RelocatedPatFan
Experienced Starter w/First Big Contract
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This is a long read and while the point is subtle, I appreciate you letting me rant a little. I just wanted to try to make some perspective on the recent ruling (now that I've had a chance to let it settle).
This is a story of Ted Draby, names changes to hide the identity of real people.
Ted Draby was a good middle school kid and loved football. He wasn’t particularly athletic, but he was athletic enough, made great decisions and was loved by all his teammates. Despite his lack of physical gifts, the team did well when he played. During his last year, the coach had a kid that everyone in town loved, Hugh Drenson. The kid had all the physical traits you would want in your, not to mention he was the darling of the town and QB and the coach felt compelled to let him play.
Despite Hugh’s obvious physical advantages, the team played better with Ted and Ted got most of the reps. During Ted’s 8th grade year, even splitting time with Hugh, he was able to lead the team to the county finals and take home the trophy. For the record, county ball is very intense and the people in this are quite rabid about their teams.
Next year in High School, Ted went out for QB, but couldn’t displace the starting Junior. Ted wasn’t always the best student and he was actually failing several classes in 9th grade. Ted’s parents made a decision to have him stay back a year and repeat 9th grade. As Ted wasn’t a big time player, this went unnoticed by most of the people in the county. Sure there were some whispers and rumors that they did this for “other” reasons, but not a big deal was made out of it.
Thus, with Ted’s first freshman year red-shirted, he began his second freshman year as the backup. During the 1t game of the season, the started went down with a fractured leg and Ted was thrust into the starter’s role. Ironically, the team rallied around Ted and they made it to the county finals and won. They even went to the state championship and lost the very last game.
Next year, Ted tore the county up and not only did they take the county, they took the state. At this time, the people in the county started to take notice. This kid really was that good and they had no idea why.
Junior year and Ted was at it again and success seemed assured. They had won the county championship easily enough (big surprise) and the talk about the genius of the coach and QB were obvious to all that watched, but not many people saw the games. Just got their news second hand.
Before moving on to the state level, A story broke by a rival county newspaper, authored by Mark “Run” Bell, a former QB, that Ted was a big time smoker. Nothing too bad, just cigarettes, but this ran counter to his clean cut image and the rules stated that kids on the team had to maintain their health and that meant no smoking. Nobody has ever seen Ted smoke, but he was best buddies with his center who was assumed to be a smoker and people even said he dealt in marijuana.
And now were question everything about Ted and a the story took on a life of it’s own. People in the county were just going nuts and calling for this kids head because he was an avid 3 pack a day smoker. How dare he! There was even a live feed from the state news with Mark “Run” Bell crying about how all the children have been deceived and how their hero has crushed their hopes. The media and people ate it up.
People really wanted to get this right, so Ted was allowed to compete and holy cow, he actually won the whole thing again. Before the investigation concluded, there were leaks galore coming out from the prosecuting team.
Now, it got serious. Not only did Ted “allegedly” smoke, he smoked marijuana and that was illegal. Now this thing was going to trial. The prosecutor argued that Ted would receive unfair treatment in his own county (in that he was wildly popular there) and that prosecution should be moved to another county. Odd, how it didn’t matter that this was a competing county for football, but the masses smelled blood and this was their chance to strike back.
There was overage galore on this thing and everyone in the county (with the exception of Ted’s town) was convinced of his guilt from the bits that were coming out from the “closed” court drama (which was a compromise the defense, attorney Robby Raft, agreed to. The most damning piece of evidence discovered was a message that went from Ted’s center to the equipment manager, where the equipment manager referred to himself as the “reefer”.
With this mass of evidence, Ted was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Now Ted has the right to appeal the ruling and get a reduced sentence. It didn’t matter that Ted was 17 at the time because he’s presently 18 and they figured he was close enough to 18 to be tried as an adult.
Now Robby Raft was a decent enough guy and he thinks his client got railroaded by the system. I mean the equipment guy was called reefer because of this one trip he took to surf in the Caribbean where he wiped out into a reef. Nobody bought that story. Nobody even witnessed Ted (or his center) smoking cigarettes, let alone marijuana.
Did Ted get jobbed? Should people care? Why should it matter which side of the town line you live on for the truth to matter? Fact is it shouldn’t and football isn’t this serious. But, it should matter how people act and they take little accountability in their actions because somehow, someone else suffering make their life better. I mean Ted will probably get out in 1 year with Probation and go on to some collage and get to play some ball, so he’ll be alright…right?
