Carroll's Blog

“When your cable goes out, you can’t study game film.
When you can’t study game film, you lose to Alabama & LSU.
When you lose to Alabama & LSU, you get depressed.
When you get depressed, you buy a Harley.
When you buy a Harley, you meet hot young ex-volleyball players.
When you meet hot young ex-volleyball players, you go on joyrides.
When you go on joyrides, you end up in a roadside ditch and fired from your $3.5 Millon dollar a year job.
Don’t end up in a roadside ditch and fired.”

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Tim Tebow has been the talk of the NFL since week 5 of this season. First it was the dramatic comebacks he has been able to help lead the Broncos on. Then it was the constant justified comments on how he is not the tradition NFL style quarterback, yet he was still able to help get his team in the endzone when it counted. Now the critics are taking aim at Tim Tebow for his celebrations in which he expresses his love and appreciation of God. Many opposing players, coaches, sportscasters, and even retired players, are calling him out and saying he should keep his expressions of his love for God to himself and not display them publicly. Many players pay homage to God when they score touchdowns, but Tebow is not allowed to I guess. “Tebow, regardless of whether I wish he’d just shut up after a game and go hug his teammates, I think he’s a winner and I respect that about him,” said Plummer. “I think that when he accepts the fact that we know that he loves Jesus Christ, then I think I’ll like him a little better. I don’t hate him because of that, I just would rather not have to hear that every single time he takes a good snap or makes a good handoff” Jake Plummer (former Broncos QB)
Fans and observers of sports, find many favorite athletes to cheer for, for a variety of reasons. Not always just for their performance on the field, but sometimes for the character and charisma they show on and off the field. Many of those same athletes that they are exalting are the very ones that hanging in the night clubs, getting involved in altercation and going to jail, having lots of children by many different women. They are selfish, and self-centered, and have no concept of the word team. But yet these are many times the athletes that we celebrate.
Along comes Tim Tebow, whom I was not a fan of from his college days at Florida, (Mainly because of my loyalty to Mississippi State) who chooses to live a life that celebrates his love for God. Who is humble even when others attempt to exalt him above his teammates, who constantly defers the praise that others try to push on him to God and others around him. Tebow never takes the credit for team wins and success. I disliked him because I thought he was over hyped and made out to be the savior of college football for what he did playing the game. I never thought he was as good a player as what he was heralded to be. But I have come to realize now that it was the doing of the media and not his doing. The media builds people up to eventually tear them down, or allow them to be torn down. Many of the people that dislike Tim Tebow, simply dislike him because the media hypes him. They really know nothing about him. I was one of those people. Do I think he is a below average NFL quarterback? Yes. But I like and respect Tim Tebow for what he stands for and how he wears it. He loves God, is strong about his Christian beliefs (until proven otherwise) and is not afraid to show it! While many Christians have gone into the closet because of the pressures they receive for what they believe, Tim Tebow kicks the closet door wide open! If that is all you can find on the guy to hate him, you need to take a long, long look at yourself and your heart. The tearing down of Tebow because of his beliefs shows what is truly wrong with our country and where our hearts are. Don’t blame Tim Tebow for being who he is. And you certainly shouldn’t hate him for it!

 I just listened to a comment online by Tucker Carlson filling in for Sean Hannity  on Hannity Tonight , and I have to say that it may have been the dumbest statement I have heard when it comes to Michael Vick yet. (See comment here: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2010/12/michael-vick-tucker-carlson-executed/1?csp=hf)  To say on national television that Vick should have been executed for what he did is about at hateful a statement as anyone has made.  So now Vick belongs along the same category as Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and executed DC sniper John Mohammed?

I myself am a huge dog and animal lover, and feel that the crimes that Michael Vick committed are almost unimaginable.  To torture and killed dogs in the way he and his group did is something I could not even visualize let alone justify in anyway.  But is the life of a dog or animal on the same rank or level as a human being?  Trust me, I am not marginalizing the horrific acts that he committed against those dogs, but are their lives equivalent to the lives of the victims of John Mohammed?

