Osborne still thinks Phillips just made "mistakes"

Submitted by jmdblue on

So I just read Tom Osborne's comments on Lawrence Phillips' passing.  It is unbelievable to me how completely divorced he is to any ownership of Phillips' failings or the cost of those failings to innocent people.  He repeatedly refers to Phillips' crimes as "mistakes".  That's one word for them.  Felony is another.  Sin is another.  Murder appears to be another.

Coaches are gonna have their fair share of bad actors.  LTT's recent adventures with a cameraphone won't be the last time we face an embarrassing legal issue with one of ours.  Here's hoping Harbaugh handles his responsibilties with more dignity and more candor than Osborne.   http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2016/01/13/lawrence-phillips-dead-prison-tom-osbourne-nebraska/78767044/

EDITED to spell "Osborne" correctly.

MGoBoard

Opinion25

January 14th, 2016 at 5:41 PM ^

On a serious note, I highly recommend "Hitler's Secretary" (a documentary) and/ or "Downfall" (a movie based on her recollections). It puts Hitler in a more human light -- in that until he became unhinged towards the end of the war, he was more of a Godfather-like person - - he tended to be highly loyal and even kind to the people of his self-identified tribe (ie, "true germains/arians), but everone else -- especially Jews, Roma, slavs, etc -- were the root problem, preventing Europe from achieving a utopian society.

This, of course, has nonthing to do with culpability. The reason that it's important is that it's too simple, to the point of being cartoonish, to just think of evil-doers as simply "evil" people. The reality is that most great evil is done by idealogical zealots who convince themselves that the greater good requires treating some groups as dispenable or the root cause of complex societal problems.

Sorry to get all academic, but I am one.

Joined: 05/28/2012

MGoPoints: 312

SBayBlue

January 14th, 2016 at 7:27 PM ^

From talking about a coach with multiple national championships who later became a Congressman to discussing the best story about history's greatest mass murderer.

I, for one, did not see any of this coming.

This being said, you all are late to the game. Some of us who originally were Mizzou fans have hated Osbrone since the mid 70s and beyond. He never showed mercy to any opponents and frequently ran up the score in many games, like 84-13 vs Minnesota in 1983.

He pretends to be so self-righteous so the Lawrence Phillips controversy was never a mystery to me.

Joined: 06/29/2015

MGoPoints: 3612

Brimley

January 14th, 2016 at 7:30 PM ^

One of Hitler's first acts as Chancellor was wipe out the Nazi SA, who were part of the tribe, on the Night of the Long Knives.  Other Aryans ended up in Dachau due to their opposition to Hitler because of religious and/or political beliefs.  Opposition German journalists were murdered by the score.  And so on.  The point is that his kindness extended only so far as it benefitted him, befitting the sociopath he was.

Joined: 03/22/2011

MGoPoints: 11685

drzoidburg

January 14th, 2016 at 8:03 PM ^

hitler also gave an order to destroy all of germany at the end and deployed 10 year olds to fight soviet tanks just to preserve his own ass a few more days. No one was a "true german" except for him - an egomaniac and a monster thru and thru I don't see where you get "loyal" and "kind" from watching Downfall, seriously

Joined: 09/20/2015

MGoPoints: 2220

M Dude in Portlandia

January 14th, 2016 at 8:20 PM ^

There is an awful lot of hype and disinformation out there about Hitler. Like many politicians those on his side love him and those against him hate him.

And there is an awful lot of disinformation that we normally live with and fail to question about American politicians.

I wonder how many are familiar with the quote from GHW Bush - "if the American people knew what we have done, they would string us up from the lamp posts"

https://www.quora.com/Where-if-anywhere-does-the-quote-if-the-American-…

 

Joined: 12/31/2015

MGoPoints: 399

Everyone Murders

January 14th, 2016 at 3:14 PM ^

The theory is that he announced his retirement prior to the Coaches' Poll, which resulted in the split championship.  I think there's something to that, but still blame Phil Fulmer for the bulk of that split.

Joined: 12/14/2010

MGoPoints: 65552

pdgoblue25

January 14th, 2016 at 3:30 PM ^

We had over 70% of the 1st place votes in the AP poll, yet we lose the coaches poll by 2 votes.  I'm just curious if there has ever been a year where one team steamrolls in one poll, while being that close in the other poll?  Nice retirement gift for Tom.

Son of a bitch, I can't believe you managed to make me angry over this again.

Joined: 03/03/2010

MGoPoints: 19008

jmdblue

January 14th, 2016 at 4:43 PM ^

I wasn't comparing the cases.... Just owning up the the fact that all major programs are gonna face some issues.  I coulda gone with Justin Feagin or Frank Clark.  Thankfully, all three of these cases were handled appropriately by our staffs.

Joined: 12/01/2010

MGoPoints: 8655

iawolve

January 14th, 2016 at 5:07 PM ^

and hiding guns his players used in a felony crime. Just keeping for the police!

Putting him up as one of the good guys was the biggest bunch of crap. He as crooked as Bowden and many other coaches who did little to manage or educate their players.

 

 

Joined: 11/03/2008

MGoPoints: 7940

jmdblue

January 14th, 2016 at 3:09 PM ^

I'm sure many of Osbourne's players have gone on to live exemplary lives and credit much of their success to their coach.  They probably get some media attention in Lincoln as many of our ballplayer-done-good stories get attention around here (Woodson, D. Jones, J. Hackett etc.)

Really doesn't matter in this case though.  Osbourne was an apologist and enabler for Lawrence Phillips for 20 years and still refers to the trail of injury and death he left behind as "mistakes".  

Joined: 12/01/2010

MGoPoints: 8655

FauxMo

January 14th, 2016 at 3:04 PM ^

Osbourne wanted to win football games. He took a high-risk kid to do so, then bailed said high risk kid out of trouble when he should probably already have gone to jail. But hey, Tom still thinks he's a decent guy and contacted him every few months while he was in jail. So you know, no harm, no foul. The hypocrisy is crazy...

Joined: 06/17/2010

MGoPoints: 137619

4godkingandwol…

January 14th, 2016 at 3:13 PM ^

... to rationalize the decisions you make in order to live with yourself.  It just looks most absurd in extreme examples, but the behavior is pretty common.  Similar case with Joe Paterno and the whole mess at Penn State.  

Joined: 08/06/2008

MGoPoints: 31425

BlueinLansing

January 14th, 2016 at 3:15 PM ^

much a coach can do for a kid.

 

I only criticize Osborne because he sold his soul to win a championship by playing a kid who so obviously should not have been playing football.  But even if he's off the team he likely continues down this same path.

 

 

Joined: 09/01/2009

MGoPoints: 23520