"...An Exception In Danger of Becoming A Rule...."

Two scary things here.

One obvious.

One, maybe, not so much.


(CNN) -- Gunfire erupted in a Columbia, Maryland, shopping mall Saturday morning, leaving at least three people dead, according to the Howard County Police Department's Twitter account.

Authorities initially reported that an active shooter was on the second floor of the sprawling mall in Columbia in Howard County, according to CNN affiliate WBAL. Local scanner reports had authorities requesting multiple mass casualty units.

 

One of the bodies was located near a gun and ammunition, according to the Howard County Police Department Twitter account. The identification of the person was unknown.

 

A 911 call about shots fired at the mall was made at 11:15 a.m., police said.

 

Images on Twitter reportedly from the scene showed mall employees and customers hiding in a stock room. The mall was on lockdown. Another Twitter image reportedly from the scene showed a bullet-riddled wall.

 

The Howard County Fire Department on Twitter reported an active shooter situation.

 

Both the Howard County police and fire departments were on the scene.

 

The fire department via Twitter advised people to avoid the area. CNN was first alerted to this story on Twitter.

 

 

At this writing, the mall has been secured and shoppers, patrons, etc. are being allowed to leave.

 

This event hits just a little closer to home.

 

Because it hits a little closer to home.

 

I live about an hour from this mall, located in the Baltimore/Washington DC area.

 

And my sister, who lives very close to this mall, was at the movie theatre in the mall today with friends.

 

She reports that she and her friends are fine.

 

Speculation from media "reporters/anchors" is running rampant, loose and, as personally witnessed, borderline irresponsible in the quest to be first as opposed to right, as we've come to expect from media "reporters/anchors" in the quest to be first as opposed to right.

 

No one, at this writing, knows officially any more details than that three people are dead.

 

Here's a thing.

 

With the exception of the terrible news that some families are going to receive shortly, no other details are going to make much of a difference.

 

Because these events are, arguably, becoming a matter of routine.

 

And with the exception of some families who are going to receive some terrible news shortly, everyone else will feel heartache, compassion, empathy, sympathy, anger, resentment, frustration and a variety of other emotions for a few hours, days, even a week maybe.

 

And then get back about the business of living this life.

 

Playing the cards that we're being dealt.

 

Even though aces and eights seem to be showing up more and more often.

 

And none of this is intended to imply that reasonable people aren't outraged when it comes to being forced into finding a way to deal with these events becoming, arguably, a matter of routine.

 

Because no reasonable person can be anything but outraged.

 

But these events are, arguably, becoming a matter of routine.

 

And no reasonable person would even think to offer that they are getting used to this.

 

But, it's starting to feel like we're learning to live with it.

 

That's the second, and scarier, of the two things.

 

 

 

 

"....Bile, Like Cream, Rises...."

Old saying.

Caveat emptor.

Buyer beware.

Especially when it comes to houses, cars...

...and societal advances.




(CNN) -- There are two Richard Shermans.

There's the smart Stanford graduate who loves to read. And there's the brash, trash-talker who considers himself the best NFL player.

 

One is quiet, reflective. The other can be loud -- very loud.

 

Much of America met the second Richard Sherman on Sunday night when, after making an amazing defensive play to seal the Seattle Seahawks' trip to the Super Bowl, he ranted in a postgame interview about his opponent.

 

On Tuesday, we caught a glimpse of the first when Sherman showed up for a sit-down with CNN's Rachel Nichols for a mea culpa -- but not for long.

 

"I probably shouldn't have attacked another person," he told Nichols in an exclusive interview that will air in its entirety Friday night on CNN's "Unguarded."

 

"You know, I don't mean to attack him. And that was immature and I probably shouldn't have done that. I regret doing that."

 

But then, Sherman turned the spotlight on to him, making himself the victim, defending his actions and saying that what he regretted most was the way the media covered his rant.

 

He also said he was shocked by some of the racists responses he received.

 

"It was really mind-boggling the way the world reacted," Sherman said. "I can't say the world, I don't want to generalize people like that because there are a lot of great people who didn't react that way. But for the people who did react that way and throw the racial slurs and things like that out there, it was really sad. Especially that close to Martin Luther King Day."

 

"I learned we haven't come as far as I thought we had," Sherman added. "I thought society had moved past that."

 

Sherman, 25, has played in the NFL for three years after a standout career at Stanford. He was named an All-Pro the past two seasons at cornerback, a position where you often find yourself standing alone and defending against the fastest offensive players on the field.

