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Ex-Notre Dame RB Allen Pinkett: Irish need ‘criminals’ to succeed [UPDATE]
UPDATE (2:14 EDT): Bryan Fischer of CBS Sports tweets that Allen Pinkett will not participate in the Notre Dame-Navy broadcast, but has not been sent home.
IMG says Allen Pinkett will not broadcast the ND game in Ireland this weekend. He is in Dublin however, after traveling with team today.—
Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) August 30, 2012
We wouldn’t have believed it if we didn’t hear the actual audio (available here), but in a radio interview with 670 The Score in Chicago on Wednesday, former Notre Dame running back — and current Irish radio analyst — Allen Pinkett said that his alma mater needs to have some “criminals” on its roster in order to succeed.
Here are some choice tidbits:
“I’ve always felt like, to have a successful team, you gotta have a few bad citizens on the team. I mean, that’s how Ohio State used to win all the time. They would have two or three guys that were criminals. That just adds to the chemistry of the team. I think Notre Dame is growing because maybe they have some guys that are doing something worthy of a suspension, which creates edge on the football team. You can’t have a football team full of choir boys. You get your butt kicked if you have a team full of choir boys. You gotta have a little bit of edge, but the coach has to be the dictator and ultimate ruler.”
And:
“I don’t want any mass murders or rapists. I want guys that maybe get caught drinking that are underage, or guys that maybe got arrested because they got in a fight at a bar, or guys that are willing to cuss in public and don’t mind the repercussions of it. That’s the type of criminal I’m talking about.”
And:
“Chemistry is so important on a football team. You have to have a couple of bad guys that sort of teeter on that edge to add to the flavor of the guys that are going to always do right. … You look at the teams that have one in the past. They always have a couple of criminals.”
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick issued a terse response to Pinkett’s comments: “Allen Pinkett’s suggestion that Notre Dame needs more ‘bad guys’ on its football team is nonsense. Of course, Allen does not speak for the University, but we could not disagree more with this observation.”
UPDATE: Sounds as if Pinkett might be suspended from his radio job. Here’s a statement from Notre Dame IMG College Sports Network, courtesy Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune:
"The Notre Dame IMG Network is extremely disappointed in the comments made by Allen Pinkett in his radio interview. …—
Eric Hansen (@hansenNDInsider) August 30, 2012
"We completely disagree with those comments. As his employer, we will be determining disciplinary action to be taken."—
Eric Hansen (@hansenNDInsider) August 30, 2012
And an apology from Pinkett:
And this from Pinkett himself: ""In reviewing my remarks from a radio interview Wednesday, it's clear that I chose my words poorly …—
Eric Hansen (@hansenNDInsider) August 30, 2012
… and that an apology is in order for these inappropriate comments. My words do not reflect the strong pride and passion …—
Eric Hansen (@hansenNDInsider) August 30, 2012
… I have for the Notre Dame football program. … "I understand that there may be consequences to my actions …—
Eric Hansen (@hansenNDInsider) August 30, 2012
and accept whatever discipline is imposed."
Again statement from #NotreDame radio analyst Allen Pinkett.—
Eric Hansen (@hansenNDInsider) August 30, 2012
Don't they already have a few guys STEALING scholarships posing as football players, LOL?!
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LikeMay 12, 2012:
Quarterback Tommy Rees is arrested for public intoxication, underage consumption, and resisting arrest. Linebacker Carlo Calabrese was also charged with public intoxication. Seems like they already have this taken care of, Mr. Pinkett.
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LikeND and people who pull for ND are in fantasy land!!! ND will never be BCS champ again... Those were the 50's 60's .. It's a different world now, and they better get used to be a second rate team. It's like the Romans and Greeks and the Egyptians ruled 2k years ago, but now it's a different world with the US, China and Russia ruling.. And Italy, Egypt and Greece are still there - but that's about it:) Too bad NBC got stuck with them. Nobody really even cares about ND anymore except their alumni and NBC... If it wasnt for NBC's push, nobody even would notice them. If you ask a 17 year old kid today if he would like to go to ND to play, he would most likely say "NDWho?" Get real, and get current...
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LikeCemKitapci1
ND won 2 titles in the 70's. They're last title came in 88', and they were in the mix for a few years thereafter. Your rap about ND being over with is the same thing that people said before Holtz came to ND. You cannot know if a program can resurrect itself. The present paradigm can change fairly quickly. For example, Alabama was down for a while before Saban arrived.
Having said all that ND needs to decide if they want to be in the BCS mix or another Northwestern U. I believe that there is a kernel of truth to what Pinkett said, and people get tired of hearing about the academics standards particularly when they're getting beat by Stanford, which has high standards as well.
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LikeCemKitapci1 Never say never...it could happen again but we'll all be cheering hard for it not to happen of course.
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LikeNotre Dame is still living in the past. They are not the program they once were, and people are delusional to think they are a BCS-type team. With the high academic standards, they're not going to get the top recruits in the country. While I don't agree with the context in what Mr. Pinkett was trying to say, at the same time maybe they do need to lower their standards a little bit to get some of the best players in there. I'm not saying let in the players that have barely above a 2.0, but let them in with a decent ACT or SAT score. As long as they pass, so what if they don't have a 3.5 GPA or above? Most of them are only there to play football anyway.
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LikeBefore I get ripped for not saying academics should a priority, in the real world, unless you're an engineer or a lawyer, most places don't give two poops what your college GPA was. It's your experience that counts.
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LikeSome elite athletes are not going to be college students. Their only goal is to get to the NFL. ND has accepted a few marginal athletes in the past. Churning out pro prospects is not what ND does. ND might never win another National Championship. They would have to change their whole philosophy and align the football program with
SEC schools. NOT gonna happen. . See Tyrann Mathieu LSU. This guy was a Heisman Trophy candidate. He's out at LSU and in a rehab program. Not sure how many classes this kid went to.Probably not many. He will still get a pro tryout. Losing Mathieu didn't effect LSU's national ranking. They just plug another 'thug' in his spot. LSU still ranked No.2 or 3 in the polls. ND loses a Heisman Trophy candidate ? It would have a negative effect on the whole
football program. They wouldn't have another player of Heisman ability to plug that huge hole.
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Likethe truth is not allowed around here
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LikeHis comments seem pretty mild, and have a bit of truth in them, but ND is too sensitive. If he is suspended for making true statements than it is a sign that ND is out of touch and so is the radio station.
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LikeThe truly sad thing is that he is right. It sounds like he was trying to walk the comment back, even as he said it. But the truth of the matter is that Notre Dame will continue to slip into irrelevance as they watch schools all around them bring criminals in.
While the NCAA is busy punishing Penn State over and over again for the grotesque actions of a single retired employee, they gleefully let schools stretch the term 'student athlete' to include individuals who have no business being promoted from 10th grade.
No, Notre Dame does not 'need' this type of player. But they cannot expect to ever win a national championship again, if they do not match the recruiting practices of SEC schools (Vanderbilt excepted)
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