Maybe I'm in the minority here, and I apologize if this offends the good sense of some of my readers, but I don't have an issue with what Yuri Wright said in his Tweets.
Yes, I have read them. Yes, I did find them to be unruly, completely unnecessary, and despicable in nature. But...I've heard worse from 35-year old men–after a few beers and a half-day of football.
Or worse, have you visited a message board lately?
No, the issue with Wright, for me, wasn't that he had those thoughts, but that he wasn't smart enough to not express them on Twitter. That's why his swift fall from grace came about.
Some have already argued that he did have a "lock" on his account (now completely deleted by the way)–which in the Twitterverse is supposed to denote some level of "privacy"–but in a world where your cellphone can pinpoint your location, a little, teeny-tiny, lock sitting next to your name means nothing.
That said, did this kid deserve to be placed on notice by the world of college football that his behavior won't be tolerated? I don't know if I agree with that–completely.
Again, I feel a need to say, I do not condone Wright's statements. But, I'll go out on a limb and say that there is probably more than one male athlete at Don Bosco Prep (Wright's now-former institution of learning) who thinks/acts in a similar manner.
That said, those athletes will likely save their ill-mannered behavior for after they get a scholarship.
Will that make them any better than Wright on a character level?
It's the hypocrisy of this that gets me.
Should Yuri Wright be disciplined for what he did? Absolutely, he should, but that discipline shouldn't be in the shape of a lost scholarship so long as we're willing to excuse the behavior of philandering golfers, drug indicted football players, steroid using baseball players.
Oh, am I shooting too high with the pro references? Okay, I'll stick with college football.
How many chances did Stephen Garcia get at South Carolina?
Jeremiah Masoli at Oregon?
Michael Dyer at Auburn?
I'm sorry, in the grand scheme of things, a 17-year old with a potty mouth and bad judgment seems like it should be the worst of our worries.
Now, to be fair, I do get that you have to start somewhere with sending a message. But, so long as college and pro level indiscretions are forgiven and forgotten in the name of inflated stats and championship rings/banners, the message is one that rings hollow.
Yuri Wright's punishment will mean only one thing to high school prospects looking to score a big-time scholly: save it for later.
And, honestly, I don't see the victory in that.
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