I said it in a previous column, 19 year olds make mistakes. And boy, do they make a lot of them! Yesterday, as I was writing my dissection of the Aaron Hernandez debacle, Rushel Shell took to the twittersphere to engage one of my favorite and one of the most informed sports analysts, Mark Madden. If he had any sort of credibility for returning to the southwestern PA region for the sake of being with his family, he effectively ruined it by acting out in incredibly childish fashion.
In what boiled down to a... well... let's call it a "measuring contest", Madden effectively "trolled" Shell into a war of words which climaxed when Shell outright began to lie about suspect photographs which he had personally taken of Madden while at a club in Pittsburgh. That claim was denied by Madden, who went on to wish him the best of luck in D3 football.
Looking this over, what did Shell hope to gain by attempting a verbal attack on Mark? Certainly Shell had to realize that his stock had plummeted due to his recent bouts with the Pitt coaching staff, his disgraceful departure from the university and his begging to be taken back. Surely he had to realize that he would need to express some amount of humility so that he might get his collegiate career back on track with a reputable and competitive university. These thoughts had to have crossed his mind at one point prior to last night's outburst, right?
Nope. He's 19 years old. And he's convinced that his way is the ONLY way. He may have been the darling of high school sports in Pennsylvania once, but this isn't high school anymore. Nobody owes him anything. If he wants to be treated like an adult and to be given the opportunity to play football at the college level, it's time to start acting like a respectable gentleman... even if he doesn't truly mean it. Otherwise, "King" Mark Madden's going to be correct again.
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