The Rice Thresher

Location: http://the.ricethresher.org/sports/2007/01/12/football_integrity_outshine_success

January 12, 2007 > Sports > Football’s integrity even outshines season’s success

Football’s integrity even outshines season’s success

By Dylan Farmer | Thresher Editorial Staff

Raise your hand if you went to New Orleans for the bowl game. Well, actually, don’t raise your hand — people around you might stare. Maybe you should just reminisce privately, instead. Anyway, I was there. I roamed the French Quarter with my grandparents, I ate dinner with my friends, and then I walked into the Superdome to watch the Rice Owls take on the underdog Trojans of Troy.

Despite the hopeful cardboard signs reminding us of history — “Troy loses, read Homer!” Rice ultimately lost, and it wasn’t pretty. But although I might prefer the memory of my fried shrimp from the Bon Ton Cafe to the memory of the scoreboard at the end of the game, the point is: We were there. I had a reason to be in New Orleans. Rice had a reason to be in New Orleans. After 45 years, we made it to a bowl.

For most of us, the game against Troy was the culmination of a run we thought we’d find only in our dreams. This time last year, our abysmal season was a fading memory in my head, and it was not one I was sad to lose. We finished 1-10, with fewer wins than even the hapless Texans, and any hopes for a winning future seemed dimmer than the overhead light in my dorm room. But then things began to change. Head coach Todd Graham filled Ken Hatfield’s position in January, and Chris Del Conte replaced Bobby May (Will Rice ‘65) as Athletics Director two months later. The season started well before September, and led by sophomore Jarett Dillard’s 20 touchdown catches, this year’s team rebounded to win six of its last seven games and secure its place in Rice football lore.

But this column isn’t about that stuff. Don’t get me wrong — I’m elated for our program and its future, but we already know that tale, and I’m not going to spend these column inches rehashing it. Instead, I want to talk about what happened outside the hedges, because while we were here celebrating the unlikely Rice renaissance, events decidedly less laudable were occurring elsewhere.

May 15 — Austin, Tex. While Rice enjoyed a brief lull before preseason workouts, Bell County police had a slightly busier time arresting University of Texas running back Ramonce Taylor for possession of marijuana. At first glance, this looked like a normal, run-of-the-mill situation for a Longhorn player. I mean, it’s Austin — who doesn’t smoke a little pot now and then? However, the behind-the-scenes details make this story extraordinary. The setting: a pecan farm. The prequel: a fight involving more than 100 people (I think fewer combatants fought at Fort Sumter to start the Civil War). The comic relief: Taylor called the cops himself after someone broke his car window, forgetting to remove from his back seat the backpack containing roughly five pounds of weed. Sure, five pounds is far less than the 213 confiscated from former Dallas Cowboy Nate Newton, but it’s still more than any one person could hope to smoke before mid-life. I guess I’m not surprised Taylor had already been released from UT’s spring practices after failing to meet academic requirements.

Aug. 3 — Norman, Okla. More than a month before Dillard caught his first touchdown of the 2006 season, University of Oklahoma starting quarterback Rhett Bomar decided he was a little strapped for cash. Like any normal college student, he took a job at Big Red Sports and Imports, a local car dealership, scheduled for five hours a week. Unlike any normal college student, however, he was overpaid for it — by $18,000 dollars, according to ESPN, although this figure is more than likely exaggerated. After the NCAA investigated the allegations, Bomar was dismissed from the team and subsequently enrolled at Sam Houston State.

Oct 23 — Greeley, Col. Just after Quinton Smith stole the show at Central Florida with 183 yards and three touchdowns, Northern Colorado backup punter Mitchell Cozad was arrested and charged with attempted murder. His crime? Stabbing starting punter Rafael Mendoza in his kicking leg. Apparently Cozad wanted Mendoza’s job — and who wouldn’t, considering Northern Colorado leads the country in producing NFL kickers? I mean, wait. No it doesn’t. Anyway, this case prompted legions of comparisons to the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan scandal from the 1994 Olympics. Doesn’t Cozad read? Harding didn’t get away with her ridiculous plot, either.

There are other examples, too, ranging from outrageous to oddly stupid. Two Louisville players were arrested for a “drive-by paintballing” of crowds at a local haunted house. Putnam County police arrested a University of Tennessee freshman after he waved a gun at an off-duty sheriff. The gun turned out to be fake, but still, not the greatest idea to wave it at a policeman.

The congratulations have been pouring in for our win-loss record and our bowl appearance, but what I want to do now is congratulate Rice on upholding our athletic pride. I don’t enter the season anxious over whether or not our starting quarterback will get arrested during preseason. I don’t expect our running backs to get arrested with a carload of weed. And I certainly don’t think about how our backup punter might be waiting to knife his starting counterpart. These kind of fears may sit in the back of fans’ minds at Oklahoma, or Texas or at wild-and-crazy Northern Colorado, but they have no tangible consequences here.

Thank you, Todd Graham, your staff and your players for holding our football program to an excellent measure of self-accountability. You may not be the most accomplished or famous football program, and it may take a few years to get that bowl win, but at least you play the game like you’re supposed to. Keep it going, and keep your integrity, and you will continue to make Rice proud.

Dylan Farmer is a Hanszen College sophomore and sports co-editor.

End of article

Back to top