Relax.
I just love how you super fans of a state's flagship university get your tighty-whities in a wad when student-athletes make the decision to become professionals in their respective collegiate sports. While so many of you bellyache about Bobby or Michael leaving the University of Arkansas for the NBA to care for their families, why were you silent last weekend when University of Texas phenom Jordan Spieth ran away with the Masters? He left school after his freshman year in Austin. Whether they (or for that matter, any underclassman) is NBA- or NFL-ready is in the opinions of the draft scouts and front office personnel; they make the big bucks serving as kingmakers for their leagues. You would think the guys who suit up in the red-and-white were paying your bills or something the way you caterwaul and criticize 19- to 22-year-old young men for following their dreams. Just because you played your last down or bricked your final layup some twenty years ago in high school - which you barely graduated from - does not mean pass judgment on their for your entertainment. I honestly pity uber-Razorbacks fans, the majority of which would not have qualified academically to attend school in Fayetteville, for casting a year's hopes on young adults and entering a deep depression or eliciting anger when a star athlete departs school.
In Division I, the term student-athlete is a joke. The one-and-done rule magnifies that.
Anyway, relax. R-E-L-A-X.
Why wouldn't you want a man to better himself and his family? Oh, to entertain you, gladiator-style every Saturday afternoon in the fall and winter. How come baseball players aren't subject to the same scrutiny? They essentially do the same thing plus there are minor leagues that farm many players for their development (the NBA does have a developmental league called the NBDL. Two of my former students - DeShone and LaQuentin - play in it.) In addition, the American economy is built on capitalism, and for the talented, serves as a meritocracy: Pay us properly for our talents, hard work, and success. Fifteen years ago, I recall several of my friends dropping out of Henderson State for computer science careers that paid six figures for a year's knowledge of code writing. Matter of fact, some of the greatest tech minds (Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg) were all college dropouts, yet we do not complain about Microsoft, Apple, or Facebook when a security breach or a vital update occurs.
So, what is it?
Could all of the complaining stem from a not-so-very covert racism of sorts that precludes black UA athletes from making their own decisions and pursue professional aspirations? Many of you super fans show that side as if they should be treated as common property, disposable in four or five years with a useless degree or connections that dry up once you realize ballplayers also have complex minds and ambitions beyond working for Wal-Mart or sports talk radio, I don't know. It seems like "the help" is glorified until it is not, and then it is vilified worse than a piece of rubbish along a two-lane highway.
Thank you! Good luck at the next level! #WPS pic.twitter.com/mUkIoHNP6T
— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) April 14, 2015
Am I a Razorback fan? Not really. All of you should know that I am a proud Reddie by now.
Thanks, Mike! Good luck in the future! #WPS pic.twitter.com/knRXK7IRWE
— A. Cedric Armstrong (@cedteaches) April 15, 2015
You guys need to R-E-L-A-X. Relax. Some 18-year old talent will come to Fayetteville, be widely deified before crucified by a rabid fan base and overbearing news media presence. Stop living in the past and wake up to 2015 when four-year lettermen from the Power Five are more anomaly than otherwise; it's not like you appreciated greatness when Coach Richardson was in your faces with 40 Minutes of Hell and the 1994 national championship. The title-winning 1964 football team doesn't exactly count because it was before UA integrated. Get over a provincial mentality and expand your horizon's beyond the state's borders.
Did I already tell you to relax?
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