Rick Reilly a hypocrite?

[TripletDaddy]

Robin, how are they being exploited?

ha. nice.

You make all kinds of money off the sweat of their backs and they are prohibited from seeing even one penny of it.

But you are right, I suppose. You treat them well, you feed them well, they want for nothing. Why would that be exploitation?

Good job, massah.

[myboynoah]

Clearly he doesn't like BYU.

Regardless of how many RM's Utah has, the nation has seen that Utah has an AA quarterback, and its stars are mostly minorities, the skill players mostly AA. That Utah has come across as a team loaded with athletic players--athletic, more than smart or mature or clean cut, is the adjective most often applied to this team--who are mostly minorities has done a lot of good for the state of Utah's image, in my opinion.

To clarify, football is a sport. So it's nice to hear a team from a Utah college praised for its athleticism primarily though as well as intelligene, maturity, skill, etc., rather than seeing maturity or smarts used as a euphamism.

So:

athletic, athleticism primarily = African American players
smart or mature or clean cut, maturity or smarts = ?

White Mormon kids?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Pro players are mercenaries. A college team is more seen a reflection of the community.

That's very funny.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Who could ever forget that article by Rick? Boy, what a controversy that started. And wasn't he behind the "Most hated team in America" piece by SI?

Nevertheless, I think Rick is a great writer and I always enjoy his columns. SU writes some dumb things from time to time and I still like him too.

[SeattleUte]

So:

athletic, athleticism primarily = African American players
smart or mature or clean cut, maturity or smarts = ?

White Mormon kids?

Don't kill the messenger. Listen, football is sport. Great athletes win national championships invariably. They do have to be smart too. But it's nice to both field a team whose stars are minorties and be praised for athleticism. It's nice to win out and have them say, "wow, what great athletes," and not have to hear them insinuate that this team overachieved because of "maturity" and the like. It's really unrelated but it's a nice image Utah having an AA quarterback, etc., considering the quirky history. None of this excludes smarts and they have been praised for that too; indeed, I think being a great football player does require intelligence. I might add, athleticism is not normally a hallmark of returned missionaries, AC the exception that seems to make the rule.

[RobinFinderson]

Robin, how are they being exploited?

I don't know. Are they being exploited? Black culture, especially where there is a lot of poverty, tends to value athletic performance over academic and artistic performance. On days when I work from home, I will sometimes listen to the *pop* *CRACK* of my sixteen-year-old neighbor performing ollies on his skateboard for six hours straight. Why isn't he in school? I don't know, but you have to figure that this kid is going to clean the asphalt with the suburban wanna-be skaters who practice for an hour each day after school after soccer practice and before dinner and homework. Will it be exploitation when this kid, who was barely educated in school, becomes a professional skater? As with most pursuits, it is culture that produces excellence. Culture that shuns academic achievement will produce excellence in other areas. All of that time gets poured into SOMETHING.

[TripletDaddy]

I don't know. Are they being exploited? Black culture, especially where there is a lot of poverty, tends to value athletic performance over academic and artistic performance. On days when I work from home, I will sometimes listen to the *pop* *CRACK* of my sixteen-year-old neighbor performing ollies on his skateboard for six hours straight. Why isn't he in school? I don't know, but you have to figure that this kid is going to clean the asphalt with the suburban wanna-be skaters who practice for an hour each day after school after soccer practice and before dinner and homework. Will it be exploitation when this kid, who was barely educated in school, becomes a professional skater? As with most pursuits, it is culture that produces excellence. Culture that shuns academic achievement will produce excellence in other areas. All of that time gets poured into SOMETHING.

if he is 16 and not sponsored yet, he is already behind. Seriously.

I know Ryan Scheckler is an outlier, but he was being jocked before he was 10.

Zoo York has a history of looking for black skaters, so the precedent is there. I am not kidding, have you encouraged him to send out tapes? You have a knack for photography, I would guess you have an eye for videography...at least the level required for most of the demo tapes kids send out. Why not help him put together a portfolio? Is he that good? Takes more than an ollie to make it.

[DrumNFeather]

In your eyes what this Utah team has done is bigger than anything MLK jr did, Bigger than Rosa Parks, bigger than the Declaration of Independence.

So until you come back to reality I cant take serious anything you say.

If MLK beat Nick Saban, he'd be elected president.

[RobinFinderson]

The kid is actually from El Salvador... I don't mean to mislead. I was simply thinking of him as an example of where less-academically inclined culture is producing other kinds of excellence. He told me that he has made a demo tape and is shopping it around. I have offered to shoot stills for him, but I have a lot to learn about how to shoot skate culture:



That is my bedroom window to the right.



He makes landing these things look easy.



His street style reportoire includes a lot more than ollies.

