I read the entire article and I couldn’t stomach finding much more about this lawyer cat. After reading a few of his barbs and slings, in a perfect world for him- hip hop should have never made it to it’s current popularity. He seems to blame dreadlocks for preventing kids from studying. He seems to blame Snoop Dogg for slanging cocaine, a’la Jimmy Johns. He seems to blame universities for not reading his book and that’s why therein lies the permissive authorities and coaches that enables BLACK athletes (this homegrown sure as hell wasn’t talking about ALL athletes, he was just watching out for HIS OWN) to follow the paths toward criminality.

What a retard this guy is. (sidenote: throughout my childhood, I grew up with 2 fantastic black male mentors. 1 for AP physics and 1 for Jeet Kun Do – martial art form. they both are still a part of my life, after 14 years)

Buzzwords like “that element” and statements that start with a disclaimer like, “I love rap music but…” telegraph the perspective this guy is offering. Snoop hasn’t led a blameless life (being human and all), but his appearance along the sidelines isn’t an endorsement of bad choices he’s made along the way; I’m sure PC makes that clear to his players.

I think that Mr Jackson has a fair underlying point – that universities tolerate or cover up behavior from athletes because the university stands to gain from their efforts. However, after that it becomes too complex to really follow through with what he appears to want. It appears that he thinks that the universities are committing a sin of omission, at best, by not working against the negative elements of “urban” culture (wherein urban is a code for poor African American), but doesn’t pause to think about the broader ramifications of a university trying to reprogram young adults according to his precepts. More specifically, I mean that I am bothered by his willingness to let the university impose standards of conduct in a way that would have been absolutely decried for being paternalistic and racist, 30 years ago.

This is not to say that bad behavior should be tolerated, but I don’t see the solution as being the university not having hip-hop artists around. The university can and should set standards of behavior, but at the same time, the university can’t be held culpable for all societal failings to which their football players are exposed prior to joining up to play football. Any one person can change their lives as an adult, but it’s more effective to come up doing the right thing, and short of replicating the Neighborhood Academic Initiative for athletes – which is probably a grab-bag of NCAA violations waiting to happen – I’m not sure what the university can do to intervene when it would be more likely to count.

which caters to a lot of inner city kids. He may not be the greatest influence, but is it fair to write the man off as a complete bad influence without walking in his shoes.

I have way more of a problem with Suge Knight, and OJ Simpson being allowed near the team than Snoop.