 

It takes a certain mix of bravado and confidence to excel at cornerback. And in Sunday's game, Sherman brought both.

 

Sherman, who was defending 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree near the end of the tight contest, batted a ball to a teammate. That move ensured the Seahawks a trip to the Super Bowl.

 

The crowd was beside itself. And so, it seemed, was Sherman.

 

"I'm the best cornerback in the game," he screamed during the post-game sideline interview. "When you try me with a sorry receiver like (the 49ers Michael) Crabtree, that's the result you are going to get. Don't you ever talk about me."

 

"I'm the best cornerback in the game. When you try me with a sorry receiver like (the 49ers Michael) Crabtree, that's the result you are going to get. Don't you ever talk about me."

 

Fox sideline reporter Erin Andrews asked, "Who was talking about you?"

 

"Crabtree," Sherman angrily responded. "Don't you open your mouth about the best, or I'm going to shut it for you real quick."

 

Viewers were shocked. They're more used to hearing players offer up cliches about what it takes to win, and hand down half-hearted congratulations to their opponents for being worthy adversaries.

 

The bile flowed almost immediately -- tweets calling him a gorilla, an ape or a thug from the ghetto.
 

"Richard Sherman deserves to get shot in the (expletive) head. Disrespectful (N-word)," said one, expressing a common refrain.

 

In his CNN interview, Sherman said it takes certain characteristics to become a successful football player.

 

It takes intensity. It takes focus.

 

And, he said, it takes anger.

 

He said he was in that emotional state after the play Sunday.

 

"If you catch me in the moment on the field when I am still in that zone, when I'm still as competitive as I can be and I'm trying to be in the place where I have to be to do everything I can to be successful ... and help my team win, then it's not going to come out as articulate, as smart, as charismatic -- because on the field I'm not all those things," he said.

 

Sherman said the vitriolic response surprised him.

 

What he did was "within the lines of a football field" -- trash-talking an opponent but not hurting anyone, he said.

 

The commenters, he said, were out of bounds.

 

"They had time to think about it," he said. "They were sitting at a computer and they expressed themselves in a true way."

 

"But these people are acting like I attacked them in some way, like I went after them," he added. "I did my job effectively. And afterwards, they interviewed me and I had an interview. Regardless of how that interview goes, it doesn't give you the right to say -- the things they were saying. And that's the part that's sad."

 

There's no such thing as bad publicity, the saying goes. And to hear Sherman's agent tell it, the controversy has been good for him.

 

Sherman's Twitter follower count has exploded in recent days. And the agent says his phone is ringing off the hook.

 

"Corporate America knows who Richard Sherman is," said Jamie Fritz, who manages Sherman's marketing deals. "I talked to brand managers this week and they are fired up. They love it. They say this is real. This is true. We finally have a player who is willing to speak his mind."

 

But such exposure can be a double-edged sword, says Marc Lamont Hill, an associate professor of English education at Columbia University.

 

"He deserves all the marketing money he gets," Hill told CNN's Don Lemon. "My concern though is when they use this image, will they see him as an extraordinary athlete who has a knack for talking trash or frame him as another angry, violent athlete?"

 

Fritz admits there are two Shermans: The one who stormed off the field, and the one he wants America to see.

 

"The amount of emotion, anybody who's played a competitive sport in a championship level knows what it's like to have those emotions running," said Fritz. "Here's a guy who's never been arrested, never said a curse word in a post-game interview, and when you look at his body of work off the field and what he does for the community and charity, it's two completely different people."

 

 

 

Okay, before getting to my real point, please allow me to get the primary, and obvious, point out of the way.

 

The debate/discussion/argument regarding the appropriateness, or lack, of Sherman's on air tirade can, and likely will, go on for some time.

 

And, as with flavors, TV shows, movies, music, colors, et al, everybody has, and is entitled to, their own personal preference.

 

Me? From the get go, I was on the bandwagon that rolled out of the barn with a big sign on it that read "is this kind of juvenile behavior really necessary?"

 

Eric Bolling from Fox News' "The Five", on the other hand, actually said, on air during yesterday's show that he thought the comments were, at least, simply free speech and, to boot, in his words, a "refreshing change" from the standard, garden variety, "well, we had a great game and are looking forward to moving on to our next challenge" kind of thing post game interviews usually serve up.

