The elder Highsmith is now threatning a lawsuit if the Hurricanes get hit with NCAA penalties coming from the Nevin Shapiro booster scandal. Highsmith's beef in this matter is that the current players shouldn't be penalized for sins of the past or the current 12 players that received extra benefits. I know a lot of former Hurricane greats are taking this hard but this might be borderline ridiculous.
“This lawsuit will be on behalf of all the kids who have done nothing wrong and would be being deprived of what they came to college for,” Highsmith said. “Look at the Reggie Bush situation. Look at what he did to the USC program. All those kids that went to USC for all the right reasons had to suffer the consequences.
“This has been going on for years and years. If someone at General Motors does something wrong, they don’t shut down the company. Nobody ever challenges the NCAA on this. Why? Why?”
“If you have a family and one child does something wrong then he can’t go to Disney World. But you don’t make all of the rest of the kids stay home too.”
“There are at least 70 kids on that team that have absolutely nothing to do with Nevin Shapiro, and you are going to tarnish their image over the actions of a few?
“You want to punish those kids that did something wrong, fine, I understand. But it’s a total travesty to punish the other kids who made good decisions. I’m going to sue if they try to ruin these kids’ college experience. I’m going to sue somebody.”
Well Alonzo, I understand what your getting at here, but if the NCAA let schools get away with illegal booster activity, this kind of stuff would be running rampant. School presidents and athletic directors would have a reason to turn a blind eye to players receiving gifts, money, cars, etc.
Of course Highsmith does have a dog in this fight with A.J. being a member on the team, so it's natural for him to want to see Miami get off light or receive no penalty at all. Sorry Alonzo, but the Canes are going down and they're going down hard.
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Also, just because only 12 current players have been named doesn't mean other players weren't involved. They just haven't been caught. Truth is, it needs to stop now. My stepson has lived in Baton Rouge the last couple of years and he has friends that have SEEN boosters walk into an apartment where several football players live, drop a $5000 roll of cash on the kitchen table, and walk out.
That's a good point Robert. Who knows how many current players were involved, but not caught or haven't came forward..
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