This is a story of Ted Draby, names changes to hide the identity of real people.
Ted Draby was a good middle school kid and loved football. He wasn’t particularly athletic, but he was athletic enough, made great decisions and was loved by all his teammates. Despite his lack of physical gifts, the team did well when he played. During his last year, the coach had a kid that everyone in town loved, Hugh Drenson. The kid had all the physical traits you would want in your, not to mention he was the darling of the town and QB and the coach felt compelled to let him play.
Despite Hugh’s obvious physical advantages, the team played better with Ted and Ted got most of the reps. During Ted’s 8th grade year, even splitting time with Hugh, he was able to lead the team to the county finals and take home the trophy. For the record, county ball is very intense and the people in this are quite rabid about their teams.
Next year in High School, Ted went out for QB, but couldn’t displace the starting Junior. Ted wasn’t always the best student and he was actually failing several classes in 9th grade. Ted’s parents made a decision to have him stay back a year and repeat 9th grade. As Ted wasn’t a big time player, this went unnoticed by most of the people in the county. Sure there were some whispers and rumors that they did this for “other” reasons, but not a big deal was made out of it.
Thus, with Ted’s first freshman year red-shirted, he began his second freshman year as the backup. During the 1t game of the season, the started went down with a fractured leg and Ted was thrust into the starter’s role. Ironically, the team rallied around Ted and they made it to the county finals and won. They even went to the state championship and lost the very last game.
Next year, Ted tore the county up and not only did they take the county, they took the state. At this time, the people in the county started to take notice. This kid really was that good and they had no idea why.
Junior year and Ted was at it again and success seemed assured. They had won the county championship easily enough (big surprise) and the talk about the genius of the coach and QB were obvious to all that watched, but not many people saw the games. Just got their news second hand.
Before moving on to the state level, A story broke by a rival county newspaper, authored by Mark “Run” Bell, a former QB, that Ted was a big time smoker. Nothing too bad, just cigarettes, but this ran counter to his clean cut image and the rules stated that kids on the team had to maintain their health and that meant no smoking. Nobody has ever seen Ted smoke, but he was best buddies with his center who was assumed to be a smoker and people even said he dealt in marijuana.
And now were question everything about Ted and a the story took on a life of it’s own. People in the county were just going nuts and calling for this kids head because he was an avid 3 pack a day smoker. How dare he! There was even a live feed from the state news with Mark “Run” Bell crying about how all the children have been deceived and how their hero has crushed their hopes. The media and people ate it up.
People really wanted to get this right, so Ted was allowed to compete and holy cow, he actually won the whole thing again. Before the investigation concluded, there were leaks galore coming out from the prosecuting team.
Now, it got serious. Not only did Ted “allegedly” smoke, he smoked marijuana and that was illegal. Now this thing was going to trial. The prosecutor argued that Ted would receive unfair treatment in his own county (in that he was wildly popular there) and that prosecution should be moved to another county. Odd, how it didn’t matter that this was a competing county for football, but the masses smelled blood and this was their chance to strike back.
There was overage galore on this thing and everyone in the county (with the exception of Ted’s town) was convinced of his guilt from the bits that were coming out from the “closed” court drama (which was a compromise the defense, attorney Robby Raft, agreed to. The most damning piece of evidence discovered was a message that went from Ted’s center to the equipment manager, where the equipment manager referred to himself as the “reefer”.
With this mass of evidence, Ted was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Now Ted has the right to appeal the ruling and get a reduced sentence. It didn’t matter that Ted was 17 at the time because he’s presently 18 and they figured he was close enough to 18 to be tried as an adult.
Now Robby Raft was a decent enough guy and he thinks his client got railroaded by the system. I mean the equipment guy was called reefer because of this one trip he took to surf in the Caribbean where he wiped out into a reef. Nobody bought that story. Nobody even witnessed Ted (or his center) smoking cigarettes, let alone marijuana.
Did Ted get jobbed? Should people care? Why should it matter which side of the town line you live on for the truth to matter? Fact is it shouldn’t and football isn’t this serious. But, it should matter how people act and they take little accountability in their actions because somehow, someone else suffering make their life better. I mean Ted will probably get out in 1 year with Probation and go on to some collage and get to play some ball, so he’ll be alright…right?
