Well shoe is on the other foot hey Bama fans lol,i kind of thought it being funny how Calloway made the move so quick back to Bama.Yep you Bama boys are right its going to be a fun summer,Bama pay 4 play.HAHAHA.Roll pay 4 play HAHAHA LSU Auburn Writer Accuses Bama Of Paying Signee Calloway April 7th, 2011 ║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Tags: Auburn Send This Story To A Friend If you read this site regularly, you know that we have time and again said that the SEC is entering a danger zone when it comes to NCAA accusations. Mike Slive has said on occasion that only the SEC can stop the SEC. That appears to be happening. Today, Jeffrey Lee of AuburnSports.com — the Rivals site covering AU — went on Mobile, Alabama radio station WNSP-FM and accused Alabama of buying recent signee Brent Calloway. Lee has posted online a number of bulletpoints that are circulating on SEC messageboards this morning. Those points include: * A supporter of Alabama took Calloway to Tuscaloosa multiple times including the weekend prior to national signing day. * The supporter allegedly then drove Calloway out of state and kept him there until he returned to his hometown of Russellville, Alabama on signing day. * Before Calloway’s final trip to Tuscaloosa pre-signing day, the Bama supporter allegedly made cash payments to Harland “Peaches” Winston who is Calloway’s adoptive father. * Winston supposedly received $2,500 from the Bama fan on at least one occasion. * Supposedly, Winston also received aid in catching up on his home mortgage. * The fan also allegedly provided Calloway with a new car that the player drove to school. Supposedly enough questions were asked about the car that it was returned on the same day. * Allegedly, the car was purchased by the Bama supporter from a dealership in Muscle Shoals owned by yet another Alabama supporter. * Supposedly, the supporter told Calloway that he would receive $1,200 per month while playing at Alabama. Calloway’s recruitment was a soap opera from the get-go. The player even claimed to have received death threats. Calloway was a four-star outside linebacker prospect who was ranked the fifth best linebacker in the country and the 38th best player in the nation by Rivals.com. Stay tuned… you can be sure you’ll hear a lot more about this one. Great. Another off-field scandal. Mudd right back at cha…
Fan Passion. This will never change
On the heels of a debate this afternoon, held by one of the highest rated sports radio stations in the country. These thought occured to me. Opening day for the MLB is a little over a week away. It just so happens that the Phillies are the center of the baseball universe. (Deja Vu) This is an extremely passionate baseball town. However this debate was not about the Phillies, it was about the Eagles. Here’s a team that has never won a SB, and it’s last championship is going on 51 years. Personally I have been going to games and have had season tickets for over 30 years. I’ve sat through the Marion Cambell years, Ray Rhoads, Rich Kotite. Thank god for Buddy Ryan in there. And now Andy Reid. Nationally Philly Phans are notorious for many things, generally none of them good. The one thing that Philly brings, that I can’t say for any other city is the “level of passion”. Through all of those coaches and years that I mentioned, there was never a day where that stadium wasn’t sold-out or filled. Never a blackout.. I could count on 1 hand the amount of games I’ve missed in those years. However I made up for that with all of the away games I’ve been to. It’s easy being a Steelers fan or a Yankees fan, (forget the Yanks they don’t count) or Cowboys, or 49ers, all of which have a rich history of winning. Are the fans there throughout the lean years, sellout their stadiums? I don’t think so. I don’t know the history of every city. Enlighten me. Your thoughts….
Women playing in mens sport
This is realy getting out there, Football is a mens game only and so is wrestling, What is happing with our country have we lost our morals & respect for the game As a mother even if I had a girl and she wanted to do this, I would not go along with this, even is she had to move out. Luckly I had Sons who have played in these sports and also agree with me and there Dad. I feel a women should be a women and not try to compete with mem.
