Amid all the consternation over A.J. Green's situation, the name that keeps coming up the most among disgruntled Georgia supporters is Marcell Dareus.
Dareus is the Alabama defensive end who, like Green, was ruled to have received an improper benefit from someone defined as an agent. Dareus was ruled to have received a greater benefit - nearly $1,800, vs. $1,000 for Green - but the Crimson Tide player only had to sit out two games.
(The improper benefit, in Dareus' case, was a trip to the infamous South Beach party reportedly sponsored by an agent.)
So, what gives, you say?
Dareus' suspension was cut in half by the NCAA because it decided there were "mitigating circumstances." Basically, it decided that there was enough evidence that Dareus didn't know it was an agent-sponsored party. He claimed that a friend gave him the trip to cheer him up after the death of his mother.
In Green's case, the NCAA apparently decided there weren't enough mitigating circumstances. Let's take the jersey-buyer's associations out of it. (Chris Hawkins has denied he works for any agents, but the NCAA defined him as one anyway.) Even if Hawkins wasn't an agent, or he was but Green didn't know, the NCAA decided that Green knew (or should've known) that receiving money for his game-worn jersey was an improper benefit.
That leads to the next common question: Why would Green get a harsher penalty when his improper benefit was a little more than half of Dareus'?
The answer to that is in the NCAA's sliding-scale guideline. Anything over $500 falls under the four-game penalty statue.
Is that fair? Good question. But for whatever reason those are the guidelines the NCAA has established.
Green's case is analogous to another one that came down the pike this week: Middle Tennessee quarterback Dwight Dasher was suspended four games for receiving a $1,500 loan.
Meanwhile, just remember that it could be worse. South Carolina's Weslye Saunders remained in limbo until he was finally dismissed from the team this week. And North Carolina still has a slew of players awaiting rulings.
But I'm sure that's only a little solace to Green, or Georgia fans.
Friday, September 17, 2010
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8 comments:
Seth -- Just to be clear it was not a "trip" for Dareus, rather it was trip(s). He actually was flown to South Beach twice. So, all of the BS about his mother dying as a mitigating circumstance is just that -- BS. I don't know if you have lost your mother, but I have lost mine within the last few years, unexpectedly, and I sure as hell didn't feel like rounding up the posse and flying off to South Beach during the middle of it all. I guess we all grieve differently and if that is Marcel's process then so be it, but he and the NCAA should spare us all of the crap about he didn't know what he was doing because he was so distraught. Or, that he was ignorant about his friend on the UNC football team flying him down there. That seems plausible, sure. I mean, most CFB athletes have the kind of jack lying around to fly they and their friends off to South Beach -- twice. Yep, Marcel's ignorance and naiveté is excused, but AJ should have known that the Facebook guy was an Agent. Please. Marcel is the Henry Hill of the agent affair, plain and simple. He sung to the NCAA once he knew the jig was up and the first one to go into the program gets a lighter sentence.
Folks, I know this is a very frustrating issue, and a frustrating time. But I've had to delete a few comments. So please, keep it clean.
Also, putting a dollar sign instead of an 's' does not count.
My father died from a heart attack when I was an undergrad at UGA. It was a blow. You know what I did on weekends? I went home to Atlanta every weekend in a row for 2+ months because I figured my mother needed me. After a couple of months it was time for Spring Break. My friends were going to Panama City. I didn't want to miss out on the fun so I chose to go to the beach. I chose it because it would be fun; I was a college student after all. So forgive me for being blunt but I think Marcel Dareus is just milking his mother's death for his own convenience.
Didn't the South Carolina players who stayed in hotel for the whole summer receive more than $500 in benefits?
How is it that the NCAA comes down so hard on selling a jersey, but has no power over criminal activity that goes unpunished. Yes - AJ should be suspended (2 games max) because he broke the rules and he should know better. But if the NCAA isn't straining gnats and swallowing camels - I don't know who is.
CROATIADAWG
I'm going with the 'we ran all over Tech and beat Auburn without AJ' meme. Can we all calm down?
Not to trivialize the death of Dareus's mother but something tells me that these "mitigating circumstances" involved Dareus rolling over on all the NC players, A.J., and Saunders for a suspension reduction. I am not excusing A.J.'s behavior but something tells me he didn't have the same bargaining chip.
I wish Richt would just kick him off the team.
AJ is getting exactly what he deserves.
Like everybody has said, it's too bad Dareus didn't.
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