Nebraska's Code of Conduct

[71YellowJacket]

Nebraska\'s Code of Conduct

A few years after getting my diploma, life presented me with the opportunity of living in Nebraska for a few years. Those of you still struggling to earn your Tech degree, take heart, it's the ticket to travel and adventure; but I digress.

If a player, any player, threw a punch, he was off the team period. Players knew the standard and never violated it to my knowledge.

If youthful indiscretions took a Nebraska player to a tavern where someone wanted bragging rights to downing a football player and cold-cocked him. The player knew he could not hit back, he had to get up and leave.

Always respected Osborne, wonder if Tech has a policy. Never heard of it if we do.

 

[The Jacket]

Re: Nebraska\'s Code of Conduct

Well, the Huskers ain't what they usta bee but this policy is a very good one.

 

[SuperToe]

Re: Nebraska\'s Code of Conduct

It's too bad Osborne didn't have a policy for dragging a girl down a flight of stairs by her hair. Then he could have kept Lawrence Phillips out the Orange Bowl.

 

[71YellowJacket]

Re: Nebraska\'s Code of Conduct

Supertoe,

I believe this is the story you are referring to
:

LINCOLN, Neb. (Sep 11, 1995 - 17:42 EDT) -- Nebraska running back Lawrence Phillips, one of the leading contenders for the Heisman Trophy, and his top backup have been arrested for allegedly assaulting women.
Phillips was thrown off the team Sunday, hours after he was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor third-degree assault and a day after he rushed for four touchdowns against Michigan State.
"Lawrence Phillips was involved in an incident early Sunday morning in which he injured a young woman," said Tom Osborne, coach of the defending national champion and second-ranked Cornhuskers. "We have told all our players that abusive behavior such as this will not be tolerated."
LINCOLN, Neb. (Sep 19, 1995 - 15:36 EDT) -- Nebraska star tailback Lawrence Phillips pleaded no contest today to two misdemeanor charges and a third charge was dropped.
Phillips, who entered the pleas during an unscheduled appearance in Lancaster County Court, has been suspended from the No. 2 Cornhuskers since his arrest Sept. 10.
Police said Phillips climbed to the third-floor apartment of quarterback Scott Frost, a transfer player from Stanford, and found his ex-girlfriend Kate McEwen, a sophomore basketball player, inside the apartment. Police said Phillips hit McEwen.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 1 on the misdemeanor counts of assault and trespassing. The charges carry a maximum possible penalties of six a year in jail and a $1,000 fine, but Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey said his office would recommend Phillips be given probation.
Lacey said prosecutors also would ask the court to require Phillips to receive counseling and complete an anger-control program.
Lacey said a misdemeanor charge of damaging property was dropped because Phillips agreed to pay for about $130 in damage to mailboxes that were struck as he left the apartment building.
Coach Tom Osborne said Monday he would consider allowing Phillips, a junior who had been considered a leading Heisman Trophy contender, to return to the team if he can learn to control his anger.
Osborne said Phillips' return also depends on the outcome of an NCAA investigation, his standing with team rules and the outcome of the legal case against him.
Osborne said Phillips, who rushed for 359 yards and seven touchdowns in the Huskers' first two games, could be reinstated within a month if those steps are taken. He said doctors would have to confirm that Phillips has made progress in controlling his temper.
"I told Lawrence that he definitely needs to have some sort of treatment where he can look at how to control his anger," Osborne said during the Big Eight coaches' teleconference.

I wish Tom Osborne had not re-instated Phillips, but the issue was not punching someone out in a public place.

Hope Tech handles it right.

 

[mm42]

Re: Nebraska\'s Code of Conduct

Tom Osborne is supposed to be the model we follow for our program? This man elevated recruiting and coddling thugs to an art form.

The 1995 national championship team had 4 convicted criminals in the starting lineup. In addition to Phillips, there was Christian Peter, convicted of sexual assault (missed no playing time), Reggie Baul pled no contest to theft (no missed playing time), and Williams (see below).

That's just the starters - there were several other convited or charged crooks on that team. Osborne claimed that he was keeping Phillips and Peter in the program to mentor them and straigten them out, but after Nebraska both continued their patterns of abuse of women and generally violent behavior. One wonders if kicking them out of their prima dona football lives and letting them live in the real world might have had a better result.

