Bob Orr, Colossal Jackass

Big Four Rivals Media UNC Scandal53

The UNC football program’s public, clownish implosion has provided us with so much sweet, sweet schadenfruede that it has its own SFN category. Neat, huh? It’s almost to the point that nothing can possibly surprise me anymore. And I only say “almost” because of the surreal idiocy and chutzpah spewed by former NC Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr this morning. No, I can’t possibly excerpt it. Read the whole arrogant, stupid, obnoxious thing.

In a state whose politicos of note include Mike Easley, Jim Black, Lauch Faircloth, and “Johnny” Edwards – it takes a lot to stand out as a moron of questionable character. But congratulations, Bob Orr – you’ve done it. In one arrangement of paragraphs (I hesitate to even call it a column), he manages to absolve a blatant cheater of a player, cheater of a coach, and cheater of an athletic program from so much as a scintilla of personal responsibility. It’s apparently not McAdoo’s fault that a non-retarded GROWN MAN would turn in a paper that he cut and pasted from old books and the internet (and still needed the “above and beyond” tutor to do the bibliography for him). Pssst, hey Bob – my daughters did their own bibliographies for a school project last year. In fourth f-cking grade. They also know that they can’t cut and paste Wikipedia articles and pass it off as their own work. Imagine that!

It’s also not Butch Davis’ fault. UNC begged him to take their job. The man is a veritable modern-day Mother Theresa! But no, just because he strove to provide his masters with a winning football program (15-17 in ACC play before several sure-to-be-vacated wins are subtracted – oopsie-daisy)…he suffers on the cross for the sins of the modern college athletics world. Poor, poor Butch. I’m sure it’s no comfort whatsoever that he netted over two and a half million in hush money (about triple what Jim Tressel got), with absolutely no requirement to cooperate with the NCAA investigation (as Tressel must do). He suffers for our sins, brothers.

Oh, and it’s not UNC’s fault, either. Why? Well, because it’s just not, damn it. Bob Orr says so!! I suppose he has fellow worthless sack of monkey shit Bill (“Can’t we all just link arms and move on”) Friday lined up tomorrow to talk about how the UNC scandal reflects a broken set of priorities for everyone…despite the fact that countless other programs (such as…you know…Tom O’Brien at NC State) actually eschew shortcuts and impose real, honest-to-God discipline when rules are broken. I sleep pretty well at night knowing that none of our wins will be vacated. Not that the likes of Orr and Friday won’t probably try some stunt like demanding that all UNC system institutions vacate wins in order to show solidarity for their “brothers” in the broken landscape of major college athletics.

It saddens me to admit that I voted for Bob Orr, multiple times. I’m every bit as ashamed of that as I am that I sported a John Edwards bumper sticker in 1998 (thankfully, I moved to Virginia that September and couldn’t vote for him). But at least I own up to those mistakes, and figured “Johnny’s” phony act out by the time he ran for President. I can only hope I have a similar chance at redemption, and can vote against Bob Orr someday. Although he probably enjoys the perks associated with being one of UNC football’s most prominent “Flat Earthers” too much.

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

Big Four Rivals Media UNC Scandal

53 Responses to Bob Orr, Colossal Jackass

  1. packof81 08/02/2011 at 10:08 AM #

    What a series of detonations. The hits just keep on coming. And all this for a ho-hum team.

  2. runwiththepack 08/02/2011 at 10:12 AM #

    Oh! Almost forgot! Per my post above – expose the Chapel HIll junta for the lock they hold (scratch that – HELD) on the media.

    Isn’t it funny that in Raleigh a (self-proclaimed) state fan ran to the N&O last year regarding Tracy Smith’s illegal parking, but there is rarely anyone in Chapel Hill inclined to/brave enough to challenge the UNC machine? How many parking in handicapped tix did those 9 football players, alone, get in Chapel Hill?

    How wonderful that the NC media seemingly just recently learned its lesson about over-hyping these scandals – like they over-hyped the Valvano thing and the Duke lacrosse. Gee, i wonder what prompted them to learn to apply proper perspective and scale to these matters, suddenly?

  3. runwiththepack 08/02/2011 at 10:24 AM #

    Thank you, Deems Mays and Bob Orr. The front-page furor of UNC scandal had actually subsided – we had fluffy articles about the new coach, the coach K “thing” – until ya’ll pitched in and helped keep foolishness on the front pages.
    Mays and Orr have done their part. Now it’s up to someone else to keep things rolling over there.

  4. Clarksa 08/02/2011 at 11:05 AM #

    Damn BJD, don’t sugarcoat things…tell us how you really feel!

  5. hoop 08/02/2011 at 11:17 AM #

    This has been the greatest summer in history! The hits just keep coming.

