The Official BobLee Discusses PJ & Friends Column. My opinion on the latest yucky chapter of The Great Unpleasantness. I have learned over the past three years to always “wait for the third shoe to fall” with each new revelation. UNC’s Faustian Bargain continues to bite large chunks out of its institutional derriere. Chomp, chomp, chomp …….
UPDATE: Bubba has issued a press release on Wed noon…. BobLee comments….
Bubba said…… CLICK
BobLee’s Comments: Since no one really knows how deep a hole we are looking at with this pile o’ crap…. For Bubba to say UNC is, in effect, waiting for this to bottom out is not a bad announcement. Whatever young PJ’s fate will be…. a few more days/weeks will not change that.
IF this were in-season and UNC were delaying action so as to have PJ eligible for “a big game” tomorrow it would be VERY different. Delaying dropping the hammer now doesn’t change anything. “This” is, alas, only likely to get worse regardless. IF UNC had “ruled” immediately after the first report (as many demanded) all this subsequent odious crap with Fats might not have emerged. How deep is this pile o’ crap ???? Who knows? Meanwhile young Mr Hairston can ponder his fate and his future. ALL OPTIONS are still available to UNC ergo I support Bubba’s comments today.
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According to German folklore, a fellow named Faust, discontent with his plight in life and desirous of success in all its forms, struck a deal with Mephistopheles. The deal provided Faust with his desired worldly success and high esteem among his peers….. in exchange for his immortal soul. A Faustian Bargain has become synonymous with such “trade-offs”. It would appear that with the rafters now overflowing, Dan Scratch has sent The Repo Man to Chapel Hill to collect.
If a man can sell his soul for worldly success surely an institution can too. Surely many institutions can. Faust was reluctant to pay-up when payment was due. Ain’t that always the case.
When your #1 basketball player is mentioned in any sentence along with the phrases “known felon” and “multiple aliases” it is time for a fan base to Stop – Drop & Roll.
You REALLY need to read / reread those two Jason Whitlock columns in that last BLSays. What applies to Aaron Hernandez definitely applies to PJ Hairston. This is all about a clash of cultures brought about by the evolution of two divergent ways of life that are ever-increasingly incompatible. Regardless how much oil you pour into a bucket of water…. the oil and the water never mix.
Nothing I say here is intended to excuse or alibi any decisions that PJ Hairston has made in his 21 or so years. Nor am I excusing The Univ of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill for its “in loco parentis” role in this. Whatever this all culminates in – Death Penalty – Full Pardon – Tear Down TDD & BKS – Win The BCS….. so be it.
I look at this never-ending drip – drip – drip of The Great Unpleasantness in the same way AgentPierce views Bill Barber’s Media Mob Circus. Pierce and I express provocative points-of-view on intriguing issues of the day. Neither Pierce nor I are charged with saving humanity from itself. Good thing huh? There will always be Wars – Rumors of Wars – Scandals – Hypocrisy – Plum Foolishness and lots of people who should know better but stick beans in their ears anyway.
Q: Has PJ Hairston done anything illegal by law or in violation of NCAA rules?
A: Probably / Obviously yes to both on multiple counts, but I have decided to leave interpretation of NCAA Rules & Regs to the legal department of PackPride.
Q: Did Roy know about “Fats” Thomas? If so, how long / how much has Roy known about Fats Thomas?
A: If not, he darn sure SHOULD have known. In the TV show Necessary Roughness, the mythical pro football team has “Nico” on st
aff. Nico is a secretive street-wise private investigator who keeps track of the team’s players thru his network of informants. If Bubba does not have a Nico he should get one ASAP. Roy Williams should have eyes and ears in every back alley and on every street corner within 100 miles of The Old Well. So should Larry Fedora….. and Frau….. and Mark Gottfried….. and Dave Who From Where….. and Mike K….. and even Coach Cutt.
Urban Meyer is disavowing any/all responsibility for Aaron Hernandez while he was at Florida. Will Roy go that route? How close an eye does Roy keep on his “youngsters”? Will Roy cop a plausible deniability plea?
If “this” had occured in a vacuum it would have been just another stoopid bad boy incident like the 100s of others over the years at area schools. It did NOT occur in a vacuum. It occured in the middle of a gaping bloody gut shot of a scandal. Bad timing PJ. REALLY bad timing.
Q: Should PJ “have known better”?
