Ah, yes. The ol’ lawsuit threat.
Perhaps it’s a little premature; just a bit, don’t you think? At this point, Miami is only under investigation from the NCAA. There hasn’t even been a Notice of Allegations yet. Just as cries for the death penalty are a bit hasty, so is the promise to bring the NCAA to its courthouse knees if such a penalty -- or any, for that matter -- is enforced.
But, that’s what former Hurricanes running back Alonzo Highsmith is prepared to do if the NCAA levies any sanctions against the program from accusations stemming from former booster Nevin Shapiro.
Highsmith, a former UM running back whose son, A.J. Highsmith, is currently on the roster, tells CaneSport.com that any sanctions placed on the Miami program are unfair to “most kids” who weren’t tied to the allegations.
“This lawsuit will be on behalf of all the kids who have done nothing wrong and would be being deprived of what they came to college for,” Highsmith said. “Look at the Reggie Bush situation. Look at what he did to the USC program. All those kids that went to USC for all the right reasons had to suffer the consequences.
“This has been going on for years and years. If someone at General Motors does something wrong, they don’t shut down the company. Nobody ever challenges the NCAA on this. Why? Why?”
Not content with just one analogy, Highsmith continued.
“If you have a family and one child does something wrong then he can’t go to Disney World. But you don’t make all of the rest of the kids stay home too.”
Really? Whatever happened to the phrase “If you all don’t be quiet back there, I’ll turn this car around right now!”?
But Highsmith does have one good point. It’s tough to punish others for the actions of a few -- although in the interest of fairness, a few could be interpreted as three, or over 70.
For the record, 12 current UM players have been connected to Shapiro through the Yahoo! Sports tell-all. Not connected to Shapiro, however, is Highsmith’s son.
Something tells me Highsmith wouldn’t be threatening legal action against the NCAA over “unfair sanctions” if his son were connected.
He’d probably be suing Yahoo! Sports instead.
It’s a personal matter.
“There are at least 70 kids on that team that have absolutely nothing to do with Nevin Shapiro, and you are going to tarnish their image over the actions of a few?
“You want to punish those kids that did something wrong, fine, I understand. But it’s a total travesty to punish the other kids who made good decisions. I’m going to sue if they try to ruin these kids’ college experience. I’m going to sue somebody.”
Just like he sued when the NCAA deprived all those poor kids at USC from going to bowl games for the next two years.
Oh, wait.