Gee I wonder who he is talking about? Auburn (cough cough)…Trooper Taylor (cough cough):smileyvery-happy: The funny thing is that everybody in the SEC knows what happened and what is going on. The only question is what is the NCAA going to do about it. Urban Meyer: Outlaw Coaches Not Afraid Of NCAA Last Friday on 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis , Urban Meyer waylaid the Indy-based NCAA during an interview with host Dan Dakich . Meyer ripped the NCAA from every possible angle, intimating that outlaw coaches have taken over the profession while the coaches who run clean programs are forced to be “politically correct” as they suffer a “competitive disadvantage” in silence. Meyer also noted that he himself assembled recommendations for NCAA rules enforcement last year and sent out his plan to various college athletics administrators. Recommendations that apparently fell on deaf ears – at least from the NCAA rule enforcement perspective. Along with the audio from 1070 The Fan below, I’ve transcribed the follow excerpted comments from Meyer’s interview with Dakich below: Urban Meyer: “What I’ve seen the last five years is a complete turn in the integrity of the college coaching profession. It’s completely turned the other way. Right now, it’s not good because the risk-reward is ‘have at it, do what you’ve got to do get the great player, go win games and at the end of the day we’ll find out what happens down the road … “You tell me how a young man who is a wide receiver ( Dez Bryant of Oklahoma State) and he lied to the NCAA and they took away his eligibility and he was never allowed to play again. And then there’s violations in other areas of the country and that doesn’t happen.” 1070 the Fan host Dan Dakich : “Coach of Tennessee basketball ( Bruce Pearl ) did the same thing (lied to the NCAA). Sat out eight games lost a little money and he’s back coaching right now.” Urban Meyer: “And Dez Bryant is out of the profession, I mean college football. … “I actually put one together last year, a recommendation (NCAA rules enforcement suggestions) and sent it to a good chunk of athletic directors and presidents and commissioners. You can have group committees, group hugs, group discussions, you can have whatever you want, at the end of the day if you enforce the law people will have an opportunity to break that rule less. “If there’s a law and it’s an unforceable law, and deep down they don’t want to enforce it, you are officially in the wild, wild west and anything goes. We need to revamp this thing.” “I’m probably going to get criticized for saying a few things but I’m good. I’m no longer a football coach and that had a part to do with why I stepped away. “I’m not the lone wolf here there are some great football coaches that are still coaching. They have to be very careful, politically correct, say all the right things and do all the right things and deep down their hearts getting ripped out because they’re at a competitive disadvantage and that’s just not right. “But at the end of the day the people that pay the worst price is the 19-year-old young man knows that it’s wrong but still deals with agents when he’s not supposed to, taking things from agents and getting recruited illegally. At the end of the day that’s going to affect that young man for the rest of his life because a precedent has been set in his mind that taking a shortcut is okay. “The ultimate mission of college athletics is to develop people for after athletics. The job is not to make money for the university. That’s not the number one objective and I’m anxious to help and give my opinion.” Considering he left Florida after a mediocre season, many will write Meyer’s comments off to sour grapes. In actuality, I think Meyer’s remarks are the most alarming thing I’ve heard since the latest outbreak of NCAA rules violations. You also can’t help but think that Meyer is alluding to Auburn’s recruitment of ex-Florida Gator Cam Newton in his comments, and that a lot of “politically correct” coaches around the country know a lot more about that situation than they’re letting on. For more Sports by Brooks you won’t find here on the website, visit Brooks on Facebook and follow him on Twitter . ____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Has anyone ever seen this? If so, I’d like to hear your thoughts about the show. Also, wouldn’t it be interesting if HBO was in the process of putting together one of these on Cam Newton and Auburn? That would be quite an interesting show IYAM, and would likely further expose what we all already know. Anyway, I dropped my HBO subscription some time ago but am thinking about renewing soon.:smileywink: Tonight HBO’s Real Sports Investigates Reggie Bush Controversy Tonight’s episode of HBO’s “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel,” will investigate the Reggie Bush controversy. This segment will include an interview with Lloyd Lake, the man who claims to have given Bush $291,600 in cash, living arrangements and other benefits while he was playing at USC. If these allegations are true, Bush may be stripped of his Heisman Trophy which he won in 2005 as a Junior and the Trojans’ may be forced to give up all of their wins in the 2004 and 2005 seasons including their 2004 National Championship. Aside from affecting USC’s past, the outcome of the investigation may also have a great impact on the Trojans’ future. Presently, however this story doesn’t seem to be as significant as one would expect. Here in LA where we eat, sleep and breathe All Things Trojan , it seems to be a big story. The rest of the country, however, seems to care more about Reggie’s love life than his involvement with Lloyd Lake. Let’s face it though; Lake doesn’t have the curves of Kim Kardashian so it’s tough to compete with her. While Lake may lack the photogenic frame that gets love from TMZ , he does however have a checkered past similar to many celebs who can be found in the rags. In an interview with USA Today, which was buried on page 6C of Friday’s paper, Lake is “described by his attorney as having been ‘affiliated’ with the Emerald Hills Blood Gang, has been arrested seven times, spent several years in jail and is characterized as a career offender in a U.S. District Court Southern District of California presentence report…” This rap sheet could be one of the reasons why the Bush controversy has not garnered the national attention one would expect. In a “he said, he said” situation as this one, it’s hard to take the side of the convicted felon. This is where the tape recorded conversations come into play. Lake secretly taped two phone conversations he had with Bush and his stepfather, LaMar Griffin. Portions of these tapes may be played tonight in the segment of “Real Sports.” These tapes are a large part of the recently released book, Tarnished Heisman: Did Reggie Bush Turn His Final College Season into a Six-Figure Job? Speaking of the book, there’s more evidence of the nation’s apathy towards this investigation in the numbers, as in the book’s ranking on Amazon. Currently at the time this is being posted, the Tarnished Heisman has barely