An A-PARENT Problem in College

LaMar Griffin didn't play college football at U.S.C. He didn't even attend U.S.C. However, LaMar Griffin is one of the main reasons the U.S.C. Trojans are sitting on probation with a two-year bowl ban and a loss of 30 football scholarships.

Who is LaMar Griffin? Reggie Bush's stepfather.

It's been well documented by now that Reggie's stepfather and mother, Denise Griffin lived in a house in San Diego registered to a 'wanna-be' sports marketer and agent. This was one of many red flags to anybody interested in bringing down the U.S.C. football program (namely Yahoo!Sports, the NCAA, the UCLA Bruin mascot etc...).

Flash forward to 2010. Cecil Newton is the man's name. Father to Cam Newton is his game. Reports and allegations have been all over the news the past week claiming Cecil Newton along with another 'wanna-be' agent began to market the services of his son to various schools in the SEC Conference.

Is it just me or is the common theme in these two stories, poor parental values? I understand not everyone is raised in the perfect environment. However, even when the economic or social climate is not favorable, the one thing these kids should be able to lean on in hard times is parental guidance and morals from a mother, a father, a step dad or a grandmother.

Cam Newton and Reggie Bush are elite athletes. Unfortunately with elite status comes attention and dollar signs. All of a sudden you become more than just a football player, you become a commodity. A revenue producer. You now have leverage. The question is what do you do with that leverage? There are plenty of schools and agents that have a promise and a plan. So what is an 18 to 22 year old to do now? Logic would dictate that you turn to your parents for moral support and guidance. "Moral?" Sounds rather ironic in these two cases.

How would things be different if Lamar Griffin and Denise Griffin had just said to Reggie, "son, I don't think we should take this man's money. I think as a family we can wait until you declare for the NFL. What's another 12 months?" Or how about, "Reggie, this isn't right. You are putting the USC program in jeopardy if wind of these payments get out." Where was the voice of reason on Reggie's right shoulder, while the devil had his ear on the left?

The same could be said for Cam Newton's father. Cecil Newton could have squashed all these potential problems with five simple words, "We Aren't Interested In Money."

Whether you are a student-athlete, a Heisman candidate or just a regular kid taking classes on campus, you arrive day one with the morals instilled from your home life. Reggie Bush and Cam Newton became larger than life stars. They became targets by people looking to make money off their success. It's just sad that those people were their parents...

(PLEASE FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER: @kidcue)

The Cost of Change

Sports fan are fickle by nature. We love to love and love to hate, and that's just in the first half of a ballgame. The minute players stop performing, we have one of two options: blame the player or blame the guy coaching the player. Typically player blame is only good for a game or two. After that, it has to be the coach, and we demand change.

Fans love to launch websites that start with http://www.fire---------.com/. It's therapeutic. Somehow we feel like we are part of the process in getting a coach fired. We post angry comments on team message boards with the hopes of rallying a fan base. Some of us even send email after email to local sports talk radio hosts hoping their complaints make it over the airwaves. (Now who would do such a thing like that??)

We must ask ourselves as fans - do we think owners or athletic directors read those boards? Do they listen to those radio stations? Perhaps some might, but more often than not, firings become financial decisions. How much will it cost them to fire this coach? How much will it cost them to get a new guy in here? Will I lose my fan base if change isn't made? Afterall, if fans get so angry that change isn't made and don't show up and spend money, it can cost you down the road (see Dallas Cowboys).

In the Atlanta area alone there are plenty of case studies. Paul Hewitt at Georgia Tech (better known as Teflon Don, once details of his contract were exposed), can't get fired because his contract has a unique clause that automatically renews him for 6-years...every year! If the school wants to dump him, they will have to pay him 6-years worth of salary at $1.35 million per year! So basically Tech fans are stuck without change.

On the pro level, the Atlanta Hawks decided to fill their recent coaching vacancy by shopping at WalMart where they found Larry Drew on sale for about $1.2 Million. This makes him the lowest paid coach in the NBA. Good news for Hawks fans, it's only a 2-year deal and if they want to make a change, it's an easier pill to swallow than coach Hewitt's at GA Tech.

Over in Athens, Georgia, Bulldog fans don't know what to do with themselves. They aren't happy with Mark Richt...of late, but unless they know they can land a 'flavor of the month' replacement, they don't want to take a chance. Or it could just be the fact that the athletic department would have to stroke Richt a check for $5 million to make a change.

Just last week we saw across this great nation in the midterm elections, it's human nature to want change. When things don't feel good we expect it. We demand change. How did the GOP accomplish this change? Was it in the message or in the money?

They say sports often mirrors society. It's clear that change is en vogue right now. Coaches are no different then congressmen or senators. If we want change, it's going to cost us!