I remember Nellie. I was ISU's radio guy when he played for the Bengals, and he was recruited by a coach that got into hot water himself (Wayne Ballard) with the NCAA for infractions.
As a player, Nelson was a very gifted athlete, who at about 6-3 had great leaps and could shoot the 3 with anyone. Nellie had a good heart, but like a lot of kids from more heavily populated areas (Wilson?), the small-town lifestyle (where there was "nothing to do" but get into trouble) was really difficult to adapt to. Nelson always treated me with respect, and often spoke to fans with "Yes Sir" and "Yes, Ma'am", but it was easy to see had had plenty of personal struggles he was dealing with. You could see his game was hurt by his lack of personal discipline. I pray that Nellie is doing much better today and that he's learned a valuable lesson from his recent jail term.
I am the last person that will try and defend the actions of law-breaking athletes (or any other students) from colleges, whether it's ISU, or MSU, or UM. Even BYU has had it's share of troublemaking athletes over the past 4 or 5 years, and it's an embarrassing thing for die-hard fans of any school to watch. But for UM fans(Paytonlives, et.al.) to strut around with a holier-than-thou attitude is :lame:
A constant need to tear down others is a sign of a lack of self-respect and the belief that personally, you don't measure up. Tearing others down is the only way you've found to make yourself look acceptable to yourself.
The truth about almost ALL the trouble that athletes and most other law-breakers in society today get into is that throughout their lives, they've seldom had to face the consequences of their choices and actions. And the more we get away without having to be personally responsible for our actions, the more doomed we are to facing fates like those Nelson Peterson or Jared Allen has had.
I sincerely hope that UM has avoided a plethora of problematic athletes because they have come from more disciplined backgrounds, and not because others in the program, school and community are making it possible for them to continue to avoid responsibility for their poor choices. Hopefully, you're not one of those enablers, either...there are far too many positive things to be learned and taught from athletics to be overshadowed by the constant focus on the negatives.
:twocents: