If you are a USC fan, and I am, you were pretty happy to hear that Matt Leinart decided to come back and play for one more season. But here is a guy who thinks it was a stupid decision.
This column is an example of how our values have been turned upside down. Football is fun. Great football players, like Leinart, can become very rich at a very young age. All true. But it is still only a game. Really. Only a game. Even most USC fans know that. We didn't go to USC because they have a great football team. Actually, for many of us, not including myself, when we went to USC, they didn't have a great football team. So its a lot of fun and we watch the games and we cheer, but in our hearts we know it is not as important as, say, the war in Iraq.
Football is just a game. The war in Iraq-- that's real. That's our nation's, culture's, world's future, hanging in the balance. So, many of us are cheered by Leinart's decision because we imagine and hope that loyalty and friends and promises made are more important to him than money. He is, of course, eligible for the NCAA's insurance program for guys like him who have great professional sports potential. He can still be financially comfortable even if he is injured. So his choice was stay with your friends, finish out your education and take a chance that you will lose the NFL millions but still have a financial cushion or grab the brass ring while you can even if it means leaving the people who gave you this opportunity before your time with them was completed.
He chose the former and we are heartened by his loyalty.
I don't know him at all, but I suspect that Matt Leinart is a guy who doesn't think Pat Tillman was a fool. As for the writer of this story, well. . . . one wonders. But that sort of values is what we have come to expect from MSNBC.
MSNBC - Leinart passed up a great NFL opportunity: "I know that playing football in college is special, and he wasn't ready for the experience to end. It isn’t always easy to leave a comfortable situation for an uncertain one.
Leinart wrestled with the pros and cons for weeks. He sought counsel from family members, coaches, former USC players and current NFL stars. Even though he’s much more fortunate than most, it must have been agonizing for a young man of 21.
But more agonizing will be when Leinart wakes up in the middle of the night and realizes he made the wrong choice."
No comments:
Post a Comment