This goes along with: Hunter pulls Booty, Tiger rout Razorbacks & Booty leaves LSU early, Tigers go on to SEC Championship :helmet:
Oh, for heaven's sake, let it go already! What kind of "fans" are we, who constantly bash former players who have proudly worn the purple and gold. You would think Josh Booty was a four-year starter for one of our hated rivals, Alabama or Ole Miss, who beat us 45-0 four years straight then told us how sorry we were afterwards. With all the crap said about him, you'd never think he was one of our own. You're upset because Josh Booty played pro baseball for a few years instead of coming straight to LSU, fine. You're upset because when Booty finally came to LSU, he didn't break every school and conference record and lead LSU to three SEC titles and two national titles, fine. You're upset because he kept everyone's darling, the almighty "Chosen One" Rohan Davey from getting on the field and winning every game for LSU that "Booty lost" (like you all just know he would have), fine. We all have our beefs with players and coaches, especially when games are being lost. But for cryin' out loud, it's been nearly three years since he played at LSU, and to this day I cannot log onto this board without having to read jokes, wisecracks, "Booty sucks," and all this garbage. And everytime his name comes up, you still hear, from people who claim to be die-hard purple-n-gold (but who clearly can't stand certain players who wore the colors), the most vicious personal attacks on Josh, Abram, the Booty family, Evangel Christian Academy, and on and on and on. I'm SICK OF IT! You will NEVER see me constantly run down a former player. I'm proud of all of the players who came through LSU. I wish them the best of luck, and hope they go forth in the NFL and in life to make this university proud. If they don't, I will criticize them A LITTLE. But I will not go out of my way to rant and rave and make jokes about how sorry they are. What is the point? Aren't we supposed to be proud of them? Another thing, and this is the last time I will say this. Josh was not that bad. Everybody talks about the two-point conversion at Alabama in 1999 and UAB. Funny how nobody talks about him coming off the bench in the middle of the 2000 season and leading us to four straight victories. Did he live up to his hype? Of course not. Very few could live up to that kind of hype. None of us certainly could. For those who think Rohan was just head-and-shoulders above him, well, Coach Saban is a better judge of football talent than ANY OF US, and Saban obviously thought Booty was the equal of Davey talent-wise, otherwise Rohan would have been the unquestioned #1. It serves neither us nor Josh nor LSU to constantly berate him and wish him failure. It would look good for us to instead wish him well and hope for his success, and be proud of him, like we should be proud of all our former LSU Tigers. I'm very disappointed that some on this forum despise Josh so much they just cannot let the past go and continue to keep putting crap like this up. It's been three years folks. As Coach Saban said so eloquently once, "It's time to move on." So let it go. LET IT GO! LET IT GO! LET IT GO! PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, LET IT GO! P.S.- My chosen one comments were in no way meant to demean Rohan Davey. He is an outstanding athlete and young man, who has always made LSU proud and continues to make all Tiger fans proud. I just believe we don't need to put down Josh to build up Rohan. Rohan's outstanding record of accomplishment, on the field and off, speaks for itself. But then again, so does Josh's. There, I have said my peace. Now can we all let sleeping dogs lie and continue to enjoy this great football season? Thank you.
Sorry, I couldn't resist I have a friend who is a Browns fan who sarcastically said Booty's departure was a key to victory. It was just a joke and nothing more. I've actually been rather supportive of Booty over the years. I thought he should be our QB. I was wrong. Doesn't make him a bad person, although sometimes he doesn't always think much before opening his mouth. He's like alot of folks I come across. Even friends of mine with Evangel ties have told me he's a knucklehead. I wish him well. I don't intend to damn the man by pointing out a few coincidences that don't necessarily portray him in a good light. The items pointed out above may have happened with him around.