cracked the online booksellers’ top 10,000. It is not even the most popular book about college football on Amazon, ranking in at number three in the category. Two parts of the country that has some interest in the Bush controversy; Oklahoma and Texas have not had much to say on this topic. The 2004 Oklahoma Sooners who were badly beaten by Bush and the Trojans 55-19 in the Orange Bowl for the BCS National Championship. The Sooners, whose only bright spot of that night was they didn’t have to hear Ashlee Simpson sing at halftime, stand to gain the national championship that USC may be forced to relinquish should the NCAA find Reggie and family guilty of these charges. The Daily Oklahoman , who extensively covers OU sports have avoided the Lake/Bush story all together. Should Bush have to give back his Heisman, former Texas Longhorn, Vince Young who was runner-up for the coveted award in 2005 would claim the honors. The Austin American-Statesman has picked up a single story off of the wire regarding the book. Games and awards are won on the field. Bush may have cheated the system but taking cash did not make him a better player or USC a better team. It’s not like he was pulling a Danny Almonte on the college football world. Bush may be stripped of his Heisman and the Trojans of their victories in the record books, but it must be difficult to feel victorious when the final score on the board read: USC 55 – Oklahoma 19. We don’t have to go back too far to find a situation similar to this, should the NCAA come down on Bush. Did you even know that Nick Van Exel’s Cincinatti Bearcats are in the record books as the 1992 NCAA Basketball runner-ups thanks to Chris Webber’s amateur status being compromised in a situation similar to Bush’s? Tonight’s episode of Real Sports may spur interest in this story. There will be some new information revealed regarding the house Lake claims to have bought for Bush and we may also get to hear some of these recorded conversations . At this moment however, the general public seems to waiting this story out until the NCAA comes down with a decision. NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson gave the following quote to USA Today in an e-mail, “The NCAA investigation into this matter is ongoing, and progress is being made.” ____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Serious Affliction
It saddens me to report to the forum that I have come down with a serious affliction. I believe I’m going to need some serious pain killers to numb myself of this malady. Although I haven’t seen a doctor yet, I know what I have. I also believe that there are people across the country that may have the same disease. It’s called “Steeler Envy”. There is currently no cure for this disease. There is however a prominent organization in Philadelphia working on a cure. I’m just not sure they will come up with it in my lifetime. I am currently working on a first step. Admitting that I am powerless over this problem, and my life has become unmanageable. For now I must keep the faith and hope for the best…….
Pretty interesting stuff here with a lot of factual background if you are interested in what is going on behind the scenes in college football nowadays…. New Day, Different Name, Same Old Scam for Walt Williams Since we expounded upon the recruiting mysteries down in Thibodaux a couple of weeks back and all of the subsequent inconsistencies surrounding Sean Nelson and the representations that he made on the record to Thayer Evans, in the interest of equality let us now turn attention to north to the equally interesting recruiting mysteries in sleepy Springdale, Arkansas involving a man by the name of Walt Williams. Most RBR readers likely know the back story by now, but for those unaware I’ll recount by saying that Walt Williams is a man in his early 30′s who runs (well, ran) an Arkansas-based company promoting the services of prep athletes to college programs. Williams is a self-proclaimed diehard Razorback fan and native of northwest Arkansas who played high school football under Gus Malzahn in the late 1990′s, and ended up playing some college football at Central Arkansas before later transferring to Liberty University to play for the Fighting Falwells — I guess the siren song of those 3,000 year old dinosaur fossils was too tempting. Based on that background, a few years back he launched his business whereby rising prep prospects would pay him a sum of money up front — generally ranging between 1,500 and 2,500 dollars — in return for him marketing their services to college football programs in hopes of increasing their chances of earning a football scholarship. From the outset, there were always some people suspicious of the legitimacy of his business, and it didn’t take long for some bad publicity to form. Take, for example, this article on the Arkansas Rivals site from a couple of years ago: “They had athletes from other schools working out with athletes from Shiloh Christian on their football field for a recruiting company.” said Taylor “No players are going to be affected, as this is only a warning, but they need to be careful how they use their field when it involves athletes of other schools.” The company in question is Pinnacle Preps Recruiting, a recruiting service that helps promote athletes to colleges with highlight films, personal workout films, and other recruiting tools. (Perhaps not coincidentally, one of the players allegedly involved in that violation was Kiehl Frazier, the current Auburn commitment, who transferred from West Fork to Shiloh Christian that summer.) The real stir, though, begin back in the middle of last year. About eighteen months ago, shortly after Michael Dyer committed to Auburn, the backlash against Walt Williams and his company Pinnacle Preps begin to reach a fever pitch. The credibility of his business was openly questioned, many people wondered how prospects could pay for his services and retain their collegiate eligibility (I still haven’t figured that one out, for the record), or if they didn’t pay for it and received his services anyway (impermissible benefits), and you didn’t have to venture far off the beaten path to find a litany of pay-for-play accusations. Those allegations exploded further when, days after National Signing Day, the following photo surfaced of one of Walt Williams’ “clients,” Dakota Mosley , who had days before signed with Auburn in what many felt (and still feel) was a glorified package deal to attain the services of Dyer: Going back to last summer, though, after the commitment of Dyer, Williams was arrogant and idiotic as ever. He not only dismissed all the aforementioned concerns, but was quite defiant in doing by threatening lawsuits and openly pondering exactly what he was going to do with all of the money he was going to win in said lawsuits. See statements such as the following: “Walt Williams is thinking of all the things I am going to buy with the money I get from these defamation, libel and copyright suits. I am going to teach these E-thugs a lesson that clorox won’t wash out.” Ol’ Walt wasn’t entirely kidding about those lawsuits, or at