All over this world animals are hunted for sport without people like Tucker Carlson saying as much as a whisper about it.  I would even be willing to bet that Mr. Carlson is a meat eater himself.  Before making a comment like he did, he should monitor the process in which cows, chicken and that turkey he ate for Thanksgiving are slaughtered.  I would like to see how judge mental he would be then.

The thing that stuck out with me the most about his comment is how he prefaced it by saying that he was a Christian.  So he says he is a follower of the “Forgiving God of a second chance” (Eph. 4:32), but yet he can’t find it in his heart to forgive Michael Vick.  Instead he wants to see him executed.  Does Tucker feel the same way about the thousands of doctors that kill unborn babies everyday around this country?  Does he feel they should be executed also?  Or does he feel that is different, like the supporters of abortion he feels that they are not yet a life!!

Bottom line, if Michael Vick were a bus driver that committed these acts, people would not care as much about how sternly he was punished as long as he was punished.  The fact that Michael Vick is a high profile athlete who’s comes into our homes every week making millions of dollars, which somehow gives us the right to judge him.  And he was in fact punished strongly for his actions.  But what about Bernie Madoff who single handily wiped out the futures of thousands with his money making scheme, is he forgotten?  Kenneth Lay who headed the Enron scandal that bankrupt an entire company, wiping out the retirement of dedicated workers of the company that made him a multi-millionaire.

Tell me, does Michael Vick really deserve to be listed among this group of people?

Now this is very hard being the Miss. State fan that I am, for me to put this down in writing, but it really only makes sense.  I am a huge fan of Dan Mullen, and know what it would do to State if he were offered the University of  Miami Head Coaching position and left.  But it is also because I am such a supporter of Dan Mullen that I can set aside my selfish feelings and support him in what I think would be an awesome next step in his promising future as one of the next great coaches in college football.  Given the talent, recruiting budget, University support (not that he does not have that now at Miss. State, just being on a higher economic level) and location, he will be right up there with Nick Saban as a college football coach.  And he is as likable a person as it gets!

The bottom line reasons in detail it all makes sense:

1. National Recognition – Even given the more recent struggles of the Hurricanes football teams, they have remained one of the most talent laden teams in the country year in and year out.  They have not always show It on the field, but they still get some of the best players in the country.  Is it location? Is it the legend of the U?   Who knows, but the players will still line up in hopes of getting a shot at playing there. Dan Mullen took a team of Bulldogs that may not have been as talented as their 8 win record suggest, and got more out of them than could have been imagined.  Think what he could do with a recruiting class that could be in the top 10 every year!

2. Recruiting Hotbed – Year in and year out, the state of Florida produces some of               the best athletes in the country.  You can find 4 and 5 star recruits on teams around             the country, all hailing from the Sunshine state. Dan Mullen has deep ties in the                     state from time spent recruiting for the University of Florida and has the                                 personality and drive to sway them to South Florida all day.   If you have ever                      talked with him, you walk away in amazement at how down to earth and personal he            is.  Take note Urban Myer and Nick Saban!

3. Economic Support – The University of Miami has always been supported well                 financially by the alum and community.  It started in the championship winning                     days of Schnellenberger and Johnson, until even now when they struggle. And                       remember, they had a 7 win season this year.  At many schools that’s reason to                     stand up and cheer.  So he would not be walking into a situation in dire straits.                       When the Canes are winning, which I don’t doubt Mullen would do there, they are                 the toast of Florida not just Miami.  And the entire nation notices

4. Chance to rule the ACC – In a conference that is not as competitive from top                    to bottom as the SEC, Miami with Dan Mullen and the talent he could recruit                          would rule the ACC for many years.  With the main competition coming from the                  north in Tallahassee and Blacksburg, VA  Miami is once again “cream of the crop”                  in an unbalanced ACC.

5. Location, Location, Location – Why not live in Miami, Florida??  Nothing                      else left to be said.

Again, as a State fan I would hate to see Dan Mullen leave our school.  But as a fan of Dan Mullen, I would love to see him get the opportunity to be recognized as the great coach and person that he is.  We all knew after the success of this season he would be a hot topic of discussion around the nation.  Now we may have to deal with the results of that success.