Comments on: Todd Helton apologizes for his DUI

By: dirtyharry1971

dirtyharry1971 — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 21:02:28 +0000

All DUI’s are is a money maker, end of story, nothing else to be said.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:05:07 +0000

You may be right, the passive voice may have been incidental and not intentional….I am sensitive to it because in my field you avoid passive voice if at all possible as communications are required to be as precise, brief, and unambiguous as possible. That may be why it is my natural inclination to think passive voice is intentional….to me, it is like the difference between a kid that broke a lamp saying “it fell” and “I knocked it off the table”.

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:35:10 +0000

I’m starting to feel better about you now that I know you’re so into sports in the D. lol

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:33:22 +0000

Actually, OG, if I remember right, the kid got a public intox and he wanted to argue that you had a right to get drunk on private property. He swore to take it to the Supreme Court. I lost track of it at some point.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:15:39 +0000

Han me one of those!

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:14:58 +0000

It’s an apology he cleared through his lawyers and agent, no doubt. I don’t know that the passive voice itself – though useful for flattening out a comment so that the subject appears to have take no action after all – is a bad habit most people have already picked up by the time they’re adolescents. Its overuse, or I should probably say its habitual, unconscious use, was one of the two or three most persistent bad writing tendencies my freshman and sophomore composition or critical writing students displayed for the entire thirty years or so that I taught those subjects.

Not coincidentally, a sizable percentage of my students were on athletic scholarships. Their default to a lazy style of writing was less a measure of average intelligence or capabilities than it was of the “don’t think any more than you have to in order to pass” mentality of the high school athletics culture.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:07:21 +0000

Not if you don’t drink when you showed up in your own car.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:06:38 +0000

I agree. We expect far too much eloquence (not to mention a parapsychological proclivity to enunciate precisely the words we want to hear) from our athletes.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:04:45 +0000

Historio: if the defendant appeared before that softhearted (and -headed) idiot Judge Zobel, he would have been sprung in the same decision that exonerated Louise Woodward, and your right to drive drunk and abuse infants at the same time would probably be settled case law by now.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:59:40 +0000

Right. He should have shown us a picture of Kevin Youkilis instead. Much easier on the eyes.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:51:06 +0000

I always liked that book, Plimpton, and the movie based on the book (I was a kid when I first saw the movie, I doubt it has aged well). My team observed a day of mourning upon his death (which was during football season)….sadly, it did not inspire the troops to greatness that year.

By: heyblueyoustink

heyblueyoustink — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:31:05 +0000

And I was a dumb kid that got arrested for the same thing, very much understand the potential for killing people and ruining lives.

But i’m far from a hick, and there’s been nothing in Todd Helton’s career that kind of judgement.

No matter what family you come from, that’s just a convenioent excuse to lash out like an angry monkey.

By: ptfu

ptfu — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:13:14 +0000

Thanks for the clarity, paper. I’d assumed your name referred to George Plimpton’s book about him being the Lions’ last-string quarterback.

By: Shafer's Dealer

Shafer's Dealer — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:40:52 +0000

My family has been on the wrong side of these apologies. I know enough.

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:31:53 +0000

Dude, you lost me at “football.”

By: paperlions

paperlions — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:29:42 +0000

First year of fantasy football. My team started 0-3, I consulted with a friend with a lot of FF experience about moves to make and he said “This team looks good on paper, not sure what you can do besides wait until they produce.” The discordance between my team on paper and its performance led to a name change, and then I just used that as a screen name.

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:52:28 +0000

So it was crafted by his attorney? (Which would explain the passive voice.)

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:50:26 +0000

Agreed on that. Just had to yank your chain a little.

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:49:22 +0000

Awwww. You got a picture. What’s the “paperlions” for anyway?

By: ptfu

ptfu — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:47:28 +0000

It’s an undefined vague statement. It has multiple reasonable meanings, some of which conflict. I see why some are annoyed by its banality, and I see why you and others detect humility.

As for me, I don’t know which way to go with it. I don’t know Todd Helton, except through what’s in the article, and I don’t want to read anything into the statement. I suppose I will have to wait and see.

By: heyblueyoustink

heyblueyoustink — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:45:17 +0000

I should have worded that differently. Let’s just say, the Volstead Act was repealed a very long time ago, thus the term ” a nightly constitutional ” was born. The mistake was in driving while imbibing. It’s a good law with good reasons.

I just get a little peeved by a high and mighty approach to things like the above jackwaggon was adpoting. Judging people you’ve never met, and know very little about, is tantamount to ignorances akin to bigotry and other senseless hateful things.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:43:43 +0000

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:33:57 +0000

I don’t recall the Right to Imbibe Amendement….although, there was a dude from Boston who tried to argue for that in court. I wonder whatever happened with that case…

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:25:04 +0000

If it was Sunday, we could do a whole thread on “douche nuggetty.” Or, “nüggetty” — seeing as there are solo cups involved.

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:19:15 +0000

Ahhh, Ford trolling this am. You must be happy.

By: heyblueyoustink

heyblueyoustink — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:17:02 +0000

Rather short sighted of you, Should he have been on the road? No, bad decision to say the least. A total loser because he got a DUI? Or better yet:

“Strip away anything you know about him in regards to baseball and he is just another drunk hick.”

As a dumb kid, I got me a DUI, and classes to go with it. Classes filled with suit wearing businessmen in denial, working class citizens who just wanted to go home, and degenerates who didn’t care either way. For you to make such a blatantly ignorant brush stroke indicates to me that you are either a child, a social reject, or a blind arrogant elitist.

You know nothing about this man except that he plays baseball and got hit with a DUI. or maybe I should shorten it up to ” you know nothing”

The lesson to be learned, because last time I checked the Constitution allows us to imbibe as we please, ( even those who tout their love for bourbon ), his lesson is to follow the law and stay off the road if he does so.

By: mazblast

mazblast — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:48:05 +0000

A) and D). There’s nothing wrong with B) (not my thing, but YMMV),an F-150 is a fine truck, or C), neither of which is a criminal offense.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:46:16 +0000

It’s a disingenuous apology in which he doesn’t take any responsibility. It sounds like an 8 year old saying he’s sorry for being caught, but showing no remorse for his decision that could have killed someone. It would be one thing if he was a 22 yr old kid, but he’s a 39 yr old man….odds are that he has done similar things before….it isn’t that easy to get caught, it is highly unlikely that this was his first or second time making this poor decision.

By: trevorb06

trevorb06 — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:40:49 +0000

Pot… meet kettle. Kettle, pot. Pot, kettle.

By: brianbowman16

brianbowman16 — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:37:30 +0000

Look the f out everyone, it appears that Craig had a few room many solo cups last night and he is hungover and cranky! He sounds like Michael David Smith writing about the Detroit Lions. “bitch, bitch, bitch, maybe some useful information, insult, burn, insult” and repeat. I usually enjoy the he’ll out of Craig but this comes off as as little douche nuggetty.