least the threat of them anyway. For example, he attempted to get the Arkansas message board WooPig shut down, claiming defamation and copyright infringement, after members of the board made disparaging posts regarding him and his business. The harshly worded letter, in relevant portion, went as follows : “I represent J. Walt Williams, and Pinnacle Preps, Inc. It is my understanding that in the past few weeks you have allowed posts by users of your website, www.woopig.net to use my client’s likeness and copyrighted material without properly moderating said website. The use of this material and the continual use of my client’s name, and his company’s name in a defamatory manner on your website must be controlled, and as the moderator you have a duty to remove any posts which will violate either State or Federal law. Please be advised that any further allowance of Copyrighted or defamatory posts on your website of either my client’s name, company name, or his copyrighted work will be considered a breach of your duty as moderator and will be handled accordingly. You are to cease and desist from allowing posts of this nature to remain on www.woopig.net or any other related website which you may own or moderate . You are further advised that my client will take whatever action necessary to protect himself from defamatory attacks to character or conduct, and will seek to the fullest extent of the law to uphold all copyright laws.” As you probably guessed, it seems that cease and desist demand letter was just a thinly-veiled legal intimidation tactic with no real merit. Not surprisingly, when a legitimate response was given — pretty much debunking the defamation and copyright infringement allegations for the shams that they were — neither Walt Williams or his attorney ever pursued the matter any further. Nevertheless, all those legal threats eventually became particularly amusing because there indeed was a lawsuit filed a few months later, but as it turns out Walt Williams was the defendant, not the plaintiff. In February of 2010, days after National Signing Day, one of his former “clients” filed a lawsuit in the circuit court of Washington County claiming breach of contract, fraud, and violation of the State of Arkansas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Several juicy tidbits stand out in the complaint — perhaps most noticeably that Williams was actively touting his “big” clients such as Michael Dyer — but the general takeaway point is that Williams’ company was basically every bit the scam that any person with an iota of common sense thought all along. Forget all of that high talk about “$200,000 financial rewards” and “The Dream,” after getting his check for $2,500, Williams basically ignored his “client” and didn’t even do any of the most simple work that he contractually obligated himself to do, whether that be his highlight DVD’s, his postcard campaigns, his e-mail “blasts,” personalized websites, etc. The lawsuit has since apparently been settled out of court with a confidentiality agreement in place to keep the specific terms of the settlement from ever reaching the public sphere. Interestingly enough, though, since part of the relief that the plaintiff’s sought in their lawsuit was for the court to grant a temporary injunction to, in effect, shut down Pinnacle Preps, if you try to go to the Pinnacle Preps website now, you get this message: And the personalized website touting Michael Dyer that was up for so long –unlike the case for the Smart family, he actually made one for this “client” — even after he had signed with Auburn last year? Good luck trying to find a working version of that. Type MichaelDyer5.com into your web browser, and you get this result: Now, whether or not that the demise of Pinnacle Preps was due to some sort of legal agreement in the lawsuit with the Smart family or if the bad publicity just became too much — Google “Pinnacle Preps” and nearly every link takes you to a site trashing the company and its practices — I do not know, but fear not, Walt Williams hasn’t gone away for good. In fact, he hasn’t really gone anywhere. With that in mind, I direct you to … drumroll, please … Elite Edge Sports Promotion . Go ahead, click the link and browse around, you probably won’t get a virus — though if you don’t turn the volume down you’ll have to endure the insufferable music blaring in the background. In any event, if you browse around a bit it doesn’t take long to see it’s the same ol’ Pinnacle Preps scam with a different name. Notice they still offer the “Award-Winning Websites,” the “e-mail blasts,” the “highlight video production,” etc. The contact page is basically still the same, though there is a new P.O. box number and a new cell phone number listed. The testimonials are literally copied-and-pasted from the old Pinnacle Preps site. The references to the old Pinnacle clients are there — namely Kiehl Frazier — and the example highlight videos still have the Pinnacle Preps logo plastered all over them. Basically the only difference is that Walt Williams’ name and photo aren’t on the site anymore, nor are the pricing guides. Aside from that, it’s Pinnacle Preps 2.0. He may be trying to remove his name and likeness from it, but it’s still the same old scam. As an additional note, I also found the section of the site devoted to “Pro Athlete Web Development” — when is Michael Dyer eligible for the NFL Draft, again? — to be fairly interesting: Tell me, why do I get the feeling that ol’ Walt probably didn’t get the express written consent of the NFL, the NFLPA, the Minnesota Vikings, Kevin Williams, or the Make-A-Wish Foundation to use their respective names, logos, and likenesses to promote his business? In any event, it’s a bit odd that someone who was previously such a staunch defender of intellectual property rights would do such a thing, but I digress. What Walt Williams does not address in his websites, whether that be the old Pinnacle Preps or the new Elite Edge, is exactly how a barely 30-year old man whose football experience is limited to mighty Central Arkansas and later Liberty University, with no coaching experience whatsoever, with no scouting experience whatsoever, and no ties to Division 1-A college football other than being someone who played high school football for Gus Malzahn, can legitimately generate interest from college programs in marginal prospects or provide legitimate value for high-end prospects whose raw talent and ability can earn them offers from nearly every program in the country based solely on their own merit? Those are still questions that he has never answered, and I suspect questions that he will never answer. Legitimacy, lawsuits, and damaged reputation be darned, though, Walt Williams is still forging ahead, and his most heavily-recruited “clients” are still somehow spurning Arkansas and ending up in Auburn. Such are seemingly the limits of litigation and bad publicity. The name may have changed, but the scam has apparently endured. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy’s name comes up again. I certainly think it’s a situation worth keeping an eye on.
