Posted on Sun, Feb. 05, 2006
FL GUV JB RLY KSES UP 2 YNG MRBY FRED GRIMM
Jeb wants to hang with Myron.
When you come to Tallahassee again, let's hook up with each other, the Guv suggested.
It was something of a miracle that Myron Rolle even noticed Gov. Bush's text message, given that his cellphone was being inundated with scores of fawning missives every day, most of them from the 83 different universities recruiting his services.
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The governor's new homeboy, of course, is a senior at a New Jersey high school. Myron's reported to be a very good student, but, more important to Gov. Bush, Florida State University and thousands of whacked-out Seminole fans, he's considered one of the best high school football players in the nation.
Naturally, the Guv wants to hook up.
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The news that a governor had joined the unseemly solicitation of high school athletes came out during testimony last month before the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, when Rolle added his experiences to testimony describing mad, sleazy, expensive, out-of-control recruiting tactics.
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David Ridpath, professor of sports administration at Mississippi State University and director of the Drake Group, which seeks to replace corruption in college athletics with academic integrity, was stunned to learn that a governor had leaped into the recruiting muck. Bush, he told me, was using his prestige to reinforce that grand illusion foisted on young athletes: What they do on a playing field transcends academics and the other mundane pursuits that occupy lesser mortals. (The Guv knows that he won't garner much publicity by sending text messages to New Jersey's merit scholars.)
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But the Gators, who also coveted Myron Rolle, could hardly compete with a text message suggesting that the defensive back, between games of course, could hang out with the Guv. ''Doesn't a governor have anything better to do?'' Ridpath wondered.
''You wonder what's next, Ridpath said. ``A message from the governor's brother?'' U want stop by Wite Hus next time in DC?
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13787947.htm