Does Sherwood get unfair blame?

[skyscraper]

People having positive feelings about Sherwood & his actions after watching the movie. Not something I expected.

[mustang1108]

I think that after watching pony excess I don't have positive feelings for sherwood, but i do feel that he does get unfairly blammed. There were a lot of alums doing it too and i don't think that I like the fact that we have singled out Sherwood. I feel like there are probably plenty of alums that are still around and still have a big presence to the school that maybe not as involved as Sherwood, but they were just as guilty.

[mrydel]

I want to here the stories of all the people that were screaming for the boosters to stop while the winning was going on. I do not recall a lot of complaining about these people that were ruining the program. We were selling our sole to the devil and we knew it. And we paid the price for it. But nobody stood up and blamed the boosters for the best team that money could buy at that time so I do not understand why we are doing it now. We were the best at being bad. It is over and we are coming back resurrected in another life form that hopefully will put us back in the limelight again.

Again, it was wrong but it was accepted and part of the era that produced great football at SMU, and at the time we all cheered.

[gostangs]

Well we didnt all know - I for sure didnt. I think most fans did not know. We all (innocent fans) paid the price for Sherwood and his buddies to get their rocks off chasing around adolescent athletes. I really dont get how there is anything but disdain for the nasty nine - for sure there should not be sympathy at all for those degenerates.

And it obviously was NOT accepted - since we got the death penalty for it.

[mrydel]

We were on probation when we got the death penalty. Were were on probation a few times in the recent years leading up to the death penalty. We were and perhaps still are the most penalized school in the history of the NCAA. How could someone not know we were cheating. There were news reports of the fancy cars parked outside of the football practice area. How could anyone not know we were cheating. No one raised a stink about it because we were a nationally ranked winning team and everyone else was doing it. Only when the program got shut down did people begin to blame the boosters.

Again, I agree that it was wrong, but there were also wrongs being perpetrated by the competition. And let me again go on record as one that believes we deserved the death penalty and that I have never seen or heard any evidence to show any other school having the equal amount of lack of institutional control exhibited at SMU. But I just do not remember any uproar about the wrong doing while we had a team on the field and were winning.

[Pony Soup]

sherwood comes around the ford

[gostangs]

81, 82 and 83 - i dont think people new at all the extent of what was going on - by later 80's yes - but by then it was too late. And even if they did, what is a fan suppose to do?

I am happy to place blame on the guilty - the losers who paid cash to players and those that approved it. Had they not done that who knows what might have occured - but I do know I would not have missed 2 years of football and probably would have not have had to suffer through 25 years of losing, and my university would not have been a laughing stock. So how anyone can work up any sympathy for any of those guys is beyond me.

[NavyCrimson]

Go to any Top 25 FB program today & look at the parking lots for the athletes. It's hilarious with what you'll see?! LOL!!! It's a joke around here what you'll see in the SC & UCLA parking lots. MBs, Beemers, Caddies, - all of them!

Ahhh - college athletics. SSSHHH ...

[Topper]

Navy Crimson makes the point about his local schools that I have tried to make about UT for years. I have lived in the shadow of UT for more years than I like to admit. The fact is that the Austin community takes care of their players very well. Much of the stuff that we went on probation for back in my time is chicken feed compared to what you see here. You have to remember, if you read the report from the 1981 probation, that we committed such sins as giving a recruit a polaroid photo of himself and allowing an assistant coach to play raquetball with another. UT, Belo, the Houston Chronicle and the Austin Statesman all know what goes on here in Austin but it isnt reported.

[mustang1108]

When I went to visit Alabama my friend gave me a tour of the campus and we walked by one of the dorm parking lots and he stopped to ask me what dorm it was. He then said look around at all h2s and escalades and bmws this is the athletic dorms. Paying players and giving them gifts still goes on. Like Ken andrews said you have to spend money that hasn't changed. Schools just find loopholes like sc with joe mcknights h2 that supposedly was owned by his girlfriend.

[ozfan]

oh please - he absolutely knew it was wrong. He is a sleeze. We dont want anything to do with these guys or their money. Good riddence.

Bet you and Mitch do not live in glass houses.

[SoCal_Pony]

I would hope that most on this board should not view any of these boosters as sympathetic figures. Their actions spoke for themselves.

And your actions, Sarge, speaks volumes about yourself.

I suspect you are a nice and decent person. I also suspect you have never held a top leadership position within a corporation.

If you did, you would realize that things are not always black and white and that sometimes, when the music stops, you are fortunate to be sitting.

I have a lot of sympathy for Sherwood, just as I have a lot of sympathy for SMU. They were unfortunate ones left standing when the music stopped.

[ponyscott]

He and the others if they are all alive, which they are not, should be welcomed back, They have paid their dues after 25 odd years and deserve some slack.

[RednBlue11]

People having positive feelings about Sherwood & his actions after watching the movie. Not something I expected.

thad did a nice job making him look evil turning him blue and putting dollar signs in his eyes...he was mysterious to me but I loved what he was doing. it's just too bad we didnt listen to dickerson and take care of our guys better.

[Nacho]

i'm more amazed at the names that weren't mentioned.
sherwood was basically a bagman for them.

anyway have seen it three times.
people i saw it with last night were amazed at how those involved laugh about it now.
i'm sorry we did it but i'm sorrier we got caught.

long live ron meyer who basically ran a clean program.