Garza is great, but he wont be enough
After reading the cubs postings and seeing what they did wrong once again I wanted to point out IM glad Garza is out of the AL East. But the Cubs have proved once again why they can’t win a world series. Garza is great, but not enough. Why they didn’t get Grienke from KC along with some other serious talent to go with Garza is beyond me for a big market team. Grienke and Garza would have been a devastating one two punch in chi town and would actually look like a ws team to go along with zambranno. In the end the cubs fans will make excuses when there cubbies fail once again to make it or even win a WS. The fans will stand and sing take me out to the ballgame during the 7th inning stretch and I will be laughing because the cubs gave away the farm for a guy who is going to win a lot of games, but in the end will come up short. Maybe if the cubs fans stopped supporting losing, the ownership would have done or at least tried to do what the red sox, Yankees, phillies, have done and put a world series type team on the field. I don’t fault the cubs for losing, I fault the ownership for not even trying to put a team together. if a small city like Boston, Tampa bay, put a WS caliber team together can’t the 3rd biggest city in the country do it. if the red sox and Tampa can do it why can’t Chicago. As I said I could care less about Chicago but the fans in Boston, New York, Philadelphia wouldn’t tolerate losing for over a century, the fans would stop going and force the owners to spend money on quality players or sell the team to someone who will.
Mike Vick did his time and is paying for his crime like alot of your friends never have Carlson whoever he is, (must think hes God) He has no right to judge another human being unless his whole family is Perfect and I doubt that, if so they just didn’t get caught. lol I’m so sick and tired of people trash talking him but what about all the males that have sexual issues in sports and walk away with hardly ever consequences. What about all the pedophilia that walk the streets and keep destroying kids lives day after day. What about drugs and alcohol that affect 95% of all families in this country and oh lets not talk about that why cause’ most of the people with all this criticism are the worst people around. I grew up in Va. and I love dogs but alot of my friends used to fight there dogs and thought nothing of it. Also most stars go to jail and act like a celebrity but I watched Mike Vick did his time very quietly and still does what he can to help talk about his mistakes and is doing the right thing now so shut up unless you are perfect and none of you are.That is his job Football so he has every right to go back to work just like everyone else, Why is it pedophilia’s can have kids?? Oh some law that suits the criminals( attorneys make most of the laws to protect themselves) Women can starve, beat, torture kids but you don’t tell them they can’t have kids, so all of you people are full of yourselves just like most of this country (double standard) When our justice system is not based on if you have money or not, or who you know then we could begin to start talking about fairness. Plus Mike Vick is having financial problems but hes still trying to do the right thing. Leave him alone and find something to really gripe about but look at your families 1st and when no one in your gene pool has never made mistakes then start judging others. Instead of worrying about a football player why don’t you focus on getting our Government on the honest side and then maybe things would be fair in this country. There is no middle class anymore its the richer get richer and the poor are surviving sometimes. Get rid of Republicans and Democrats and join forces and use common sense and get together and make everything accessible to everyone. I know its bull I have tried to get legal questions answered in the last 5 years and everyone’s response is call an attorney, at an average of 500.00 an hour and bill you for every minute who in the hell has that kind of money the people that can get out of stuff. My definition of attorneys is ( Legal Prostitutes) like that one, I don’t care how much school every citizen should be able to attain legal advice somewhere: I called legal services in my county and asked 3 questions and they couldn’t answer any of them so what are we paying for those offices for all they are gonna do is refer you to (GUESS) an attorney!! People stop being so stupid and look at the real issues here everybody in this country is fighting against each other and we have gang wars drug wars people getting killed everyday children starving living in the streets and we have the audacity to go other places to help others when we can’t even take care of our own people. No one should be let in this country til we can take care of what we got plus then they want to change our history another bull crap. Like it was once said somewhere charity begins at home!!! When are we gonna stop being so stupid let Border patrol do there job or don’t you want to piss Mexico off since there drug dealing goes to the top of there government, and incarceration is very expensive too. People better wake up and take control of our government officials and remember that is elected position so why should you get cars and expenses and all that crap and raises every year when we don’t have the money or most don’t earn it anyways, they sit around and argue instead of listening to the people??!! If you make 