USC: MORE BREAKIN' THE LAW, BREAKIN' THE LAW... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This story, on the heels of the burgeoning Reggie Bush fiasco which obviously inspired it, makes SMQ suspect that every school - all 119 big boys and pretty much every one on lower levels, too, where no one is likely to bother looking into these things - has some kind of compliance issues with off-campus player housing. Because the arrangement that now has Dwayne Jarrett in simmering water for the apartment he shared with his now-fabulously wealthy former quarterback seems like the sort of run-of-the-mill situation that would never see the light of day if not for scrutiny born of the more serious case of a high profile teammate:
SMQ has always wondered how players paid for these off-campus digs it seems most of them are in, sometimes raising kids, when they're forbidden from getting jobs, and nobody's ever really answered that sufficiently ("parents" seems to be the most likely legal answer, but how many parents of D-I football players - the majority of whom are black, and therefore statistically less likely to earn as much as the population as a while - can afford to shill for an off-campus apartment?). If he were paid to report on sports, SMQ'd be calling up the local pigskin factory tomorrow to set up a story on how its athletes, in all sports, live: where, who pays, how and how much. Bush's situation may be a unique one, but Leinart and Jarrett's probably is not.
Forecast: if the money from Leinart's dad for the apartment leads to tangible consequences for Jarrett or USC, these sorts of "hidden" violations no one's ever seriously scrutinized before are going to lead to a spree of self-reporting over the next year from schools that thought they were doing good just to keep the agents and boosters away.
WELCOME...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
And don't let the name fool ya - second guessing the phenomenal athletic feats and split-second decisions of college kids under extreme physical duress is for every day of the week.
AWWW!! The totally nicest people, like, ever!...
How much football does he watch? Dude's got insights on -everybody-, and by everybody, I mean everybody. Throw in some of the best writing in the blogosphere, and we're talking about a daily must-read.
- Burnt Orange Nation
SMQ starts to sound more and more like the Gregg Easterbrook of our ideal memories every day - whip-smart, systematic, omnivorous in his intellectual tastes and yet unafraid of the cheap joke.
- Every Day Should Be Saturday
Sunday Morning Quarterback is one of our favorite football blogs on the internet.
- State Fans Nation
Sunday Morning Quarterback is a killer football blog if you are a college football junkie. It is run by one of the most thoughtful, intelligent, and analytical writers in the college football blogosphere...The guy is thorough and detailed and provides a level of analysis you are not going to find anywhere else .
- Bruins Nation
Just another hack writer who hasn't done one lick of research...
- SOT2
...the pride of Southern Mississippi ever since Brett Favre turned into an ESPN soap opera, has the sort of prose knack that can keep you riveted to a preview about any one of D-IA's scrubbier members ... should be given gifts.
- MGoBlog
