our
society to being with, he was abandoned at age 13 by both parents and
spent his entire southern California adolescence in foster homes. My
typical white, two-parent Midwestern upbringing featured stability and
lots of runzas whenever I wanted them. Although I could not dismiss
Phillips' behavior two years ago, I understood it. This isn't "liberal"
wishywashing; it's compassion, even in the face of his violence because
of what likely brought him to it.
Speaking of what brought him to it, as I've said before I think the
press was gutless for not telling us more about the relationship between
Phillips and Kate McEwen (or about McEwen, period), but it may very well
be that Phillips was fed up with being abandoned by that night. He also
may have been drinking, as he apparently was before being caught
speeding in California months later. (Shall we lambast Christian Peter
for his "savagery", or understand now that the combination of
adolescence, attention deficit disorder, and alcoholism leads to
behavioral problems, and help him get control of those problems?)
SI wrote a feature two years ago in which it said that Phillips is
"gifted" intellectually, not just athletically. It is being said now
that Dick Vermeil has become sort of a father-figure to Phillips, the
father, perhaps, whom he never had. I don't think Phillips was or is a
"savage"; rather, I feel sad for him and the thousands of black kids
like him who are abandoned young and their lives ruined forever.
Phillips, unlike most of them, has the athletic ability to get beyond
those problems, but not without help; TO understood this.
I'm glad that Nebraska's football program, and coaches, aren't afraid to
tackle the societal problems bound to rear their heads among hundreds of
players, rather than throwing youngsters away, like so many (mostly
white) columnists would have them do. Whether taking on a deaf Kenny
Walker or a troubled Lawrence Phillips or an alcoholic Christian Peter,
TO does his part to help, even if he himself suffers for it. Others,
perhaps most, would rather not deal with these issues. I don't think
TO's faith allows him to ignore these young men. Neither does his
integrity.
--
"Hindsight is always 20/20." -- Billy Wilder
Rambo
gfead wrote:
> Kate McEwen was no patron saint either, there is more to this story that
> any of know or would ever care to know.
You must have a very low IQ, gfead. No woman deserves to have a 220 lb.
weight lifting maniac break into her apartment in the middle of the night
and beat her up. Phillips should thank God Kate didn't have a handgun.
gfead
Kate McEwen was no patron saint either, there is more to this story that
any of know or would ever care to know.
john...@bc.edu wrote in article
<MailDrop1.2d7fP...@st218x68.bc.edu>...
Prg...@aol.com
In a message dated 97-10-25 18:58:53 EDT, you write:
<< Why do some of you continue to hope that Lawrence Phillips will
achieve great things in the NFL? I can honestly say that I wish
Lawrence Phillips had never come to the University of Nebraska.
Imagine all of the pain and heartache that could have been avoided had
that fool never set foot on the campus! And as for his future, I
could not care less.
I believe in giving people second chances. But LP is a man to whom
second, third, and fourth chances had been given, and he still
couldn't straighten himself out. Remember: we are not talking about
a guy with just a bad attitude; we are talking about a real danger to
the general public, WHO BEAT UP A WOMAN.
Some might argue that without him, NU wouldn't have won the National
Titles. I disagree. But even if that is so, were the titles worth
trading our shimmering reputation as one of the cleanest great teams
in the nation for the sad NU-criminal reputation which will hound us
forever? I love the team, every year, but as for the savages who have
tarnished the name of Husker football because of their idiotic and
criminal behavior... I'd rather they had been Hurricanes or Seminoles
from the get go.
-Dan Johnson
>>
I totally see where you are coming from. I hate it that he and others really
hurt Nebraska's reputation. If you look at the news papers and read the rap
sheets it really starts to hurt a true Nebraska fan deep down. However, I
have thought long and hard about the LP situation and I find it totally
different than others such as Christian Peter. Christian Peter grew up in a
home with a mother and a father teaching him what is right and wrong. When
CP was grabbing women and attacking women in bars he knew very well that he
was doing something wrong. He needed to be punished hard for what he was
doing. LP on the other hand never had a mother or a father to teach him
right and wrong. He grew up on the streets learning how to survive by
fighting and taking what he wanted. THIS IS ALL HE EVER KNEW. When he got
into Highschool someone talked him into going out for football and soon he
decided he wanted to go to college. He then took extra classes and worked
very hard to make the grades needed to make it to college. Once he got to
college he was surrounded by people who expected him to do the right thing.
Act the right way. Be polite and don't get into trouble all while the
nation was watching. How was he supposed to know what that was. Tom Osborne
took it upon himself to try to teach him how to be a good citizen for the
short time he could influence his life. This was a very important point in
LP's life. If TO fails, LP would just be back out in the streets Poor and
looking for what he wanted to take from you. He probably would have ended up
in prison if not dead. If TO could influence him just a little and keep him
in a structured invironment that could teach him something, he just might
turn his life around. I like to think that LP was a situation that Football
and the fans precious little hurt feelings was not the most important thing
in the world. The life of a young human being was.
NOW BEFORE I GET A LOT OF FLAMES (for which I will not read anyway so don't
waste your time sending them). I totally agree that he needed to be punished
for everything that he did. That is up to the courts and they did what they
thought was best in the situation. I feel very sorry for the girl that LP
beat up. There is no excuse for it. But I hope to God that as fans we have
not come to think that our teams reputation is more important than a young
mans life. This is why I root for LP to do well. I am just as happy when I
hear that he is staying out of trouble as I am when I hear he made a TD.
As for LP being a danger to the general public. I agree that he very well
could have ended up that way if the system would have given up on him. Every
month or year that goes by that he is out of trouble and around people that
influence him positively, the better off our society and LP is.
GO BIG RED
Paul G