80,000.00 average in Washington why should we pay for your car and why should you get a raise if Social Security says economy doesn’t justify a raise why where do you seem to get money for everyone’s raises, like I said when this country is leveled out as an even playing field and get rid of all detainees and illegal people that are a burden on the taxpayer too. When our elderly can’t get medicine and pay their rent NO ONE SHOULD BE STUPID ENOUGH TO THINK THEY SHOULD GET ONE, and taxing Social Security is insane too. Clean out all the waste in the GOVERNMENT and Government jobs alot of dead weight, and state jobs too. I have seen the lazy people and non workers 1st hand but they don’t loose their jobs. funny huh?? Oh one more thing I’m sick of crooked business people that get away with stuff the normal person would be in handcuffs for I took a crooked Mechanic that was scamming me and my warranty company Auto Pro in Berks Co. and won my hearing and it was called a refund what a crock ITS STEALING but most people don’t do nothing about stuff like that They are criminals and should loose whatever licenses they have, cause’ most people that steal go to jail or have to adleast answer to the courts but I couldn’t do but so much GUESS WHY..Of course he had more money than me and I have 2 special needs children so I should have to let people steal from me, They think they are above the law and they are doing this too numerous people and the paper will print who steals from Walmart which most of us don’t give a hoot about I care about dishonest businesses but oh no wouldn’t print that in the paper. Oh well its funny how people can cheat people day in day out and they own these big 200,000.00 and 300’000.00 homes but if only everyone knew that some single moms everyday helped them get that cause’ they cheat people all the time but You will answer to God one day and live with knowing you ruined other peoples lives. Most people that are liars and thief’s don’t care cause’ all they care about is money, they don’t care about the people they are truly hurting not just the adult but the children those adults are trying to teach right and feed and take care of. These people can really screw good peoples lives up and in turn you hurt innocent children..make you feel good?? Oh well I hoped I **bleep** a few people off cause’ that means the TRUTH HURTS. Good Luck all you GODS that think you have the right to pass judgment on others. Til you walk in another moccasins don’t dare pretend to know what its like. Good luck and I will defend Mike Vick til the end and I hope one day to meet him or he can see what I have to say, cause’ there is something about him I have never seen in any public figure that I see in him He is a Humble man now and I believe he has changed, most stars and others even in jail they are always trying to be in the limelight he did not do that. Oh well Mike Vick You are the Best player Philly has seen in a long time and I feel you are very dedicated. Keep up the good work and remember God knows and everyone else is not important. Sincerely, loving, compassionate, Southern raised Irish Cox and proud to be a CHRISTIAN AMERICAN, and leave this country if you are gonna try to change things or don’t like them, go back where it was so great!!! AMEN
If you were a starter at Auburn University in the late 80′s and early 90′s. Why?…perhaps the better question is why not…because it certainly seemed to motivate people to try hard and win that starting spot…..Now the same people are running that program again! Why? The Fall of Bobby Lowder, and the Fallout at Auburn If you’re sick of hearing about Cam Newton, bear with me. Because Cam Newton is a part of this story, but in many ways he is incidental to it. The story is Auburn University, specifically its athletic department, and the shadowy but undisputed influence on it by Robert “Bobby” Lowder for the last 25 years. Cam Newton’s star is ascending, the Heisman nearly assured, and his future unlimited. A year from now he’ll be wealthy, and college will have served its purpose for this special athlete. Bobby Lowder is 67, and in decline. His personal, business and financial life is in shambles. He is being investigated, sued and will probably be prosecuted. It looks now like the unraveling of Lowder’s business and personal affairs won’t be able to drag down Cam Newton. The Auburn University athletic department on the other hand, might not survive the fall of Bobby Lowder. They are inseparable. — Let me say up front I’m not a secret “Bammer” or anything, really. I just waded into this story and this is what came out. Everyone knows I’m a Buckeye fan, which requires that I hate all SEC teams equally. If I were an Auburn fan though, I’d be furious at what Bobby Lowder has wrought on my beloved program. All I’ve tried to do below is assemble events into a coherent narrative for the reader, and to be as faithful to the truth as I can be. A quick note to the “everybody does it” crowd: No they don’t. Not every college program pays 200 grand cash for players. And for those others that do…this article isn’t about them. It’s about Auburn. — There are potentially troublesome athletic boosters insinuating themselves into nearly every major college football and basketball program in the country, but you could say Bobby Lowder redefines the position. As a member of the Auburn Board of Trustees for 27 years, and the sitting chairman of the university Finance Committee, Lowder has essentially run Auburn athletics as his