 

Frankly, Bolling surprised me. Because on a panel that runs very little risk of getting arrested for punching too softly, Bolling is, as a rule, the, admittedly, conservative but, also, "refreshingly" reasonable voice of common sense.

 

I took Bolling's comments to task, posted on Facebook accordingly and a FB friend commented that I was obviously out of touch with today's athletes as, in his words, "the NFL has become more and more like the WWE".

 

I replied that I was, in fact aware of that evolution and added that I thought

 

1) that was unfortunate

 

2) that made for a pretty shitty role model paradigm for today's young athletic hopefuls.

 

Willing to risk being disregarded as the flag waver for the old fart fogey section of the convention, allow me to offer that I still think the whole "WWE" style of play accomplishes little more than cheapening the sport and those who excel in it.

 

As for Sherman's interview comments, I agree with two out of three criteria he offered.

 

Playing professional level football does require intensity.

 

And focus.

 

But, anger?

 

I really don't recall any (read: ANY) of the NFL greats that I grew up watching and admiring and excelling ever showing up in full rage mode on my TV screen, ranting the kind of trash talk that I also grew up watching, and expecting, from every blind tagging, cheap popping, five moves of doomer that ever graced the ring.

 

And, key point, we knew then, as we know now, that all of that was, and is, show biz.

 

Sherman's "anger"?

 

Not so sure the quotation marks are appropriate.

 

And if not, then I refer you to my 1) and 2) thoughts above.

 

If so, then my attitude stands, but my appreciation for the "real" Richard Sherman deserves mention.

 

Consider it mentioned.

 

Meanwhile, back at the point.

 

And the really unfortunate thing that has been unearthed by Sherman's little tirade in a teapot.

 

 

"It was really mind-boggling the way the world reacted," Sherman said. "I can't say the world, I don't want to generalize people like that because there are a lot of great people who didn't react that way. But for the people who did react that way and throw the racial slurs and things like that out there, it was really sad. Especially that close to Martin Luther King Day."

 

"I learned we haven't come as far as I thought we had," Sherman added. "I thought society had moved past that."

 

 

Not so much, no.

 

And while no reasonable person can dispute that progress has been made.

 

Progress, in this case, a tricky word to define.

 

Which brings to mind something Dr. King said in 1963.

 

 

  

“We have a long way to go before the problem is solved,” declared Martin Luther King in the quaint and stately St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of comfortable white folks in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, on May 14, 1963. And then he quoted the words of “an old Negro slave preacher:”

“Lord, we ain’t what we want to be; we ain’t what we ought to be; we ain’t what we gonna be; but thank God we ain’t what we was.”


And after his "anger" subsided and those who gonna hate used his anger as a springboard to expressing their own, Richard Sherman discovered that that old preacher's words were in sad need of a little updating.


“Lord, we STILL ain’t what we want to be; we STILL ain’t what we ought to be; we STILL ain’t what we gonna be; but thank God we ain’t what we was.”


There's a pretty serious lesson available here for those with ears that hear and eyes that see.

And that's that hatred, real, purely evil, potentially violent hatred, of one race for another is a long, long way from being overcome.

Just as we might have, naively, perhaps, felt good about our shared house being rebuilt and stronger than ever....

...we find that, in some measure, all that's been accomplished so far is an attempt to paint over the darkness, to coat it with a brightness we hoped and, naively, perhaps, assumed would prevent us or our children or their children from ever seeing that ugliness again.

Turns out that kind of darkness requires a whole lot more work to remove.

And it doesn't take much for it to fade back into sight.





 

 

 

 

"...And, Yes, We Would Have Added Shicklgruber, But That Really WAS Hitler's Family Name..."

Little things mean a lot.

Don't sweat the small stuff.

Hmm.

Life is full of little do this, don't do this platitudes.

Here's another fun one.

Ignorance is bliss.

Ignorance is no excuse.

Hmm.

All of this brain teasy twisty occurred to me as I was reading this post from a Facebook friend today.


At 10:29 a.m. Thursday morning, convicted murderer DENNIS MCGUIRE received an untested combination of two drugs to kill him. For the next 20 minutes, McGuire struggled and gasped loudly for air, "making snorting and choking sounds...with his chest heaving and his fist clenched," The Columbus Dispatch reports. McGuire's attorneys unsuccessfully argued the drugs could cause him to die painfully, which violates the Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. McGuire died from an injection of a sedative and a morphine derivative because Ohio couldn't get phenobarbital thanks to Danish restrictions on its distribution for use in capital punishment.


