A Special Message to grasshopper

I criticized him… but it was only based on one chance encounter I had with him in the Cougareat/Wilkinson Center. It was not a fair assessment, just a snap judgement on my part. Also, I didn’t understand why he was the starting QB when there were others with more talent and ability, who watched from the side or shared time or simply left for other pastures. There were lots of us who suggested he play a different position but that never happened.

Having said all this, it is most definitely time to move on.

But we won’t… his name will pop up again from time to time and we will rehash it again.

My comment was not about whether or not he should have played / started and played with injuries, nor whether his playing squashed the careers of other QBs who may have had more potential. Those, to me, seem like legitimate concerns / complaints. And my comments was not singularly about Jim’s comment about Nelson (“How many nfl camps has Nelson been to?”), although that did motivate me to write my comment. That comment just seemed to be snarky / snotty. I have no quarrel with Jim’s brief contact with Nelson in the Cougareat. There have been several other snotty kind of putdowns of Nelson, by others, since he left school and my thought is, let the young man alone, he probably did the best he could given his measure of talent. Put yourself in Nelson’s place or imagine your son as Nelson. Would you do much different? Would you defend your son and his college career (no, I am not Nelson’s father)? How many of us are fallible ?

At the same time, not a biggie. I was motivated at that time to comment. If I had thought about it for a few minutes, I would not have commented.

Your comments are fine and I have no problem when somebody has a problem with something I write.

I wish more people would comment. That’s what made the board so great before.

Comment away!

Jim,

I think that we are all saying the same thing, but when we speak, everyone else is hearing something different.

They/we are hearing a bashing of the QB which, is not true. They/we are hearing a bashing of a HC which (may or may not) be true.

What I think that I hear all of us saying is that, Nelson, 3 STAR OR LESS, QB, was a great kid that gave us all that he had to give. None of us can ask more from the kid.

He played injured for us and did not complain. He had moments of being a very good QB. He took righteously every opportunity that was given to him, as he should have done. He was a competitor.

The problem was not with Nelson Riley. The problem was with the decision maker that sat a superior 4 star athlete on the bench for his entire career in favor of playing a QB with 3 or less stars.
He had to prove to all of us that stars attached to an athlete means nothing to him.

The decision maker went as far as playing this 3 star or less QB even with a fractured back rather than play the 4 star QB sitting on the bench that never had one single chance in his career to show us what he could do in a real game.

Anyone that sees this as bashing a QB just is not on the same page reading the history of the 2010-2014 BYU football seasons.

What did this have to do with me?