private preserve for decades. Auburn football coaches, athletic directors…even university presidents, serve at his pleasure. A 1964 graduate of the school, Lowder and his parents have donated as much as $20 million to Auburn over the years, and several campus buildings bear their name. As a self-made CEO of a major regional bank with over $25 billion in assets, Lowder’s passion for his work was exceeded only by his passion for Auburn football. He has often been called the most powerful man in the State of Alabama. Lowder has been the subject of profiles by ESPN.com and by Fortune/CNN-Money that are both worth the time to plow through for more background. The man apparently has his defenders, but they can meet in a phone booth. From the Fortune article: …Lowder has made plenty of enemies over the years. His name might not be familiar outside Alabama, but he is easily one of the most feared, loathed, and some say misunderstood men to wield power in this state since George Wallace — the governor who first appointed him to the board in 1983. Lowder has been accused of making backroom deals with governors and treating the Auburn football program like a private fiefdom. (Because of his influence over Auburn’s athletic program, three years ago ESPN named him the most powerful booster in college sports.) At various times Lowder has been at war with Auburn’s faculty, its student newspaper, its alumni association, and some of his fellow trustees — developing a reputation along the way as a tyrant with a vindictive nature. It has been alleged that Lowder made a death threat to one board member he clashed with. Former Alabama Governor Fob James tried to have Lowder removed from the Auburn Board of Trustees in the late ’90′s, but Lowder sued the Governor to stop him, and used his influence on the Board to prevent them from naming a successor. Lowder supported James’ political opponent in the subsequent election, and when his man, Don Siegelman, was elected Governor in 1998, the new Alabama chief executive promptly extended Lowder’s appointment to the Auburn Board for an additional 12 years, set now to expire in 2011. Siegelman was convicted in 2006 on bribery and mail fraud charges, and served two years in federal prison. The Rich Tradition of Auburn Cheating One sports web site titled an article on Lowder, “What if a Booster Ran an SEC School’s Budget?” Exactly. What could go wrong? At this point, the question is: What has gone wrong? Few would argue today that Lowder’s influence on Auburn athletics, while fanatically well-intended, has been a malign and destructive one more than it has served the university’s interests. Lowder has by many accounts presided over a longstanding system of buying and paying Auburn football players through a network of surrogates including assistant coaches and other boosters. This is hardly just a matter of unsupported rumor, or of bad faith accusations by Auburn’s rivals (though there is plenty of the latter going on). The school has a track record of NCAA violations of this sort ever since Pat Dye Jr. was forced out as Athletic Director in 1991, and a year later as head coach, based on NCAA findings that Auburn was paying players . And that doesn’t even count 1957, when Auburn went undefeated, but was not allowed to play in a bowl game owing to…you guessed it…previous recruiting violations. Since Bobby Lowder was 13 at the time, I guess we can’t hang that one on him. Dye’s reign at Auburn was undone by Eric Ramsey , an Auburn player who secretly recorded his coaches talking to him about the cash payments and “loans” he was getting through the program, a scandal that resulted in a “60 Minutes” episode , and got Bobby Lowder busy looking for a new A.D. and a new coach. The NCAA was particularly peeved with Auburn at the time, as they had already been on probation an unprecedented six times, and the two-year probation they earned for the Eric Ramsey case had to be delayed at its outset so the most recent two-year probation for previous violations involving basketball and tennis could expire. Take a number, football. The Terry Bowden Years Terry Bowden, at the time the coach at Samford University in Birmingham, took over the Auburn program after Dye. Lowder’s daughter Katherine, who happened to work in Bowden’s office at Samford, stuck her head into his office one day, and said “Dye is leaving and my dad wants you to be coach at Auburn.” That’s the way it works when you’re the SuperBooster, and you own the Board of Trustees and the A.D. (Lowder once reportedly said of David Housel, one of his many athletic directors, “He’s not a good A.D., but he’s my A.D.”) According to an interview Bowden gave in 2001 to Paul Davis, the editor of The Tuskegee News , he tried his best to end the payments to players when he arrived at Auburn, but was undermined and eventually forced out by Lowder for not going along to get along with the program’s pay-to-play scheme. Bowden negotiated a $1.8 million buyout package, and as a condition of his deal, agreed to a confidentiality clause that prohibits him from discussing Lowder, the Board, the Athletic Dept. or player recruiting. Convenient, but Bowden at least unburdened himself to Davis about the corruption at Auburn before clamming up. Near the end of his days at Auburn, Bowden says he was “checking my house for bugs”. The Bowden interview linked above can be found in numerous places on the web in basically this same form. I attempted to verify with Davis the accuracy of the transcript, but have not as yet received a reply. So, as with anything sourced this way, take it for what it’s worth. If it helps give it credibility, know that USA Today reported on Davis’ account of the interview in a 2003 article . Here’s part of what Bowden told Davis in 2001 about the way it worked at Auburn when he was head coach there (1993 to mid-season 1998): We paid then $12,000-$15,000 to sign. We sign about four every year that we pay.