More details, if you're into the minutiae of grisly news items, are available, of course on pretty much every major news site today.

Here's what caught this eye, though.

In the "comments" that dutifully follow most posts on the ol' social media, one contributor, obviously dismayed by the fate of the injectee,  offered this trenchant historically referenced observation.

"Sounds kinda Joseph Mengalish".

Hmm.

Now, any regular reader of my own material, being perhaps in a foretelling frame of mind, is likely thinking that I'm about to bring my scythe of sardonicism slashing down on the commenter's grammatically sloppy mutation of the term "kind of".

Nah.

I kinda do that sorta thing myself from time to time.

Gives the written words a more conversational flavor.

What got my grammar goat was the writer's attempt at throwing a little historical reference out there on the stoop to see who might lick it up.

Well, he shoots, he scores.

He had me at "Mengalish".

I suppose, in the category of close enough is good enough, the gentleman should be given credit due.

He did, after all, offer up a name that is synonymous with cruelty and torture and barbarism.

Almost.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I confess that when I first read his offering, my first, instinctive reaction was a chortle.

Because what first popped into my particularly mischievous medulla was the sound of a jingle, any jingle, hawking a kid's lunchtime treat, any lunchtime treat, and the announcer calling out in that enthusiastic timbre that only announcers calling out enthusiastically can provide.

"hey, kids.........it's mmmmmmengalishous!"

Of course, that's just my twisted sense of humor.

Kinda impish.

Not to mention childish.

Again, though, due respect to the contributor because I did, in fact, understand exactly to whom it was he was referring.

The notorious German war criminal.

Josef Mengele.

And, again, kudos for making the connection, for everyone, between the seemingly inhuman way that convicted killer McGuire died and the notorious Auschwitz doctor, Mengele.

But, here's where that "don't sweat the small stuff / little things mean a lot" business comes into focus.

The man upon whom history has bestowed the sobriquet, "Angel of Death" was Josef Mengele.

Joseph Mengalish?

Never heard of him.

Admittedly, that could be because, in addition to my native language, I speak a teeny bit of Spanish,  a modicum of Japanese...

But, I no speaka da Mengalish.

Or, more likely, it could be the more obvious conclusion.

The gentleman proudly contributing a little bit of  History Channel chat to a social media site often bereft of any posting that doesn't consist of pictures of kids, pets and/or the latest meal about to be ingested by said photographer, simply didn't know how to correctly spell the name he contributed.

Which now brings us around to the "ignorance is no excuse" portion of our presentation.

I'll grant you that it's, arguably, mean spirited, even a little rude, to pick on a guy who has the well intentioned class to even provide a little quality history that doesn't consist of pictures of kids, pets and/or the latest meal about to be ingested.

But, I refer you back to our opening observation.

Little things mean a lot.

And in a world that continues to advance technologically at an almost immeasurable pace but, still, has vast numbers of residents who can't master the correct usage of to, too and/or two (just two name an example or to), the mangling of Mengele deserves just a little, if only just a little, respectfully distributed derision.

Because one very prominent result of the technological advance is available, twenty four/seven to any and every one who might be, even slightly, unsure of exactly how to correctly offer up what they are moved to offer up.

Provided, of course, they have access to the ol' Interweb.

Which, of course, those who have the facility to post on the ol' Facebook most certainly have.

Google.

Which will lead you, perhaps, to Wikipedia.

Which will bring us back to two, too, to and....

Mengele.

Yes, yes, yes.

It's a little thing.

But (say it with me), little things mean a lot.

And ignorance?

Well, with the advent of Google, (say it with me) ignorance is no excuse.

By the way, chances are the irony of all of this isn't any more lost on you than on me.

To, too, two.

Fore, for, four.

All those, present company certainly included, who gripe and grouse and, as they charmingly say in Tennessee, pick fly shit outta pepper, when it comes to the correct use of grammar in our everyday lives have been given their own zesty, fun filled nickname.

Grammar Nazi.

Which is a real hoot given that all of this picky, picky was inspired by none other than one of the most infamous of Nazis.

Joseph Mengalish.

Not to mention his equalish evilish partner in crime.

Joseph Gerbils.

"...the enemy within..."

Tell you what.

Let's leave it at what.

Tell you why shortly.


