St. Louis Rams NFL Draft pick Robert Quinn took $5,642 dollars from an agent while still at the University of North Carolina. He got caught and was suspended for the entire 2010 collegiate season.
This might bother you. If it does, then you are a dim person. Low-caliber intelligence. The kind of person that gets swindled every day. Probably twice.
College sports are dirtier than Sasha Grey on a double stack of X. And right now... literally... some 18-22 year old kid is getting a hundred dollar handshake, a shady loan or some new bling.
The reasons aren't uniform, but are completely inconsequential. If you're good at sports, you're going to get greased. Some of these kids will get caught; most won't. But if you think Robert Quinn is an exception - you're an idiot.
"I made a selfish mistake that me and my team, my family and coaches paid a price for," Quinn said, recently. "God gave me a talent, and in a second, he can take it away from me. "I truly apologized for it."
Sound like a young man that made a mistake? Does to me. In fact, he actually apologized. For HIM.
HIS actions. HIS decision. Not for some nebulus 'for those who might have been affected' or any of the other million non-apology apologies athletes toss out to chum the waters and see how far they actually have to go. The dude stepped up and said he screwed himself, his family and his team.
Oh, and God.
You probably rolled your eyes when you read that, right? Another guy that's invoking a higher being for coming to his saving grace. Worse, a punk that is just throwing that in there because he's grown up with God often thrown in a soundbite for added gravitas.
Or is it because Robert Quinn was a boy who had to grow up real quick when doctors discovered a large brain tumor causing him to periodically black out or cry from the most painful headaches you can imagine? Could be.
Quinn's tumor was discovered while he was in high school. When they operated doctors told him he should be brain-dead from the pressure in his skull. He still goes for MRIs every six months to make sure the benign growth isn't doing anything untoward.
No, Quinn, knows the value of another chance. And what his beliefs are. And that he's not going to let the Rams down after they selected him in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft.
The measure of a man is what they do when no one is watching. And for the past eight months, Quinn has been less than a footnote for all those not interested in UNC football. A supreme talent. But a man with no spotlight.
Instead of spending his time harboring resentment for a pretty harsh punishment doled out to a first time offender of NCAA bylaws, Quinn spent his time atoning for those adversely affected by his actions and working his butt off to make sure that whichever team decided to grant him this third chance was going to get not just a player, but a leader.
Rams fans, Robert Quinn is a man on a mission.
He knows that people are waiting for him to fall down again and his charge, every practice, every game, every snap, is going to prove them wrong. That a kid has become a man that is worth the millions the St. Louis football team just invested.
My advice to you is not to bet against Robert Quinn.