Lighten up, Jetstorm. Nobody really thinks the Browns won because they cut Booty who wasn't likely to play anyway. They didn't cut him to sign another QB they thought was better. They decided to go with only 2 QBs on their roster to open up a spot for a lineman they thought might help them win now. Other teams are doing the same thing. Its a business and player personel decision NFL teams make all the time. I don't hate Booty. I don't much like him either but then I never met him and I never met Rohan either. I don't have an ounce of hard feelings toward him for choosing to accept $2 million to play baseball. Do I think Rohan is by far the better QB not only with his physical skills and ability to come up with the big play but his team leadership and ability to make his teamates better just by his being on the field much in the same way Larry Bird and Magic Johnson made their surrounding cast better? A resounding yes. Much of the time that Booty was starting was when Rohan was injured. Nobody is accusing Booty of pulling a Tanya Harding move. Booty is a good athlete and he did the best he could with what he has. What irks a lot of people including myself is the Evangel Holyer than Thou attitude. Hey, if you want to have a school that teaches kids in the values of your chosen religion, fine. If you want to have a football team at that school its fine with me. There are many church affiliated schools that have good football teams. Catholic High here in Baton Rouge and in the past a lot of good teams in the New Orleans Catholic divisions. Parkview Baptist and Redemptorist in BR have great programs in football, basketball and baseball. But when you build a sports program by using the power of the $$ to recruit players from not only in Louisiana but out of state as well because you have the money to offer scholarships to players and jobs to parents you have created an uneven playing field. So if certain people by their attitudes, demeanor and even by situations that they don't control themselves invite a few jibes by the fans it dosen't mean that we want to see them die a painful death with festering boils in a rundown mobile home. Due the the way things played out during the whole Booty saga there are always going to be a few jibes and a few jokes from Tiger fans. No matter what any of us say its not going to affect Booty one bit financially or personally. I wish him the best. Maybe he will develope a talent to be a comedian who makes fun of himself one day. After all Rodney Dangerfield is getting pretty old.
Which brings me to my final point, before I let this go and we get back to rooting for the Tigers to go undefeated. I think if you would ever actually visit Evangel's campus, and look at their facilities, you would see how ridiculous the above statement is. Compared to New Orleans/Baton Rouge Catholic schools, Evangel has a very tiny fraction of the money to throw around. There are no massive cash reserves being used to recruit players and set their parents up in cush jobs and nice houses. That simply DOES NOT HAPPEN! There are no massive scholarships funds for athletes. A TINY FRACTION of Evangel students are on financial aid, and the school can barely afford that. Since going to the semi-finals in 3A back in 1995, there have been numerous LHSAA investigations and audits of Evangel, many at the school's request. They have turned up NOTHING. Big fat zilch-ola. They are clean as a freshly wiped countertop. That is a fact. As for your discussion of "Well, private schools have an inherent advantage, blah-blah-blah," save it. That is a philosophical argument, and you are welcome to petition Tommy Henry and the LHSAA to have all private schools thrown out of teh LHSAA. When it comes to the strict letter of the LHSAA rule-book, Evangel is in FULL COMPLIANCE. Always has been. As for the "holier-than-thou" attitude, you know, I get that a lot, and it usually comes from two sources; people who have never had up-close personal relationships with Evangel and the folks affiliated with that school, like I have, or supporters of football teams who have been beaten by Evangel. While they make no bones about Christ being the only way to Heaven, they have never said that the Evangel/Shreveport First Assembly of God theological viewpoint/moral code is the only or even the best form of Christianity. But they live their faith, and they don't try to hide it, especially not when cheering for their football team. If that bothers you or other people, well, that's just too bad. I've never seen or heard with my own eyes and ears an Evangel supporter crow about being "God's favorite team." They do like to think that football gives them the oppurtunity to extend their ministry. I see nothing wrong with that at all. For those of you who want to get past the "I HATE EVANGEL! THEIR CHEATERS! Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!" arguments and want to truly understand the roots of Evangel's rise to power, I've stated the reasons before, I'll state them again. 1. Coaching. The best high school coaching staff in America. Period. Duron is an absolute offensive mastermind; Dunn has won everywhere he has been; John Booty, when he was there, was an absolutely amazing teacher of drop-back QBs. Wouldn't be surprised to see a drop-off in Evangel's offensive performance now that he's gone. It may have already started with the loss to Longview. 