Sunday Focus: Language Manguage

  

     Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston got in hot water for his fractured language in a post game interview after Monday night' win over Auburn.

"I said guys, we didn't come here for no reason,” Winston said. “I said, 'Guys, this is ours, man.' All the adversity we went through the first few quarters, it was ours to take. And like I've been saying, we control our own destiny, And those men looked me in my eye and said 'We got this Jameis.' I said, 'Are you strong?' They said, ‘I'm strong if you strong.’ I said, 'We strong then.'"

    Alabama Quarterback A.J. McCarron's Mom tweeted a quick "Is this English?",
    She later apologized and removed the tweet, though she should know that those things never really die.
     The "Community News Director" for the al.com website is Anthony Cook  and he says he cringed hearing the quarterback speak, but understands the player's misuse of correct language.

    He wrote

"I cringed because people often equate broken English, slang and sometimes even conversational speech with a lack of intelligence."...and... "It wasn't technically correct English, but it was English."

    That means the quarterback could have answered with correct English, but did not.
    Hard to believe a journalist, especially a print journalist, would be so dismissive of incorrect English from a college student, even a freshman. But read his full column, linked above.

###   

   Also this week: the announcements by college football players who are heading to the NFL. We refer to it as "declaring for the NFL", and that some will "forgo their senior year".
    For the non-athlete student, it would be called "dropping out". Except of course the athlete may be headed to a multi-million dollar NFL job while the English major drop-out will be working for a salary with quite a few less zeros, or all zeros if he can't find a job at all. 
    All of this renews the endless debate over paying the athletes, at least partly abandoning the wishful thinking that they are there to get an education.
     Let them obtain a certificate in sports history or management or development or whatever. Perhaps we should stop pretending.

      In another story, CNN studied college football athletes and their basic ability in the classroom. The story quoted a teacher as saying some athletes can't write or read...and some others can do so only at the 3rd grade level. The teacher got death threats.
     The results of the CNN Analysis of academic ability does not incldue either of Alabama's two major college football teams. They say The University of Alabama:

"...says it does not keep records, or track in any way, entrance exam scores or results of reading evaluations for athletes. The university also says it does not have a process for "special admits." There is one reading specialist on staff who works with athletes.

And Auburn University:

"...says it is still processing our request for information. The university estimates it could take several months before it provides CNN with an answer. We will update this page when we get it. "

[SUNDAY FOCUS is a regular feature of TimLennox.com]