This is all starting to come into focus for me. Granted this is just my theory. For a while now I've been asking myself why Ferentz didn't just bench the guy or throw him off the team a couple of years ago after it became apparent Koulianos (I'm done calling him DJK - it's like saying Voldamort - name shouldn't be said) simply was an insubordinate punk. Ferentz's hands have been tied b/c my guess is there is enough of a segment of the team with whom Koulianos is very popular (and maybe for the wrong reasons), and another segment that can't stand him. Kicking him off would have resulted in Ferentz losing a segment of the team, keeping him on may tick the other group off, but until this year he had the leadership (i.e. Angerer) to keep it together. Ferentz concluded at some point the lesser of the 2 evils was keeping him on and doing his best to reign him in. This year there wasn't that type of leadership and it's clear to me no one particular player commanded the complete respect of everyone else on the team.
Ferentz was damned if he did and damned if he didn't with respect to booting him. And this trickled into the fanbase. Ultimately, Ferentz couldn't come out and tell us that Koulianos was not starting b/c he continues to break team rules or whatever b/c to tell us the truth would mean ticking off the segment of the team that loves them some Koulianos and really cause the fanbase to demand the guy get the boot (something Ferentz decided he could not do). But in the process of not really telling us why Koulianos was in the doghouse, he turned Koulianos into a sympathetic figure among the fans: the misunderstood, young man who walks to a different beat.
Frankly, given everything I've heard and read, I am concerned there may be a drug problem within the team, and that can be a huge dividing force between those that do and those that don't. The ones that don't have to hold their nose and work with the doers, and the first sign of adversity, boom, battle lines are drawn within the ranks.
Just my theory, but for the first time I am really starting to feel sorry for Ferentz and truly hope he comes out of this okay emotionally and professionally. While at Iowa I lived in a housing situation (not the same as a March-situation) where a group of guys did some drugs like coke and ex, and a group of us didn't. I didn't really care what the drug guys did behind closed doors on their time, but when they started doing and taking incredibly irresponsible risks that affected everyone, it became a problem that did not end well. I can only imagine what that might do to a football team, a segment of which is committed to making the sacrifice to win, and another that simply does not want to do the same.
Ferentz was damned if he did and damned if he didn't with respect to booting him. And this trickled into the fanbase. Ultimately, Ferentz couldn't come out and tell us that Koulianos was not starting b/c he continues to break team rules or whatever b/c to tell us the truth would mean ticking off the segment of the team that loves them some Koulianos and really cause the fanbase to demand the guy get the boot (something Ferentz decided he could not do). But in the process of not really telling us why Koulianos was in the doghouse, he turned Koulianos into a sympathetic figure among the fans: the misunderstood, young man who walks to a different beat.
Frankly, given everything I've heard and read, I am concerned there may be a drug problem within the team, and that can be a huge dividing force between those that do and those that don't. The ones that don't have to hold their nose and work with the doers, and the first sign of adversity, boom, battle lines are drawn within the ranks.
Just my theory, but for the first time I am really starting to feel sorry for Ferentz and truly hope he comes out of this okay emotionally and professionally. While at Iowa I lived in a housing situation (not the same as a March-situation) where a group of guys did some drugs like coke and ex, and a group of us didn't. I didn't really care what the drug guys did behind closed doors on their time, but when they started doing and taking incredibly irresponsible risks that affected everyone, it became a problem that did not end well. I can only imagine what that might do to a football team, a segment of which is committed to making the sacrifice to win, and another that simply does not want to do the same.