A: Ahhhh, the “know better” assumption. Being invited to a Fats Thomas party might not be important to me or you or anyone in our circle of acquainti. PJ Hairston and Fats Thomas are NOT IN any of our circle of acquainti, and never will be. I don’t know a thing about PJ’s background in Greensboro. Does he come from a nuclear family? Who were his peers and role models over the past ten years? Do his dreams and aspirations extend further than be a lottery pick?
Is riding the mean streets of Durham with a bag of weed and a 9mm in a 3rd party’s rental SUV a normal night out for PJ? It would not be for me or you. Would it be for your sons or daughters?
The PJ Hairstons come to UNC to play basketball and be a lottery pick….. not to pledge Phi Delta Theta.
Are we qualified to define “normal” for a PJ Hairston? In the great musical Big River, Huck and Jim are floating down the Mississippi on a raft and both are looking up at a night sky full of stars and they sing “Worlds Apart”…… “I see the same stars through my window that you see through yours. But we’re worlds apart…. worlds apart.”
Does Roy expect a PJ Hairston to see the same world that a Tyler Zeller sees….. Did Butch expect a Marvin Austin to see the same world that a TJ Yates sees? What do fans expect?
Q: When Roy was recruiting PJ did he have any indication that PJ might be prone to such behavior? Are there other Roy recruits over the past ten years for whom this behavior was normal? Apply that same question to recruits at other prominent area programs. Were Lance Thomas and CJ Leslie in Fats’ rolodex? Do all big time programs knowingly recruit X number of ticking time bombs?
Q: Are all UNC alumni / fans “upset” about this?
A: Yes but for quite different reasons. There actually are a % of adult fans who only care about winning and specifically beating State & Duke and contending for a NatChamp every year. Many of’em sit in the lower level and don’t care how Roy does it….. Just Do It. There is a 2nd % that has been on a three-year float trip down The River Denial. The multi-layers of scandal since then have had the effect of a screaming mime. There is a 3rd % that is indeed quite fed up with the whole yucky mess and has been for some time.
As for Fats’ UNC Dental School connection…. Three years ago THAT woulda been a certified BFD. Now its a shoulder shrugging “of course there’s a Derm street thug named “Fats” running loose in the UNC Dental School…. so?” For years there were rats running loose in The Rathskellar. That never bothered anyone.
I believed in Santa Claus and Sasquatch with much more conviction than I ever believed in The Carolina Way so I just watch all the crickets chirp and jump around.
Q: Are those in charge at UNC concerned?
A: Of course, from the standpoint of the incredibly ugly scar that all this is leaving on a very very proud (….. cometh before a fall ) institution. What will Ivy League Carol do? I expect Chancy Carol to be a Dartmouth deer caught in the headlights of a run-away bus.
At the two year mark in all this, I asked several BOT and BOG members if any of them had ever met Marvin Austin or any of the assorted perps either before or since the s*** hit the fan. All looked at me with total astonishment as if I had asked if I could pimp out their wives or daughters to entertain a bachelor stag party. No. They never had, nor had any plans to, meet Marvin (or PJ) and the assorted perps. …..”Meet” those recruits that Trustee Ms. Rosser-Hyde was so concerned about?
UNC’s vaunted self-righteous staff and faculty LOVE to talk Di-Versity and to go over to Uganda to distribute jelly beans and play Frisbee with the indigenous peoples…… but to sit down with Marvin and/or PJ for a “who are you and why are you here” conversation never occurs to them. Whatever would they talk about after the first five minutes? Whatever indeed?
Q: Why didn’t we have this crap when Dean was in charge?
A: (1) It was a totally different media culture and DES could / did micro-manage his program. (2) the black AfAm culture in this country has evolved considerably in the past 20 years. The Marvins and PJs do not aspire to “be white”or play by white man’s rules…. and they know they don’t have to. (3) there WERE occasional “socialization incidents” back then but they were quickly “handled”.
It is 2013. The gladiators in the arena have absolutely nothing in common with the fans in the stands except a silly allegiance to a jersey color. This is so NOT a political issue.
Whatever happens to PJ Hairston from this…. The Dean Dome WILL be sold out for every “big game” next season.
Barring a major NCAA nuke…. not much if anything is going to change at UNC or any other big time college sports program. There will be other PJ-type Messes in another few months and others after that….. the price of BCS and Final Four poker. This column will not make a difference.
PS: The only fan forum I monitor is WRAL.com . ALL the comments there, from all partisan sides, frighten me about the future of civilization. I sense a new strain of board monkeys that actually feeds upon its own stupidity. Alas, we are doomed.
