We sat on the story yesterday because we thought something like this might be in the works: a tragic jet-ski accident involving two Clemson linemen and a track coach may (watch the verbiage--may, as in possibly--have some boosterish NCAA rules-specific violations attached to it.
Assistant track coach Jarrett Foster died as a result of his injuries on Tuesday following what was undoubtedly a horrific accident on jet-skis owned by a pair of boosters with deep ties to the Clemson athletic program. Since Clemson's already been tagged once for letting recruits tinker with boosters' boats in 2001, the incident will likely draw the eye of the NCAA, who evidently has to have someone die in order to actually probe a potential violation at a school with any kind of athletic budget. If a preexisting personal relationship exists, there's no improper benefit, but we haven't heard that there was one from anyone besides message board gnomes pulling the "best friend of hairdressers's third cousin's Clemson AD's pet" connection bit.
That's not to trivialize what happened, which was tragic...yet if the NCAA's going to be three fingers up Drew Tate's ass for winning money in a golf tournament, they may want to look at this for just a second. Of course, we fully expect Iowa representative James Leach to ban Jet Skis in response to this incident, provided he can spot one under that dead sexy hat of his.
"No redeeming social value." Describes much, including this blog.