    I saw a response to Orr’s hogwash on the N&O board that sums things up pretty nicely. From gray_wolf, here it is:

    I hardly see the young man as a victim of an evil system. Yes, he has special skills and worked hard to improve or maintain them. For those skills he was awarded a full ride and special academic assistance. He failed to take advantage of his special circumstances and, according to the story, was guilty of violating the honor code. The NCAA found it very serious. He chose to violate the honor code. No one forced him to do it. The kid is just a “poor, dumb jock the system has taken advantage of” argument is pure hooey. He failed to take advantage of a great opportunity.

    Cry me a river about having to work 30 hours/week. There are a bunch of us who worked at least 30 hours a week and didn’t get tutoring, free room and board, spending money and a shot at a lucrative pro contract. If the kid was being used by “the man” then he should have quit football and gone through like the rest of us. Anyone who wants great sympathy for this young man or others who cheat are doing them and the University a disservice.

    Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/02/1384557/mcadoo-is-not-isolated-case.html#ixzz1Tt1jyHkd

  6. packhammer 08/02/2011 at 11:39 AM #

    Orr is wrongheaded. But he does manage to raise some issues worthy of discussion.

    He seems to make two arguemnts: (1) They never should have accepted McAdoo because he did not realistically have the potential to succeed at the college level. And, (2) Once they did accept him, UNC failed him because they did not provide enough real academic support. This, Mr. Orr concludes is an indictment of the academic side of the house, not the athletic people such as Butch Davis, who was hired to bring big time football the school. In other words, the athletic department and the admissions and academic programs are completely misaligned. I think we already knew that.

    Orr’s indictment comes down to this: Athletes at UNC are getting special admission treatment, poor academic support, and apparently are being carried through the system by tutors who help them do the minimum necessary to stay in school but they never really learn that much for themselves.

    This charge is what Thorp is confronted with investigating at UNC, not every other college and university. UNC has held itself out as a great academic institution (“Harvard of the South”) and so he is having to face up to what they really are and what they want to be going forward. Yes a review of the African Studies program must be done as part of this. Holden Thorp has a big problem if he is honest about the task. And I think he may just be. That is why he fired Butch Davis at what everyone says was the “worst possible time”.

    We should wish Thorp good luck with his effort. I hope he does not take Orr’s easy way out: Everybody does it. I do not believe that everyone does it. Which is not to say that others will not learn some lessons from this experience. But when your actions don’t measure up to your “Carolina Way” words, sooner or later you are going to have a problem.

  7. Hungwolf 08/02/2011 at 11:42 AM #

    I think Bob Orr should publicly call for an independent investigation to see if these athletes at UNC really qualified under NCAA, ACC, and UNC System guidelines. The ACC office should investigate if UNC has been admitting partial qualifiers. Maybe he is right in it is time UNC-CH-eat be held accountable for something!

  8. highstick 08/02/2011 at 11:49 AM #

    “This is a tacit admission that athletes go to UNC that have no business being there. And yet somehow, they all get sparkling grades in the classroom””

    What’s the big deal? They have a fantastic graduation rate over in Chapel Hole! Does that also “tell you something” about that success rate?

    Just a thought..did Dwight Jones’ academic records just disappear??

  9. WolfpackerClass83 08/02/2011 at 11:54 AM #

    Jackass? Probably not. Extreme advocate for a position he became married to months ago and defended in the media right before the “board monkeys” blew up the McAdoo farce – yes.

    Most telling stat of all – over 50% of football players over the last 6 years had to be admitted through a special commitee. Wow.

    Would be interesting to see how many of the 23+/- recruits in the class they just scammed onto campus (before booting BMFD) fall in this category. And then how many will fall in that category in the 2012 class….

    We are all aware of what happens when the pendulum swings back to the other extreme….. Here’s to 15 to 20 years of football mediocrity!

  10. GAWolf 08/02/2011 at 12:18 PM #

    The problem isn’t giving a kid a chance to succeed through extraordinary exception not offered to regular students as much as it is cheating the system to keep them there.

    Many kids who get in when they otherwise wouldn’t or couldn’t (even if financially as the beneficiary of a scholarship) make the best of the many advantages provided to them and actually earn an education. You cannot punish those kids, hopefully the majority at most schools, and deprive them of that opportunity to succeed in life just because some cannot hack it.

    Instead of cheating them through, throw them out. Give them the opportunity and the advantages and give them a chance to succeed. I’m okay with that. Just don’t teach them that rules don’t apply to them as it sets them up for failure later in life.