(Former assistant coach Rodney) Garner paid most of the players. He was paid when he was a player at Auburn.(Stacey) Danley is the assistant compliance guy, and he was paid when he was a player. I broke the rules. I said pay it off, and it will never happen again. (Asst. coach Wayne) Hall said “OK, but you will change your mind.” Katherine came to Auburn as my assistant, but she worked for Colonial. We were real close. I told Lowder “We have cash all over.” Lowder said “I told Wayne not to collect more than we had to have to pay the players.” Wayne had a safe in his house where he kept the money. Within two weeks of me being hired they told me about paying Jelks. Nothing was done without Lowder knowing. I will go under oath and say that Lowder looked me in the eyes and said, “I didn’t want Wayne to collect more money than we needed to pay the players.” I was hiding a dirty secret. We were paying (star running back and current Washington Redskin) Steve Davis and his cousin the fullback. It took about two years to get it all cleaned up. Most the guys we were paying weren’t any good and weren’t helping us win games. Steve Davis was the exception. Here is how it works, fifty to 60 men give $5,000 per year. Wayne would collect it. These are all good men. They didn’t ask questions. The coach tells them that everybody cheats so we have to. My first two years we went 11-0 and 9-0-1. Jetgate From Dye to Bowden and then to Tommy Tuberville, Lowder always had his eye on his next coach. In 2008, after Tuberville had lost five of six SEC games down the stretch, Lowder dispatched his interim President, his AD Housel, and a couple of Board members in the Colonial BancCorp corporate jet to Louisville to meet secretly with then-Louisville coach Bobby Petrino, and offer him the Auburn job. The plane was identified, and word of the meeting leaked. The Iron Bowl with Alabama had yet to be played, and Lowder had undermined his coach in an incident that came to be called “Jetgate”. Petrino wisely turned Auburn down, but Tuberville was justifiably angry, and Lowder was justifiably criticized for his ham-handedness. It wasn’t long though, before Tuberville was out, and Lowder was back searching for a coach he could control. Academic Misconduct Embarrasses Auburn The increasingly brazen and unseemly influence of one particular Auburn trustee was brought to light yet again in 1999, when Lowder set about settling personal scores by defunding Auburn academic departments using his power as Finance Committee chair. He eliminated the respected Auburn PhD program in Economics, as one example, and reorganized the journalism department that he claimed had generated negative stories about him. His micromanagement of university affairs eventually drew the attention of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the accreditation body for SEC schools. The ensuing SACS investigation resulted in a one-year probation for Auburn, and cited Lowder’s influence in the Pat Dye payola scandal, the Bowden firing, and the stacking of the Auburn Board with Lowder cronies, board members of Colonial BancCorp, Lowder’s bank, and recipients of loans from Colonial, to an extent that the “independence” of the board was in question. Not only had Lowder’s nearly unlimited power at Auburn brought disgrace to their athletics programs, but it had brought the entire university to the brink of losing their academic accreditation. William Muse, the President of Auburn University at the time of the SACS accreditation investigation was summarily fired by the Lowder-controlled Board not long after that episode. Years later, Muse spoke with Paul Davis , the aforementioned Alabama newspaperman, who reported that Muse, Bowden, and even Davis lived in fear of what Bobby Lowder could do to them… I spent many hours with Dr. Muse, a good man. We talked early on by phone, from my office to his. He then became concerned that his phone was tapped and asked that I call him at home. Then he became fearful about using his home phone. Those were tough days. Jim Martin, also a former president, had me meet with him face-to-face off campus. Former Coach Terry Bowden had his home checked for electronic bugs. I finally decided to do the same. Threats I received were so scary that I called the FBI and met with agents in my office. During those days, my newspaper building burned to the ground under mysterious circumstances. The stakes were high at Auburn and for Mr. Lowder. One day over lunch in a downtown restaurant, I also asked Dr. Muse why he just didn’t go public, tell the whole, sordid story, get fired and get it over with. I knew he was going to be fired sooner rather than later. I think he did, too. “It’s just useless to have a public brawl. He (Lowder) has too much power. Who wins? Who loses? Would it help Auburn?,” he asked me–or maybe himself. In a 2009 article, Davis characterized Lowder’s effect on the university like this: John Dean once told President Nixon: “There’s a cancer growing on the presidency. Ditto for Auburn. Nixon’s cancer was Watergate. Auburn’s cancer is Lowder.