Fitz Toussaint Should Play Saturday, And Get Over It
By: Eric Thomas
Brady Hoke hasn't decided yet if Fitz Toussaint will play against 'Bama on Saturday. Don't you love college football? Of course Hoke knows what he is going to do, has probably told the player, but he must first have a cleansing show of public immolation and indecision indicating how hard he is thinking. Maybe he should draw a circle and get some chains, like Silas in the Da Vinci Code. That would definitely draw some attention to how tortured this choice is.
Fitz Toussaint should play against the Tide and everyone needs to get over it. If you raise your hand in righteous indignation, you need to button it. Toussaint is accused of being young and dumb, which a condition is commonly found among college students. Every coach has to adjudicate these matters themselves, and I understand that some coaches feel the need to be like Bo Pelini and exert draconian control over the students. I don't care. Its Hoke's decision and if Fitz plays, that's fine.
I really hope Hoke doesn't go for some nonsensical symbolic gesture, like not including Toussaint among the starters, and letting him come in on second down. That accomplishes nothing but satiating detractors and those detractors will criticize Hoke regardless. Let the kid play.
Of course, there will be people who spit and shout about the example set for kids. There will be people who scream about the descending destruction of a society seemingly set on sending our moral obligations into the septic tank. When people slap the table screaming, about how this would've never happened in the 'Good old days,' you are listening to an idiot talking.
Let's keep in mind that the crime of drunk driving wasn't actively enforced until around the early 90s. The punishment used to be that the police made you pour out your open intoxicants before sending you on your way. The penalties were relatively minor, seen as kids being kids. It wasn't the unforgivable sin that it is now.
Also, none of the players in antiquity (pre-2000) never had to deal with 24 hour coverage. There was a live sports network on cable, but not 10 of them. Players today also have to deal with bloggers, Twitter account users, Facebookers and Tumblrs. They got space and time to fill, man. These self proclaimed constant columnists with the fantods for gossip and innuendo, any slip, any opportunity to send their own names into the sun on the back of discovered scandal. So don't tell me about the old days. There was no apparatus to snitch on every little thing back then.
Then there are the people who scream about slippery slopes, which is another overused argument. If anything, the standard for conduct has been an uphill climb. College athletes can get away with far less than they used to. Some people will scream about the dangers of being tolerant of Toussaint. When did the word "tolerant" become bad? Did I miss a meeting? Tolerance and patience was a virtuous trait for most of my life. Somewhere along the line tolerance started meaning weakness and I haven't seen anything improve since that standard was adjusted.
Stop taking 18 year old kids and holding them to a ridiculous standard. Kids under twenty make a lot of mistakes. You did, and so did I. Fitz Toussaint should play Saturday and you need to shut up about it.
