No links for Sunday. I'm knee deep in family festiveness for the holidays. But I did want to pass along one link and a quick story.
The parking situation at the Butts-Mehre athletics building is awful. There just aren't many spots available, but there are plenty of visitors, staff and media who are in the building regularly.
Of course, that's also where the players need to show up for practice, and while there is a small army of scooters parked in front of the building to enhance the convenience of travel, several players take it upon themselves to drive to practice.
This wasn't an issue for much of the season, but sometime about a month ago, the school decided it needed to start enforcing its parking regulations. The early result: Bye-bye Matthew Stafford's car.
Stafford's vehicle was towed, along with a few other cars belonging to folks closely tied to the Georgia program. As you'd imagine, he was none too happy.
I was walking out of practice a few weeks ago and headed to my car, parked in the row across from the baseball fields between Butts-Mehre and Stegeman. Parked in a makeshift spot a few feet down was Knowshon Moreno's ride. A cop was writing a ticket and calling in the plates -- New Jersey plates! I politely pointed out that it belonged to Knowshon and went my merry way. Apparently Moreno had to do a full sprint off the practice field to make sure his car stayed put. No word on whether he leaped any traffic cones along the way.
Finally, during the graduation ceremonies Friday, more towing was in effect. This time, they got Stafford again. As you'd expect, he was less than pleased, and voiced his opinion to some of the UGA staff.
All of this brings me to my link for today: My story in the Sunday Telegraph on the tough decision Stafford and Moreno have to make after the bowl game as to whether they should turn pro or stay in school.
Wouldn't it be sad if it was the parking police that drove them over the edge?
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Tow the Line
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14 comments:
I'd like to know what Knowshon drives. Does he have dubs? Same with Stafford - I see a Yukon or something like that.
Seriously, this underscores the silliness and downright idiocy of our athletic dept. Our staff (the boss) asks the players (employees) to attend practice but cannot or has not thought of providing ample parking??!! This is the type of bullshit that underscores the sloppiness we've seen all year. If there are not enough actual spaces, then simply force all the "employees" to park in the huge lot north of the dorms and make them WALK to practice. What a novel idea!!!
If that doesn't work then retain a g*ddamn bus that will take them to and fro'.
I want to point out that while UGA (keystone) cops are often crass and fail to use common sense, in this case they are just doing their jobs and shouldn't be targeted.
David - I suggest forwarding this information to Damon and Mark so they can fix this ridiculous problem.
No excuses for this sh*t.
This is something you'd expect to see from a mickey-mouse collegiate team - NOT the Georgia Bulldogs.
How absurd.
Get your head out of your a$$ athletic dept.
Just to be clear, my point about them leaving because of a lack of parking was meant to be tongue in cheek -- but yes, the lack of parking is clearly a problem. It's one that DE and CMR are aware of, however, and from what I understand, it may be resolved with the B-M renovations, but that is a long term project. There's really very little that can be done in the short term.
I agree with Anonymous #1 that there is no reason for this. But to blame the coaches and staff is absurd. Almost as absurd as asking the staff to park and walk. THEY WORK THERE, IT'S THEIR JOB!! The players can adjust or pay the fine...like the rest of us did when we were in school there.
Bernie, If it wasn't for the team"working and doing THEIR jobs'. then why would we need all of the civilian corps. to do anything. Football is the main money maker for all of the University of Georgia sports. At the very least, an allowance should be made for the lack of parking if it is for practice related purposes. They don't get paid, so why should they have to pay-for parking-to play. You people need to use a little bit of common sense. That is as shallow as the keystone cops.
MoDawg
Oh the humanity! You mean these guys have to park in regular parking lots like everyone else and either walk or catch a bus to the BM Building? They can't just park wherever the heck they feel like? Man, I'd sure declare for the draft if I was treated that way.
I guess the scooters are not manly enough.
Do they want parking privileges in front of every other building on campus, too? That's what the buses (and their highly-athletic feet) are for.
As for the football-moneymaker thing, football brings money to the athletic dept., not much to the rest of the university. If you're going to use that argument maybe spaces should be doled out according to most profitable depts and players, however that might be figured.
Parking services gleefully tickets and tows staff, players, visitors and everyone else around the BM building. They make it a point to "stick it" to the BM folks. This is a fact. They are NAZI's no doubt.
Making them consistent with "Parking Services" administrators the world over...
It seems that the chronic jock-envy that has plagued Athens & UGA law enforcement has now spread to parking services. In the good 'ol days, Hershel could've parked his Trans-Am in the president's reserved spot, and he would have probably received a complimentary wash & wax for the infraction.
In my opinion, Trans Ams should be able to park wherever the driver wants no matter who owns them -- especially if you have a big gold eagle on the hood. Man, I wanna go watch Smokey and the Bandit right now.
It would be a shame to let Parking Services (which, of course, is not part of the Ath. Dept.) factor into Stafford & Moreno's decision.
It would be a bigger shame to let a loud, obnoxious, crybaby contingent of the "Bulldog Nation" to run off our excellent coaching staff.
Jeez, people...
Stop the freaking whining about EVERYTHING!
(this is directed at the comments, not the original post; especially directed at comment #1)
So Matt parked illegally, got towed and got mad? Then he did it again? And got mad? If he needs to park near B-M, then he should purchase a parking permit for that zone. That's a pretty simple solution to his problem. There's a deck right next to Stegman. Just get a parking pass.
Is it just me or does this have Michael Adams written all over it?
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