  11. BJD95 08/02/2011 at 12:39 PM #

    ^ Amen, brother. I actually AGREE with the notion that these kids get a chance they wouldn’t ordinarily otherwise get. That’s also something from Valvano. He was big on giving kids a chance to succeed.

    But the CHANCE to succeed also means there’s a chance to fail, and to blindly look away from shortcomings in order to keep the gravy train rolling? Well, that’s corrupt, sets a terrible example for other players, and ultimately does a disservice to the student athlete in question. Plus it makes a mockery of your academic integrity.

  12. MP 08/02/2011 at 12:46 PM #

    “Here’s to 15 to 20 years of football mediocrity!”

    I don’t think it has really occurred to me until now – But UNC may be on the verge of becoming “the Duke of the ACC”.

  13. Greywolf 08/02/2011 at 12:52 PM #

    In the budget crunch will Swahili be a casualty? I ain’t bettin’ Grandma’s farm on it.

  14. BJD95 08/02/2011 at 1:11 PM #

    After all is said and done, I hope Hole football makes Duke’s program look like LSU.

  15. baxter 08/02/2011 at 1:52 PM #

    “All we have to do is sit back and chronicle it so that our kid’s kids never have to hear their 5th grade classmate who has a name ending in a roman numeral yap about how UNC is somehow superior to any other institution of higher learning in our great State.”

    As an IV, I resent this. However, it is totally appropriate.

  16. baxter 08/02/2011 at 1:56 PM #

    I agree, that its a good story to give someone a chance and help them better themselves. However, the way UNC seems to approach it completely discredits the way a hardworking student athlete goes about it elsewhere.

    When over half your admitted football athletes could never remotely qualify, yet still manage to graduate at a clip of 75%, that says something. Clearly, they have the greatest tutoring system ever (though our own is highly awarded and yields only what, 55% graduation in football with way more kids actually qualifying?)

  17. blpack 08/02/2011 at 1:58 PM #

    Orr is like a child who didn’t get his way and is complaining. No responsibility taken by him, the player, UNC-ch, etc. Must be the NCAA system. The smell from Chapel Hill only gets worse and the source is rotten to the core. The whole place is a sham.

  18. JSRy2k 08/02/2011 at 2:04 PM #

    “Orr is right about one thing….the kids were pawns in the larger problem. Unfortunately the problem starts and stops with the arrogance that is UNC.” (GAWolf)

    Yep, UNC is the pimp prostituting the kids in their football program. Very few of the student-athletes will actually make it in the NFL, and those who were cheated through school will be ill-prepared to succeed in life. But even those that make millions in The League will risk losing it all if they are not savvy enough to handle the money wisely, and so even some of those that go pro will likewise be ruined by the whorehouse.

    The issue is not only despicable from an athletic competition standpoint, it’s also a foul injustice which needs to be righted to the very roots of the problem.

  19. wufpup76 08/02/2011 at 2:08 PM #

    You actually bring up some points worthy of discussion in your tactical ruse, Mr. Orr … But the complete absolution of nearly all parties involved belies your stance.

    Stripping away every shred of personal responsibility and accountability is something I will never agree with.

    You’re just on board with enabling more ‘I am a victim’ behaivor. Enablers suck. Enablers suck huge b*lls.

  20. JSRy2k 08/02/2011 at 5:08 PM #

    @wufpup76 – Yes, the line to the effect of ‘Butch Davis can’t be expected to look after academics’ is utterly laughable. Hey Orr, Butch is THE man responsible for his student-athletes, whether or not he likes the student part!

  21. Pack Mentality 08/02/2011 at 8:31 PM #

    I read it and thought the whole thing was a huge indictment of UNC football overall, and saying McAdoo was so stupid that he believed all the lies Butch and the UNC admins told him. They then threw him under the bus when all he was doing was following coach’s orders.

    He then tries to throw in the “everybody does it” card, but that one sentence does not make up for the rest of the column in which Carolina is being trashed. He’s basically saying McAdoo was screwed, it’s UNC’s fault and uses the entire column to tell you why – then throws in that qualifying statement.

  22. Virginia Wolf 08/02/2011 at 9:12 PM #

    Is it Friday yet???? Hang on boys, this is going to get ugly!!!

  23. rlgray 08/02/2011 at 9:17 PM #

    Unfortunately, it is arrogant not arrogrant.

  24. lonepacker 08/02/2011 at 10:15 PM #

    just read Orr’s thoughts … i think he is being critical of the Chancellor and others in the academic community for lack of control

  25. ShavlikLeague 08/02/2011 at 10:41 PM #

    Just noticed that the N&O pulled the comments section…there were at least 10 or so comments as of earlier today. Just went back to read some more (they were THOROUGHLY entertaining) and I noticed “0 Comments” listed.

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