Like most things in life there’s probably some grey area here and an argument for both sides.
Out of principal, It’s awfully ballsy in the world we live in today to punish someone for being philanthropic, even if the philanthropist is taking such action at least in part out of his own pride and benefit (winning). Throwing that lifeline to some who are probably at or below poverty level is admirable. It’s especially true when you live in the richest nation that’s ever existed even though the majority have to deal with the day to day reality that your dollar goes about 2% as far as it did 100 years ago. Not going political as all sides of our government are culpable. Reality is a guy like TB, who has more resources than most, has the opportunity to invest in kids and show a path to success they’ve maybe never been shown before. Not speaking for him but I’m sure there’s a large portion of his actions rooted in life experience relative to what he lived through or saw others around him experience.
On the other side is the reality that any sort of clearance of compliance was not followed, or he was provided poor direction due to a systematic failure of the school, his own stupidity, or both. Agree with the rules or not, the end result of this is trending in a way where the benefit of his actions is far outweighed by the consequence. Was there a point where he thought this could go sideways and in the end the kids will eat the **** sandwich. I realize I’m an old school middle aged guy but the pomp and circumstance, resources, and general vibe around athletics is insane compared to where it was 25-30 years ago. Along with that is the money programs burn through. The other question is how did he go about spreading the wealth? From what I’ve heard it sounds like he could have gone about this differently and it may have never come to light or at least the magnitude of it.
I realize the FHSAA is not an ideal organization. But you have 41 NFL alumni from MNW with 8 of those currently in the league. What’s been their contribution to the school and athletic department and could this have been gone about in an different way?