2. Location/Market. Evangel is the only major private school in the Shreveport/Bossier area. Hard to believe considering the absolutely awful Caddo Parish School System, which, like Baton Rouge, has been torn apart by a desegregation lawsuit. Other than very small Loyola and Calvary Baptist, Evangel is the ONLY private school option for parents in Shreveport looking for an alternative to Caddo Parish Schools. And when it comes to quality football, they are the only game in town. I can't remember the last time a public school from Shreveport/Bossier went to the 'Dome. 3. Offense. Evangel threw the football before anyone else in this state did. They were the pioneers of wide open, Spurrier-style offense at the high school level in the South. And they had the coaches and the athletes to run it well. It started with just one. Josh Booty and his coaches, his dad and Duron. It became such a success that, as the school grew, the football team grew. Kids in Shreveport, frustrated with playing on losing teams that ran the straight-T, heard that Evangel dared to throw the football back in the early 90's, so they went to that school, hoping to win and have a little fun while doing so. That got the ball rolling and the school growing. Of course, having a good bloodline of quarterbacks from the Berlin/Booty family helped a great deal. 4. Strength and Conditioning. When Evangel was getting destroyed in the late 80's and early 90's, and they didn't have as many star athletes as they do now, Coach Duron looked for any edge he could possibly get against opponents. He went out and consulted the best strength coaches in America (Duron is a man of connections), went to coaching/weightlifting workshops, designed a system that best fit his players needs and the team's desired emphases, etc, etc. He also raised the money (the old fashioned way Bengal B, through bake sales, car-washes, collection plates at church, etc., etc.) to purchase the state of the art weight-lifting equipment necessary to do this. This was unheard of at the time in NW Louisiana, high school coaches back then simply didn't understand why players needed to lift 365 days a year to be champions (Boy they sure do now though). 5. Good, old-fashioned hustle and organization. From the time a kid comes into 6th grade at Evangel, they learn "The System." Most public schools in Caddo Parish do not have that luxury, since kids rarely go to a set high school out of a certain junior high school. Evangel worked their offense, started winning a few ballgames, got kids interested in the exciting new offense they were running, attracted transfers, won a few more games, and so the ball got rolling. As I touched on before, Coach Duron/Dunn/Booty have football and football media connections nation-wide, and they used those connection to sell their program, sell their recruits, and attract national attention. And the snowball grew. And it's still growing. All these factors came together at the right time, with the right mix of players, to produce a winning program. The playing field is NOT un-even. Had the Caddo Parish School System not gone straight down the tubes in the 1980s, there would never have been an Evangel Christian Academy. Public schools can do the same thing, see the rise of West Monroe in the mid-90s as proof of that (some of West Monroe's success, unlike Evangel's, WAS ill-gotten, but that is another discussion for another time) Evangel did what other school's in the Shreveport/Bossier area were unwilling to do; spend just a minimal amount of overhead and a whole lot of hustle and manpower to build a winning football program. The New Orleans Catholic schools have wealth, establishment, and built-in advantages Evangel could only dream of. I never cease to be amazed at the hatred and mis-information out there about Evangel, and can only attribute it to envy; Evangel has achieved what so many want, and others, jealous, would rather tear them down then spend the effort necessary to build for themselves what Evangel has. But it is so much easier to destroy than to create, is it not? Okay, I'm through ranting for the night. But hey, with all the anti-Booty, anti-Evangel posters on this board, there ought to be at least one of us presenting the other side of the story. And there are always two sides to every story. If anyone on this board wishes to challenge my assertions, that's fine. Just one tip; bring documentation. You want to accuse Evangel of recruiting, paying off players and their families, secret Satanic rituals under the bleachers, you had better bring hard, factual evidence to back your outrageous claims up. Come strong, or don't come at all. Thanks all and Good night. P.S.- In the interest of full disclosure, several members of my extended family (but not me nor any of my immediate family) have attended Evangel, one of whom played on the football team. We have had a long affiliation with the school, which has been nothing but positive and beneficial for us.
Evangel dislike is usually envy... The dislike I see for Evangel seems similar to the dislike some for any successful organization whether it be the Cowboys, 49ers, wall streeters, rich people etc...it's generally teh same people who whine about the TAF and rich folks that whine about Evangel...poor vs rich, public vs private, etc I very, very seldom hear anyone I really respect bash evangel or the Bootys, it's usually some yahoo with the IQ of a rock talking about something he knows nothing about...he does know that Evangel & Booty make him very uncomfortable. Why so many people are bothered by the Booty's and Evangel I will never understand. I do know that the lower one's socio-economic class and moral/ethical behavior, the more likely one is to dislike Evangel or Booty. disclaimer: I don't know anyone who ever attended the Evangel, have never seen the school, and don't really care one way or the other about their success, and have never met a Booty or relation thereof. But if there's one constant theme on these message boards, it's 'little people', those with very few accomplishments in their lives, bashing successful people. Whether it's Dale Brown, Joe Dean, TAF, or Josh Booty, most of the folks ripping them have lives that are a complete waste compared to the above who actually did something with theirs. If Ro wants to talk about Booty not being any good as a QB, I'm ready to listen. He's got the credentials. Saban, sure. If Joe Six Pack wants to start booing at a game at Booty (probably 'cause his life is a waste and his wife is ugly) it don't carry much weight with me. Booty was on the field giving it his best shot, that loser fan was in the stands doing nothing. How's that for something to talk about ? cheers!
I don't know if Evangel recruits or not, but in 1995( I think) Logansport High School won the class A state championship, the next season all-state players Cisco Perkins and Robert Davis were ar Evangel. How does that happen???
Let's make it a rule on TigerForums . . . Never bash or non-constructively criticize any current, future or past member of the LSU Tiger football team. I will always have a special place in my heart for any young man who is brave enough to draw sword and pistol in defense of the LSU TIGER BANNER!! :geaux: :lsug:
