Open letter to Stephen Garcia
Stephen Garcia
"A silver plate of pearls,
my golden child.
It's all yours,
at least for a little while."
Bruce Springsteen, "You'll Be Comin' Down"
Dear Stephen,
Dude ...
Please don't blow this.
Don't throw away a chance to start at quarterback for the University of South Carolina before you throw your first pass.
While it's never too late to make progress, the clock is always ticking on college football opportunity. And this is quite the precious garnet carpet treatment offered by Gamecock Nation: The adulation of packed houses at Williams-Brice Stadium and free one-on-one instruction from Steve Spurrier, the tenured Professor of Passing. Plus meals, textbooks, workout gear and a comfortable room.
For an apprentice quarterback, it doesn't get much better.
Spurrier, by the way, won the Heisman Trophy, played lots of seasons in the NFL, was on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a member of the San Francisco 49ers and your hometown Tampa Bay Buccaneers, set all kinds of passing records as a head coach in the USFL, at Duke and Florida, led the Gators to a national championship and sent several quarterbacks to the NFL.
If you know all of this, Stephen, you have not always acted like it.
Fatherly love
So many of us — college football fans who appreciate talent, less athletic young people who wish they were in your shoes, flawed fathers who see a little bit of their children in your situation — are pulling for a quick recovery.
We are encouraged that after a rough start at South Carolina, you as a redshirt freshman apparently were behaving in the right direction before last week's citation for underage possession of brewski, and that your father seems like a great guy.
"We raised him to make better choices than that," your dad, Gary Garcia, said this week. "I know that."
All dads can learn from his example of heartfelt, loving, no-nonsense concern. You are so lucky to have such fatherly advice, a missing piece in the lives of too many kids today.
Stephen, you and I and Spurrier know that, back in the day, things like quarterbacks drinking beer on campus were kept hush-hush and handled "in house." Instead of becoming front-page news all over South Carolina and online chat fodder in global cyberspace, you simply trudged up stadium steps until you puked.
Rightly or wrongly, these days a major college quarterback running afoul of The Man is a bigger deal.
Success is magnified, too.
Tebow comparison
Consider the potential fruits waiting for the next good South Carolina quarterback.
Like Tommy Suggs, you might go 3-0 against Clemson.
Like Todd Ellis, you might lead a team to back-to-back bowl games and then become a well-dressed attorney.
Like Phil Petty, you might win back-to-back bowl games. In Tampa, of all places.
Like Anthony Wright, you might play a long time in the NFL.
At least, right?
As Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his fellow Florida Gators were pummeling the Gamecocks in Columbia last November, Suggs and Ellis on South Carolina's radio network eagerly looked forward to 2008 and your debut. Suggs said you reminded him of Tebow.
Maybe it was a slight stretch.
Still, the pearls on the silver plate remain within reach.
Football fun.
Spurrier's wisdom.
Classmate camaraderie.
A college degree.
But dude ...
Sincerely,
A concerned citizen
Reach Gene Sapakoff at 937-5593 or gsapakoff@postandcourier.com.
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Comments
This article has 9 comment(s)
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Posted by robbybobby on March 29, 2008 at 8:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)
time for this "dude" to go away. he has stupid and arrogant written all over him, and that is a combination that should not be rewarded or praised. He is just a football player like a lot of other football players at carolina, none of whom will really make a difference. Go back to wherever.
Posted by Brant on March 29, 2008 at 9:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree, robby. He's typical of the modern "student"
athlete who's more interested in drinking, laying a few cheerleaders, drinking some more, having his name in the paper or on ESPN and tossing a football rather than actually knuckling down and playing towards a career and, if we're lucky, actually cracking a book. It's too bad that he's gonna be coddled by USC and told how wonderful he is so that anything he does off the field is just laughed at just 'cause he's a Football player. And he's a quarterback, right? Well, then, that's even better! We know how they're treated, don't we?
Posted by DCartisan on March 29, 2008 at 10:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
All this talent and a young immature brain. Ingredients for disaster.
Posted by carolinadude on March 29, 2008 at 10:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Heck guys,
This boy is another Derrick Watson. You can have all the talent and potential in the world, but it's always a matter of what you do with it. The Biblical law is "you reap what you sow". He's had three chances, and it should be strike three, and you're deported back to Florida. Individuals like this just sow discontent among the rest of the team. It should not be tolerated. This guy is no better than Moe Thompson who was loaded with talent but "crossed the legal and moral line". DEPORT GARCIA!!
Posted by KnowAllSeeAll on March 29, 2008 at 11:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I 'spose this is what happens when parents never tell their kids that they're wrong. Used to be, anytime a kid's head would get too big for his own good, the parents would take him down a peg or two. It's hard for a kid of 18 to have all this adulation and a free college education handed to him all at once, without the parents preparing him to handle the pressures accordingly. Hopefully this kid gets his head on straight before all is said and done.
Posted by OldSalt on March 29, 2008 at 12:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The fact of the matter is none of us know who this young man really is or what he is really like. We know he is young and foolish - I was - I guess none of you were. Most of us were lucky or blessed or prayed for enough not to get into serious trouble or get caught; and most of us did not have it appear in the paper when we did.
Young people throw their lives away every day. Some can recover in time. I'm rooting for them, no matter what uniform they wear. How sad that some of you are not.
Posted by tigerama on March 29, 2008 at 3 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Gene showing his true colors here. These issues can not be blamed on Holtz anymore since this is his dude. 3 strikes and his is out. I applaud the university for doing what spurrier could not. Clean-it up and gain control or the NCAA should. Student Athletes must be held at the same descipline level as the rest of the student body. You can not treat them differently.
Posted by robbybobby on March 29, 2008 at 3:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
you are kind, old salt, to say he is young and foolish. It's not that simple. Yes, we were all young and foolish, even worse, but so what?? Most of the kool aid drinkers on the gamecock web sites say the same thing. They try to excuse garcias bad behavior by normalizing it in some way because "all of us did it". Maybe we did, but also remember that when "all of us did it" and "all or some of us got caught", we paid the price, and usually didn't get a bunch of do-overs. Carolinadude is right on - this is derek watson all over again. Yes, maybe we don't know him personally, but that is just another crutch the young folks use to limp through bad decisions and behavior. "Who are you to judge me, you don't know me" is a tired whine. This is not rocket science, and he is not a complicated person throwing his life away. He is just stupid and arrogant and thinks he can do what he wants because he is a jock. There are thousands of garcias out there everywhere, and they are getting boring. Begone with the lot of them. A pox on their houses. Enough is enough.
Posted by BlackMagic84 on May 2, 2008 at 9:13 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Nice open letter but full of a lot
of BS. Garcia has proven on at least 3 maybe even 4 separate occasions he is not willing to obey simple laws. I can assure you the Gamecock coaches gave him an ear-full several times but it had no impact. Garcia thinks he is "above it all" and will get to play college football and NFL. If South Carolina and Spurrier had any integrity remaining, they would permanently cut Garcia. However Spurrier is no talking about Garcia coming back before the Aug 15 previously announced date. Just like the past suspension, Spurrier makes a big deal of the suspension then lets Garcia return early. Spurrier is doing the exact same thing Holtz did, if you are considered a "super star" at South Carolina you can get away with anything.
Garcia has repeatedly shown he does not care what the rules are, they do not apply to him.
Get rid of Garcia. Sooner the better!!