That entire post is gold BB, couldn't have said it better!backbreaker said:i mean, how can i say this..
i don't necessarily think banging a pretty hot 25 year old is a "mistake". I think he knew damn well what he was doing and would probably do it again, as well as a lot of people who say they would not would.
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i'm not saying it's right or wrong, that's jsut how i feel. unless he's going around telling people that it's okay to cheat, i really don't see the big deal and it doesn't mean that i can't still have professional or even personal respect for the man.
I think that cheating is one of those areas where Europeans and Americans really show off their differences (good luck talking about "Western Civilization" as homogenous).
In France, Francois Mitterrand had an acknowledged love child, yet easily stayed in power for 14 years, becoming France's longest serving president. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi's extra-marrital affairs did not interfere with his political life. Even though he was vilified by the left, no one suggested his affairs would force him out of office.
By contrast, in the US, anytime a public figure gets caught cheating the media is calling for his head. Please give me one rational argument why the Arkansas coach, or Anthony Wiener for that matter, cannot keep his job. He's getting paid to draw Xs and Os on a white board. As long as he can deliver Ws, who cares how many 25 y.o. he takes on motorcycle rides?
Please don't give me the "coach as educator" argument, because if the NCAA really cared about educating it's student-athletes, John Calipari, the ultimate cheater--because his cheating involved his job, because his cheating cost his employer, and because he is a repeat offender--would be out of a job. Instead, he is being paraded all over Kentucky at the moment...
"Kids look up to him..." Surely they look up to JFK Jr., whose picture can be found in thousands of schools across the land, a lot more for moral guidance. And yet the great man was cheating on his wife on Tiger-levels.
In the final analysis, it just seems to me that the US view of cheating public figures is very hypocritical...