Andy wrote:Many may have seen my posts in the guestbook, and if you haven't I will tell you what I'm about. My name is Andy, I play college football and have 3.5 GPA in my major that is nursing. I am not here to tell you that you must love sports, because you are entitled to your opinion. I'm here to tell you not to believe all of the sports stereotypes. I love sports and will continue to love sports even after my career is finished. I do not plan to play professional football, I hope to travel the world after I earn my degree and help those in 3rd world countries that cannot help themselves.
I'm here to give an athletes point of view so please ask me any questions you want, just try to keep it civilized and keep bashing to a minimum.
Good evening Andy.
You seem like a reasonable and intelligent guy judging from your message above.
It's good that your planning a career in nursing. I wish more athletes were like you, to set a good example for your fellow team mates.
Unfortunately most are not.
Tony wrote:Yes, Andy and I have been trying to have a civilized debate with people on the guestbook about them stereotyping us athletes (I start WR/PR in football and Small Forward in basketball). We are here to say that all of those stories about athletes being intollerant assholes are wrong.
Excuse me, but NOT ALL the stories about athletes being intolerant assholes are wrong.
Granted, there are some athletes who are not intolerant assholes, but not all of the stories are wrong.
I should know from personal experiences.
First time I was ever suspended from school was in the 4th grade because I failed to climb a rope in a gymnasium. Never mind that I was making good grades in all of my academic subjects, and never mind that the reason for my being unable to climb the rope was because of a cripple up left knee which was the result of a car accident at the age of 4 years.
Because of injured left knee, I was not able to run like most of the other kids in my school, and I walked with a limp. And now, even though I'm a fat man, I wasn't fat yet when I was in grade school. I didn't become really overweight until my teenage years.
Anyway, my PE instructor was an intolerant asshole, else he would not have had me suspended from school just for failing to climb a stupid rope in the gym.
I guess, in our schools, athletics is more important than academics.
My 5th grade teacher was also really Gung Ho when it came to PE. He liked to humiliate me in front of the other students in the gym. One day, we were playing basketball, and during the game the ball slipped out of my hands. My teacher grabbed the ball and punched in the stomach with it as hard as he could, and it felt like forever before I could catch my breath again.
Then there was another time when our 5th grade class went to the library. All the other kids in my class were allowed to check out any book they wanted, but I wasn't.
There was this one Astronomy book that I wanted, but my teacher would not allow me to check out the book. We got into an argument and he dragged me out into the hallway then he grabbed me by the shoulders, pushed me backwards against the wall, bashing me head against the corner of the concrete block wall. I suffered a conclusion to my head as a result. I was 11 years old at the time, and for some years afterward, during my teenage years, I had headaches and dizzy spells that gradually became less severe as I got older.
The following year, that teacher was fired and could not get a teaching job anywhere else. But for me, the damage was already done.
He was an intolerant asshole.
I was only in the 3rd grade when I was reading at the adult level, because my mother had taught me how to read and write before I even started going to school.
Now, forward some more years.
When I was in high school, back in 1969 at the age of 17 years, my science teacher was also the schools football coach, so during football season, he was too damn busy coaching his team of pre-frontally lobotomized baboons to be teaching in the science class. Instead, he would set up a movie projector and go out of the classroom, leaving us to sit in the dark watching stupid cartoons.
I wanted to learn science damn it!
So, my teacher, who was also coach, was another intolerant asshole!
In school, I was the typical nerd or geek. I didn't care for sports, and I was often harassed by the jocks in my school.
Sorry Jimbo, but many (yeah, granted, not all) but many athletes and coaches I have known were intolerant assholes.
So, NOT ALL the stories about athletes being intolerant assholes are wrong.
And you can take that to the fucking bank!!!