SDS

If you are drinking a half case or more every time you watch a game, you have issues.

why would I need to read more than this: because that is just semantics. I imagine nearly 100% of his income comes from this one source who sets the rules on how he will be paid, how much he will be paid, and for what he will be paid.

wow, I totally forgot about that... Tell your mom I'm sorry about the extra laundry...

Your dad got you hookers? Wow... what a guy!

$100 PER WEEK at a bar? Dude, you have issues.

Hmmm... why don't you take that logic in run with it? A doctor who gets paid less? How much less? Are the salaries low enough that the smartest students say NFW and do something else with their lives?

Whatever observation you are making in general, does not mean it applies to this thread, this situation. It doesn't apply. The problem is that you are in 100%, full-fledged denial of what you are reading and your defense mechanism is to assume we are all meanies. Your reluctance to see the situation from another point of view causes others to sharpen their words in hopes of piercing that shell. That's not a lack of tact, it's genuine concern. If you think you are a victim of a lack of tact, then I don't think you truly appreciate what could have been said and would have been said to almost anyone else...

One more post before I bow out.... John, sometimes when it is you against the world - it's the world that has a point. Blaming the reaction of the community to your situation on some sort of degradation that has occurred over time is a complete misreading of the reaction. I am confident you would have received the same response on day 1 as you did the past 2 weeks. Quite frankly John, 99/100 posters here would have been BRUTALIZED if they posted what you did. I'm talking Tracy Lee DVD burning, retatta making, njsue homework googling brutalized. That didn't happen because everyone likes you John and they want to help. You are a good guy who loves his family and we know that. Where you saw inflammatory responses, I saw great restraint and concern. The problem is that you don't see how skewed your attitudes are because they belong to you. I'm hoping you straighten your nose and reread this with an open mind. There are a lot of people here trying to help and it is something to be thankful for, not resentful.

I'm fairly uneasy about the whole thing - even if it does make me laugh.

now these are nipples you can suck on...

Everyone loves a nice rack...

huh?

I don't think there has been a single uncivil post in this thread, if that is what you're implying (surprising - yes). There have been many direct posts, but nothing uncivil.

you, of all people, just didn't write that did you?

well, if that was the year he was supposed to learn trigonometry - how is he expected to learn calculus? And while his Junior year may be over, is there any indication this has stopped and his Senior year will be better? You haven't given any indication that the academic bleeding has stopped.

Dude, no one is going to buy this. You were talking about recruiting tapes years ago. Again, most people here will continue to harp on your obsession with his football career and compare that to your laissez-faire attitude about his school work. Where was your post bemoaning his plummeting grades and your struggles to get his academic career on track? Have you asked yourself what the heck your kid is going to do when he hangs up his cleats? Has he asked it of himself? Telling us that you want him to have a "better life" doesn't make a lick of sense given the current situation. How is that going to happen playing D1 college football? Those dots don't connect for 99.99% of players. His real chance at a "better life" is an education. His poor grades now are just setting him up for failure in school later... If you don't realize that then a 17 year old probably won't either.

well, I can't argue with facts, but is that a pimple on the ass or it significant in the larger scheme (in proportion to population/resources)? I don't know the answer to that.

we argued the same thing at the University of Rochester and if there was ever a school with an inferiority complex it was UR.

You are right - I don't. But, do you want everyone to pull punches, slap you on the back, and wish you luck or are you looking for people to give you an honest assessment? Needless to say, your posts about your disappointment in his prospective football future (even if it ends at college), when the kid is pulling D's in core courses is as backasswards as it comes. As it stands now, Brett isn't even learning what he's supposed to in high school, let alone what is going to be presented to him in college. You aren't going to be able to solve differential equations when you didn't bother to learn basic math. I would have expected the original post to come from Brett, because he is young and doesn't know any better. A kid's short term ambition often clouds his view of his long term future. However, it didn't come from Brett, it came from you. I'm not quite sure how you managed to type: in the same post and think nothing of it. If Andrew was pulling D's in core courses in high school I would be throwing up at night. You presented his falling grades to us as a mere obstacle to him getting signed by a D1 school. John, that is messed up. I'm not telling you how to raise your kid. That's your job. You need to figure that out for yourself. But if you're going to solicit comments about your situation, then my take is that I hope he gets his stojan together, learns what he needs to in high school, and manages to find a career that he loves and can support himself. I hope his knee gets better and can lead a happy, healthy lifestyle. Whether he plays college football or not is the least of his worries...

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I scratched my head on that one too...

You touched on what I was going to say... I don't know the details. I don't know his son. I do have a small inkling of how hard he was pushed over the years through John's posts. A kid who is a B student, who is told over and over again that his football future is going to vanish if his grades plummet, and STILL let's his grades tank so badly that schools won't touch him - is passive-aggressively telling you he doesn't want to play at that level. Getting average grades in HS is like asking someone to breathe. It's stupid easy unless you are actively trying not to get them. He may love football and enjoy playing it with his friends, but letting his grades go by the way side (and knowing the consequences of that) is a sign that doesn't share the dreams of his father. It just is. So, maybe instead of plotting how John-boy is going to get his GED to go to Jr. college, transfer and redshirt at Div III east-bumf*ck, send Easter hams to the coach at Div II Mt. Nowhere in hopes of another transfer, so that maybe he can leave college with $50k of debt, no worthwhile degree or skills, and no shot of even being camp fodder in any professional league you might want to take this opportunity to re-evaluate the path he is on. That's just my opinion though....

yeah, I have to agree here. John - you have been beating the football drum for years with this kid. What happens when he isn't good enough like everyone else and he's dumb as box of !@#$ing rocks? Are you going to pat him on the back when he gets his 1st pool digging job?

A couple points - it is easy for Canada to decide what the right treatments are after we invent them, test them, and certify them for the rest of the world. Seriously, the every day, routine sh-- that is performed in this country was once an expensive experimental treatment. Who is going to develop those new treatments? What break-throughs are we going to have after the great rationing takes place? Also, Bill Clinton in 1992 droned on and on about the 40 million uninsured in this country and how it was going to explode in just a few years time. Well, 17 years later the number is pretty much the same. What a coinkeydink....

actually, it was under one minute. Too bad we don't log the seconds around here...