Neff Zone Column

Print Edition: September 15, 2007

FELONY FOOTBALL AND OTHER STORIES TO WATCH

Should a convicted felon now serving time in jail be allowed to play in a high school football game? No, this is not a trick question. It’s just one of the stories I’m following because I’m interested in the outcome.

The felony football situation is now being played out in Flint. According to reports in the Flint Journal, on September 7 two members of Flint Southwestern Academy's football team were released from the county jail and allowed to play against Grand Blanc High School before heading back to the hoosegow. They were released from jail in an arrangement that allowed them to attend school and then play in the game. Southwestern won the game, 39-29.

In a bit of irony, the felony to which they plead guilty occurred in Grand Blanc, (the same city in which they played last weekend) on July 9 – felony home invasion.

They were sentenced under a state law that allows youthful offenders to go to school during the day while serving a jail sentence at night and on weekends. The pair are required to return to jail by 8 p.m. each night, but were allowed to stay out later to play in the game because football is considered an after-school activity. In fact, a Southwestern assistant coach was assigned to take them back to jail after the victory celebration.

The defense attorneys for the two felons noted that the sentence was meant to protect "young people who make a single mistake in judgment, but are otherwise good kids." They also cited that to ban these two from playing football might harm their scholarship opportunities.

To which I would say, "horse droppings!" Felony home invasion is not some minor slip-up. It’s a crime for which an adult can be sentenced to years and years in prison.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Flint area, Grand Blanc is 10 miles south of Flint. These two "good kids" would have had to plan the break-in, travel to Grand Blanc, and then commit the crime. This criminal activity was no accident.

As for scholarships, the two darlings didn’t give any thought to their scholarship opportunities during their whole criminal enterprise, so why should that consideration come into the discussion now?

Good grief, some student athletes miss games because their grades drop below a C average. These birds get a "get out of jail" card on a felony? What’s wrong with this picture?

Earlier this week, Flint’s superintendent of schools suspended the players, only to reinstate them almost immediately pending further investigation. Beyond that, though, you might be interested to know that the Michigan High School Athletic Association has no rules governing this case. A spokesman for the Michigan High School Athletic Association said in 20 years he hasn't heard of a school letting teens serving jail time allowing them to participate in extracurricular activities. But he said the decision is up to local districts.

Local control? Fine, where were the school administrators, coaches and the parents of these young men during all this? What kind of message about personal responsibility did they send? I agree with former Flint Northwestern High School football player Daron Rice, the brother of ex-NBA star Glen Rice, who told the Flint Journal, "that sends the ugliest message I've ever seen."

Stay tuned. I’ll let you know if the two felons were back on the field for this weekend’s game. I once taught and coached at Flint Southwestern, so I have a particular interest in this story.

Another story I’m watching is going on in California. The Republican governor and the Democrat legislature are (as we speak) attempting to hammer out an agreement for universal health care for all Californians. This is important because oftentimes what happens in California becomes a template for the country at large.

According to the Sacramento Business Journal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger intends to call a special session to come up with a compromise (assuming none is reached this week during the regular session).

So far, a reform bill backed by Democrats imposes a fee of 7.5 percent of payroll on California businesses. The governor's own proposal would require employers to offer health benefits equal to 4 percent of payroll or pay a fee into a state pool. Individuals not covered by their employers would be required to buy insurance; hospitals would be charged a flat, 4 percent fee on all revenue and doctors would be charged a flat fee of 2 percent. Health insurers would have to cover everybody who applies for coverage, regardless of pre-existing conditions.

Stay tuned. Heath care reform will play a huge part in the upcoming presidential election and what transpires in California may set the tone for the national discussion.

Finally, the whole stampede to ethanol interests me for some reason. It just seems too simple to work – i.e. grow corn, make fuel, thumb nose at Saudi Arabia. It just seems to me there’s a bunch of stuff we haven’t thought about.

For example, a report available on the Internet at www.healthandenergy.com/ethanol.htm says: "David Pimental, a leading Cornell University agricultural expert, has calculated that powering the average U.S. automobile for one year on ethanol (blended with gasoline) derived from corn would require 11 acres of farmland, the same space needed to grow a year's supply of food for seven people. Adding up the energy costs of corn production and its conversion into ethanol, 131,000 BTUs are needed to make one gallon of ethanol. One gallon of ethanol has an energy value of only 77,000 BTUS. Thus, 70 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that actually is in it. Every time you make one gallon of ethanol, there is a net energy loss of 54,000 BTUs…abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-inefficient process that yields low-grade automobile fuels amounts to unsustainable subsidized food burning."

His report also states: "If all the automobiles in the United States were fueled with 100 percent ethanol, a total of about 97 percent of U.S. land area would be needed to grow the corn feedstock. Corn would cover nearly the total land area of the United States."

Stay tuned. As Mark Twain said: "Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it."

Jim Neff is a local columnist. Comments to neffzone@gmail.com. Read Neff Zone columns online at www.neffzone.com/cadillacnews.