Stop yapping: It’s YOUR fault Jeremy Hill is back at LSU

I am glad Jeremy Hill has been reinstated to LSU’s football team.

I hope he comes back with a bang.

I hope he rushes for 130 yards and two touchdowns in the opener against TCU – a real right-handed knockout punch to the Horned Frogs’ chances at victory.

They’ll never even see the blow coming as Hill celebrates the strike with his team.

Too soon?

Who cares?

It’s 2013 college football, baby!

I think it’s time we accept the sport for the meat market that it is and enjoy the ride.

College football is dirty. It will be dirty tomorrow and even still disgusting the day after that.

It is dirty across the North, South, East and West. It’s non-discriminatory – no portion of the globe is cleaner than another. They are all filthy with corruption and scandal.

Instead of fighting that stigma and letting our worlds be filled with delusion, I think it’s time we accept it, understand the way things work and enjoy the show – the most entertaining sport in the world.

Corruption in college football runs in many different forms and fashions.

Start with recruiting – let’s not pull any punches.

Every top program cheats to get its players.

Every, single one.

My beloved alma mater LSU cheats.

So does Alabama, Florida, Texas, Ohio State, USC, Michigan, Ohio State and everyone else.

Sure, some programs are a little slimier than others.

Some blatantly break the rules and pay for their players out of pocket through boosters and those types of things.

Ever heard of the “money handshake” in college football? Google it. It’s very real, and it exists all across the NCAA.

Not every program is slimy enough to hold complete disregard for the rules – others violate bylaws without even realizing that they are doing so.

Some programs cheat just by simply send a text message at the wrong time in the recruiting season or committing other fairly innocent violations.

Regardless, the fact remains the same – everyone cheats in college football – whether they know it or not.

The rulebook is too thick. It’s impossible to be 100 percent clean 100 percent of the time.

Just look at the guys on the roster, and you can see how murky the sport can be.

Have you ever tried to get your son or daughter into a public four-year university in this state? If so, you know that there are certain core curriculum requirements that need to be met for that to take place.

Likewise, a certain GPA is needed and a minimum ACT or SAT score is required for acceptance. Even smaller schools like Nicholls State University have standards now that have to be met for admittance.

But if you’re an athlete, the entire process is watered down and made easier.

If a regular student needs a 21 on the ACT to get into a university, an athlete may only need a 17 or 18.

If the GPA requirement is a 3.0 for us common folks, it may only be a 2.25 for students who are 6-feet, 4-inches and 240 pounds.

At the “smart guy” colleges like Tulane and Stanford, it’s the same process. Some people work hard all of their lives to try and get into the school for academic purposes – a process that never fully comes to fruition.

But then a lesser student comes by that can play football and all of a sudden, admissions shift and the young athlete can waltz into the school like he has a cure for cancer.

By watering down the admissions, schools open up their doors to an entirely different cut of kid than if they stuck with their status quo.

These kids are often less intelligent, have fewer positive role models and sometimes have a tendency to get in bar fights and all of the other negative things that we now associate with college football.

But they sure can run, jump, tackle and catch a football.

Because of that, we selfishly give them our approval and expect them to be a role model – something they never signed up to be in the first place.

These kids aren’t student athletes. They are mercenaries with one purpose – athletic domination.

It’s sad, but true.

Don’t believe me? Just look at what your team’s players are majoring in. Those general studies and athletic administration degrees say it all.

But the truth of it all is that we can’t complain because it’s all our fault.

The reason why college sports are glittered with corruption is because of the insane expectations that we place onto teams to succeed each year.

If Les Miles loses any one game, LSU fans want him fired.

If he loses a second game, fans want him fired and then beaten to a pulp and dragged through Baton Rouge’s streets.

If he loses a third, people want him to be banished from Baton Rouge – never to be seen or heard from ever again.

The same can be said for most other major college football programs across the country.

Put yourself in the shoes of the coach.

If your $5 million salary rested solely on winning and very little on graduating upstanding citizens, wouldn’t you roll the dice on a low-character player who could help the team?

Of course you would.

And so would I.

That’s just part of being human.

We want our programs to be dominant and wildly successful.

But we want our players to be pure and golden student athletes who never make mistakes.

Those two things don’t go hand-in-hand in our society.

It’s hypocrisy at its finest to even think that such a Utopia exists.

We should just accept college football for the corrupt game that it is – littered with cheaters and rule breakers.

Let Jeremy Hill play and do his thing.

Lord knows the guys on the other sideline aren’t perfect, either.

They never are.

If you look deeply enough, you can probably find a few TCU players who have been in a bar fight or two, as well.

Just google TCU drug scandal. I think you’ll find out those guys aren’t angels, either.