
{"id":20317,"date":"2011-08-18T12:40:19","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T16:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=20317"},"modified":"2011-08-18T12:40:31","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T16:40:31","slug":"support-the-players-by-filling-kenan-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/08\/18\/support-the-players-by-filling-kenan-stadium\/","title":{"rendered":"Support the players by filling Kenan Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/08\/18\/support-the-players-by-filling-kenan-stadium\/landreth-mug-30\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20318\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"landreth-mug\" width=\"100\" height=\"134\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-20318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1-84x113.jpg 84w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1-74x100.jpg 74w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>By Eddy Landreth<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The dilemma is not a simple one.<\/p>\n<p>Forget the propaganda coming from UNC officials concerning the reaction to the firing of football coach Butch Davis. The administration claims it has been fairly split between those for and those against the firing. <\/p>\n<p>No way.<\/p>\n<p>The response has been decidedly in favor of Davis and against the actions of Chancellor Holden Thorp and the board of trustees.<\/p>\n<p>The people who give their hearts and their money to Carolina football are angry. The question is how to express this anger toward Thorp and the board of trustees while not simultaneously harming the players, whom these folks wish to support.<\/p>\n<p>The first impulse by many is to stay home on Saturdays and let the gleaming aluminum serve as their vote against the destruction of UNC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s football program. As attractive as that option may seem, the end result would only serve to punish the players, who have been punished enough already.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If the fans don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come to the games, they are not supporting us,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d senior wide receiver Dwight Jones said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We do a lot of hard work. We want to put on a show for the fans.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Playing college football in the 21st century requires nearly 12 months of grueling work. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s running sprints and lifting weights in January and February; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s banging on one another in spring practice; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing an unholy amount of work beneath the record-breaking heat of another Carolina summer, well before August camp begins.<\/p>\n<p>It is also the public humiliation of being portrayed as a renegade program filled with young men bordering on being criminals.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have been through a lot,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jones said.<\/p>\n<p>There is no doubt that some of it has been self-inflicted. A handful of players cheated in school and\/or took improper benefits from agents or their representatives. But there are 85 young men on scholarship at Carolina. A year ago, three \u00e2\u20ac\u201c only three \u00e2\u20ac\u201c took large sums of money from people outside the program.<\/p>\n<p>Around 14 or 15 percent were accused of cheating, but only about 8 percent were actually determined to have committed academic fraud. The others were pronounced guilty but eventually were found innocent.<\/p>\n<p>Now the man who rejuvenated a program beaten into the ground by the administration in the years following Mack Brown\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exodus to Texas has been removed, although he was not named in the NCAA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s allegations.<\/p>\n<p>But brooding about this and lingering on it as these players prepare to start another season is not going to bring Davis back. Staying home will not force Thorp or anyone on the board of trustees to resign.<\/p>\n<p>The young men who have chosen to remain at UNC are the same ones who picked Carolina over many of the Tar Heels\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 biggest rivals and some of the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most prominent football programs.<\/p>\n<p>Sophomore offensive lineman James Hurst started at left tackle throughout his freshman year. Outside of quarterback, there may be no tougher spot on the field to play as a freshman. There is not one school in the country that Hurst could have chosen and not been welcomed with open arms.<\/p>\n<p>And he is just one of many excellent athletes Davis and his former staff brought to Chapel Hill to breathe new life into Carolina football. Their wish is that the fans will remember this and come to Kenan Stadium this fall and help them realize the dream they shared when they chose UNC.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Obviously, we want them to come support us,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hurst said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re playing for the University of North Carolina. That is what we do, regardless of who is coaching. I can understand people are upset, the timing and everything. [But] it happened. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s over.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>These youngsters are the reason it is important for the fans to put on their blue shirts and hats and fill Kenan Stadium on Saturdays, regardless of whether they withhold their donations or how many letters and emails they write to the administration.<\/p>\n<p>Now is the time for all those who genuinely care about Carolina football to do what the administration has not \u00e2\u20ac\u201c support the players and coaching staff who are working so hard to keep the program afloat.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the University of North Carolina, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re playing to represent them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hurst said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The dilemma is not a simple one. Forget the propaganda coming from UNC officials concerning the reaction to the firing of football coach Butch Davis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":20318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[431],"class_list":["post-20317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20317"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20381,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20317\/revisions\/20381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}