A retired police officer allegedly shot two people, one fatally, during a cell phone dispute inside a Florida movie theater Monday, authorities said.

The dispute began around 1:30 p.m. at a theater in Wesley Chapel when Curtis Reeves Jr., 71, told 43-year-old Chad Oulson to stop texting during a showing of "Lone Survivor," Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said. When Oulson refused, Reeves alerted the theater staff, which escalated the confrontation.

At that point Reeves allegedly pulled out a gun and shot Oulson, authorities said. Oulson's wife, Nicole, put her hand in front of her husband in an effort to protect him and was injured.
Chad Oulson later died from the gunshot.

An off-duty police officer who was present at the scene restrained Reeves until authorities arrived, Nocco said.

Reeves, who retired from the Tampa Police Department in September 1993 as a captain, was charged with second-degree homicide, authorities said.

Nocco said his detectives considered if the case qualified under the state's controversial "stand your ground law," which permits residents to employ deadly force if they fear imminent danger, but decided the criteria did not apply, MyFoxTampaBay.com reported.

"It's absolutely crazy it would rise to this level over somebody just texting in a movie theater," Charles Cummings, a Vietnam veteran who was watching the movie at the time of the shooting, told MyFoxTampaBay.com. "I can't believe people would bring a gun to a movie."


Let's make a deal from the get go.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the Second Amendment.

And injecting that subject into the discussion is, at best, tasteless, at worst, obscenely offensive.

Because a case can obviously be made, a case that even the most rabid anti-gun folk couldn't refute, that this guy could have just as easily have reappeared in the theater with a pipe or hatchet or tire iron and delivered one swift blow with the same outcome.

Discussion, debate and/or second guessing these incidents almost always lasers in on the how.

Giving desperately scant attention to the why.

And, in cold fact, none of us, lest we are clinically trained in psychology and have an opportunity to study all of the empirical evidence involved have any thing close to the right to open our mouths as to that why.

So, here's the deal.

You keep your mouth shut about the how and why.

I'll afford that same courtesy.

As to the what, however....

Already addressed.

"It's absolutely crazy it would rise to this level over somebody just texting in a movie theater," Charles Cummings, a Vietnam veteran who was watching the movie at the time of the shooting, told MyFoxTampaBay.com. "I can't believe people would bring a gun to a movie."

".....It's absolutely crazy...."

Seems like there's a lot of that going around.

If This Guy Was A World Class Math Professor...Not A Peep..."

(WARNING: The following story contains adult language possibly not suitable for children {unless, of course, you're like the parents of that little toddler who was being taught to say f** and b****es and you're a moron})

As should come to no surprise to you if you've read my work, I spent a slightly above average amount of my childhood in therapy.

At this point in my life, the point where I long ago should have stopped blaming everything on a crappy upbringing, I'll spare you the burden of having to read through a lot of psycho babble which is going to, likely, be nothing more than a subliminal presentation of a lot of psycho babble pretty much blaming everything on a crappy upbringing and simply offer you one pearl of R rated wisdom that one therapist, a long time ago, in a plush St. Charles Ave shrink's office far, far down yonder in New Orleans offered me; one that, all these many years later, I recall with some frequency.

"Your perspective in life, " the fifty dollar an hour family fire fighter opined, circa 1968, "depends entirely on whether you're the fuckER....or the fuckEE."

Put THAT coming up after the break, Dr. Phil.

Meanwhile, back at the point.


On Saturday morning, Vanderbilt had 20 commitments and a 2014 football recruiting class that was ranked in the top 25 in the country.

By Sunday night, a day after coach James Franklin left for Penn State, the Commodores had what one recruiting site called three solid commitments.

It’s not uncommon for schools to lose recruits when a coach leaves, but what’s happening to Vanderbilt 23 days before signing day is not normal.

Two Vanderbilt commitments now say they are going to Penn State, and Franklin has offered scholarships to at least six others.

“I’ve never seen it in this volume, quite this fast, of someone trying to pillage their own commitment class for their new job,” said Jesse Johnson of Rivals recruiting site VandySports.com.

“Normally, you’re going to have staffs take some kids. But I don’t think I’ve seen many cases where it seems like the entire class is trying to be taken to the next job.”

“Basically, they’re left with three guys that I would consider really firm commitments,” said Chris Smith of Vanderbilt.247Sports.com. “A lot of them have mixed emotions. All the recruits, they all love Franklin, they all seemed to want to come to Vanderbilt because of Franklin.