Here's a nice editorial from back in the day:

_______
Nebraska will be remembered more for transgressions
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(c) 1996 Copyright Nando.net
1995 Scripps Howard

Scripps Howard News Service
TEMPE, Ariz. (Jan 5, 1995 - 09:04 EST) -- It is a very bright, warm Day After in the Valley of the Sun and the Nebraska football team still doesn't have a glow. Its curse is it will never glow.
Nebraska won't be remembered for crushing Florida, 62-24, in the Fiesta Bowl Tuesday night, or for winning two consecutive national championships after just missing a third against Florida State in the 1993 Orange Bowl, or for winning 36 of 37 games in the past three seasons during a time when scholarship limitations and parity make such a record virtually impossible.

I wish it weren't so.

I want to close my eyes and see Nebraska as the greatest dynasty in college football history. But I see something terrifying, something abhorrent.

I want to see the brilliance of Lawrence Phillips running through the Florida defense for 165 yards and three touchdowns, running all the way to a high first-round selection in the NFL draft next spring. But I see him dragging his former girlfriend by the hair down a flight of steps in the middle of the night, and it doesn't seem right.

I want to see the proud Nebraska defense standing up to Florida's dream offense, harassing quarterback Danny Wuerffel and holding the Gators to minus-28 rushing yards. But I see cornerback Tyrone Williams celebrating on the sideline even as he faces trial on two felony weapons charges, and it doesn't seem right.

I want to see Tom Osborne take his place next to the game's legendary coaches such as Frank Leahy and Bud Wilkinson and Joe Paterno. But I see a man who tolerated lawlessness this season, a man who welcomed back Phillips and Williams and wide receiver Riley Washington, who awaits trial on a charge of attempted second-degree murder.

It just doesn't seem right.

Those people will pay a heavy price, of course. It won't be as heavy as Kate McEwen, the victim of Phillips' assault, or the other victims of the alleged crimes. But it will be painful nonetheless.

"It's up to other people how we are remembered," Osborne said yesterday. His sad expression, on what should have been one of his greatest days, gave him away. He knows exactly how his team will be remembered.

How that must hurt. How it must hurt not to have your greatness recognized. How it must hurt that the skill and dedication and integrity of so many good people will be overlooked because of the horrendous actions of a few and a coach who refused to take a tough stand against them.

Phillips, Williams, Washington and the three other Nebraska players who had legal problems in the past year won't be able to run from this shame they brought on their team. Phillips probably will make millions in the NFL, but all the money in the world won't buy him his good name.

"If you go back through the records, you'll find six or seven things with every school in the country," Osborne said, weakly. "But I can understand the case the press can make against us. Lawrence Phillips was such a visible player and the O.J. Simpson thing captured the imagination of the public. What Riley Washington is charged with is so horrible. ...

"But I will predict when all's said and done, it won't be as bad as it appears right now."

It doesn't really matter what happens with Washington and Williams in court. Phillips has been convicted of misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to one year of probation.

And it doesn't matter if Nebraska wins another national championship next season. It definitely will contend. It loses six starters on offense, including its great leader, Tommie Frazier, and Phillips, who will skip his senior season and turn pro on the advice of Osborne, who said, "He will always be a marked man even in Lincoln." (Osborne seemed genuinely baffled as to why, sad to say).

But four of the five offensive linemen, who allowed no sacks and had only seven penalties all season and opened the way for 524 rushing yards against Florida, are back. So are seven defensive starters.

The dynasty is far from dead.

It's a shame the same can't be said of Nebraska's reputation.

It doesn't matter if Nebraska wins 10 more national championships. As long as Osborne is in charge, it will never win the respect of decent people.
____

 

[71YellowJacket]

Re: Nebraska\'s Code of Conduct

Good Grief mm42!

Interesting editorial (not a news story) on Tom Osborne.

But we are digressing from the intent of the posting. Under Osborne, Nebraska had a very specific policy on being involved in a fight in public; one strike and you were out.

One of our players, un-named by me, was arrested after a bar fight Sunday morning. The intent of this posting was to bring the matter to everyone’s attention without having to connect the dots for you.

Now that everyone knows what a lousy program Osborne ran at Nebraska, let us see how we compare.

 

[SuperToe]

Re: Nebraska\'s Code of Conduct

My point was that "rules" aren't necessarily the answer here. Having those rules didn't prevent Osborne from making a bad decision on Philips.

Gailey will be judged by how he handles individual situations, not by the thickness of his rulebook.

 

[71YellowJacket]

Re: Nebraska\'s Code of Conduct

Supertoe,

You just nailed a 50 yarder thru the uprights!!!