DDD, this kid hasn't been skating his whole life, and at sixteen, as you point out, he is behind in the game. I hope the best for him. But the kid has a three-year-old younger brother who can already pop ollies and is growing up on a skate board. The 16-YO is paving the way for this young one, who I expect to really go pro.

[TripletDaddy]

The kid is actually from El Salvador... I don't mean to mislead. I was simply thinking of him as an example of where less-academically inclined culture is producing other kinds of excellence. He told me that he has made a demo tape and is shopping it around. I have offered to shoot stills for him, but I have a lot to learn about how to shoot skate culture:



That is my bedroom window to the right.



He makes landing these things look easy.



His street style reportoire includes a lot more than ollies.

DDD, this kid hasn't been skating his whole life, and at sixteen, as you point out, he is behind in the game. I hope the best for him. But the kid has a three-year-old younger brother who can already pop ollies and is growing up on a skate board. The 16-YO is paving the way for this young one, who I expect to really go pro.

You should focus on getting a few demo tapes out there. And in various locales (bowls, street, and ramp). Looks like he has mastered kickflips. The point of the tape vs the still is that the tape shows his ability to put together combos in succession.....which is what sponsors look for. They want skaters that can put on exciting sessions for big crowds.

This kid is ethnic, he is goofy, and he comes from an impoverished background. If he is good, local sponsors would eat it up.

[SeattleUte]

You should focus on getting a few demo tapes out there. And in various locales (bowls, street, and ramp). Looks like he has mastered kickflips. The point of the tape vs the still is that the tape shows his ability to put together combos in succession.....which is what sponsors look for. They want skaters that can put on exciting sessions for big crowds.

This kid is ethnic, he is goofy, and he comes from an impoverished background. If he is good, local sponsors would eat it up.

3D understands why Utah is America's team and BYU has always been America's contra-team.

[Surfah]

You should focus on getting a few demo tapes out there. And in various locales (bowls, street, and ramp). Looks like he has mastered kickflips. The point of the tape vs the still is that the tape shows his ability to put together combos in succession.....which is what sponsors look for. They want skaters that can put on exciting sessions for big crowds.

This kid is ethnic, he is goofy, and he comes from an impoverished background. If he is good, local sponsors would eat it up.

That's a varial maybe 360 flip in that last pic.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I can explain. One's strongest feelings about one's favorite team or that team's rivals and opponents are developed early, typically during one's college experience. The way BYU bitchslapped Utah during your formative years explains, at least in part, your ongoing antipathy. Reilly was either a senior or recent grad of Colorado when Jim McMahon et al. crushed the Buffs in '80 or '81, I'm not sure exactly which.

Reilly is a very good writer, though. It's a shame his view of BYU is colored in part by the beating he witnessed. Given his kind thoughts toward the Utes, I can only assume the Buffs played Utah sometime in the 70s or 80s.

PAC shows his genius again, Rick was in his first year writting for the Daily Camera when BYU beat Colorado 41-20 that autumn day in Boulder.

[TripletDaddy]

That's a varial maybe 360 flip in that last pic.

I would agree, based mostly off his back leg being in stance (not out) and the board being close to parallel upside down. 360s don't ever rotate that way.

those were the days. I was never very good at them, but I tried.

Kickflips are hard.

[myboynoah]

Regardless of how many RM's Utah has, the nation has seen that Utah has an AA quarterback, and its stars are mostly minorities, the skill players mostly AA. That Utah has come across as a team loaded with athletic players--athletic, more than smart or mature or clean cut, is the adjective most often applied to this team--who are mostly minorities has done a lot of good for the state of Utah's image, in my opinion.

To clarify, football is a sport. So it's nice to hear a team from a Utah college praised for its athleticism primarily though as well as intelligene, maturity, skill, etc., rather than seeing maturity or smarts used as a euphamism.

Don't kill the messenger. Listen, football is sport. Great athletes win national championships invariably. They do have to be smart too. But it's nice to both field a team whose stars are minorties and be praised for athleticism. It's nice to win out and have them say, "wow, what great athletes," and not have to hear them insinuate that this team overachieved because of "maturity" and the like. It's really unrelated but it's a nice image Utah having an AA quarterback, etc., considering the quirky history. None of this excludes smarts and they have been praised for that too; indeed, I think being a great football player does require intelligence. I might add, athleticism is not normally a hallmark of returned missionaries, AC the exception that seems to make the rule.

Your thinking seems to have evolved since this thread on CG:

http://cougarguard.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2996

This is particularly interesting:

As in any other endeavors, success in sports arises primarily from inspiration and motivation at a young age and guts and determination. Certainly genes play a part case-by-case, but not between races or ethnic groups. To suggest that they do is racist and/or bigoted, even against the race or ethnic group that you are purportedly complimenting. Going down that road in the first place is very damaging primarily to minorities. Thank God the evidence opposes that kind of approach.