“In the end, depending on how the new coaching staff is, they may be able to pull some of these guys back into the class. But it’s going to be open season for Vanderbilt recruiting the next three weeks.”
Vanderbilt athletics director David Williams stated via text message that interviews for the job had not yet begun as of Sunday night. Williams said Saturday that he would move quickly, but not so quickly that he made a mistake.

Vanderbilt offensive line coach Herb Hand is expected to interview for the head coaching job, according to a source.

The recruiting dead period ends on Wednesday, meaning face-to-face contact between coaches and prospects is about to resume. The first big dates for official visits leading up to signing day on Feb. 5 are this weekend.

“They’re probably not going to be able to salvage this weekend regarding official visits,” Johnson said. “But if they got a new coach in place by the end of this weekend, you could salvage the 24th (Jan. 24-26) because that is the big weekend where all the official visits were slated to happen with the commitments.

“For me, the timetable would be Friday to next Monday to have a coach in place. Vanderbilt would like to have two weekends for visits. They’re not going to see a full staff hired, but if the new coach can bring in two to three guys and work with coaches still under contract, it might help them salvage the class a little bit. There’s no doubt it’s going to take hits.”

Louisville, by comparison, hasn’t seen its recruiting class impacted much by Charlie Strong going to Texas, Johnson said.

The Cardinals had two recruits decommit who are being recruited by Strong, but neither has committed to Texas. One other commitment backed out when Bobby Petrino was hired by Louisville and another no longer had an offer.

It was less than two years ago that Franklin stood before a signing-day crowd supporters at Vanderbilt’s Student Life Center and said players who decommitted from his program were not “men of honor” and “men of integrity.”

Several Vanderbilt assistants and members of the strength and administrative staff are expected to follow Franklin, although no one had offered a letter of resignation or informed Vanderbilt of plans to leave as of Sunday afternoon, according to associate director of student athletics Kevin Colon.
Defensive coordinator Bob Shoop has been offered a position at Penn State, according to a source.
Coachingsearch.com reported linebackers coach Brent Pry and football chief of staff Jemal Griffin have joined Franklin’s staff at Penn State. CBSSports.com reported receivers coach and offensive recruiting coordinator Josh Gattis was offered a position at Penn State.


The readers comment thread, on both the news site and Facebook, that accompanies this article (written, by the way, by a reporter for the Nashville Tennessean, the daily paper from Nashville, home of, wait for it....Vanderbilt University), is, as you might imagine, chock full of verbal venom and/or pillorying of the fare thee welling Franklin along, alas fairly predictable lines.

Predictably pissed.

Everyone being entitled to their own, yada, yada, notwithstanding (with the exception of that one Rhodes scholar who offered his comparison to a previous backfield backstabbing, this one at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville..."Lane Kiffin done the same thing at Tennessee...he's a coward.."  and, you, sir, are clearly no graduate of Vanderbilt University...or high school, nears I kin figure), here's a thing.

If you're one of the offended, try to imagine this scenario.

You find some one very capable to work with you in your daily occupation.

They are so, so regarding their excitement about your particular work place.

But they express a very passionate desire to have the opportunity to work with you.

Now, before they start their new job, you are offered a much better job, more money, perks, etc.

You give notice at your old job and get ready to take on your new job.

When your passionately interested potential co-worker discovers you are leaving, they immediately inquire as to whether there might be room for them where you are going.

Turns out there is and they want to go with you.

Result: they change their mind about working at the first place and decide to work where you are going.

Or as it's described in numerous sociological and/or vocational research studies:

Shit happens.

If James Franklin "sold" the recruits on the merits of coming to Vanderbilt by full line blitzing the advantages of a Vanderbilt, as opposed to, say, a Penn State, education, then, shame, shame, sayonara boy for poaching.

If, on the other hand, the recruits wanted to come to Vanderbilt primarily for the opportunity to play for James Franklin, then, no harm, no foul.

Or flag, as the case may be.

Again, I refer you to the numerous sociological and/or vocational research study results.

And the way all of this is, regardless of logic, common sense and/or numerous sociological and/or vocational research study results is going to be viewed?

I refer you to the previous observation made by a therapist, a long time ago, in a plush St. Charles Ave shrink's office far, far down yonder in New Orleans.

More to the point...

What's done is done.

Or for that guy who's, bet the line, still pissed at Lane Killen...

What's done is did.