CFB AM: Diddy thinks he was being a good dad by fighting UCLA coach
The craziest story of the summer, as you surely recall, was Diddy getting arrested and charged with five counts -- three of which were for assault with a deadly weapon -- after reportedly getting into a fight with UCLA strength coach Sal Alosi.
As the story goes, the rapper had some issue with the coach regarding the way he was apparently treating Diddy's son, a defensive back for UCLA, and went to confront the coach on campus. That turned into Diddy allegedly swinging a kettle bell and ending up in jail.
On Monday during a radio interview, Diddy said that he's been banned from practices at UCLA. "As I know right now I'm not allowed," he said.
Diddy denied assaulting Alosi with a kettle bell, calling that a "miscommunication," which is his right even if being charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon suggest otherwise. He wouldn't explain what really happened but tried to defend his actions by saying he was just looking out for his son and, yeah, this is where you lose us, Diddy.
"I think there's times when you have to just communicate and find out what's going on and be by your children's side," Diddy said, as if he's describing a civil parent-teacher conference. "At the end of the day it's just about communication to me. I went there to communicate. I can't speak about anything else that happened.
"You have to be there for your kids 110 percent. As a father or a mother, anybody can relate to if you feel like you have to go and straighten something out for your child."
I don't know, Diddy. Most fathers and mothers don't get arrested and charged because a strength coach -- as they are known to do in Division I athletics -- gets on their kid in practice to make him work harder. That's not exactly the model for Parent of the Year. If I ever complained about a difficult coach, my dad would say, essentially, "Yeah ... and? Work harder and play well." To be fair, he never had access to kettle bells, though.
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
1. Labor board denies college athletes union
This isn't the sexiest of stories, but it's an important one in college sports: On Monday, the National Labor Relations Board blocked an attempt by Northwestern football players to form the first college athlete's union. In a unanimous decision, the board concluded the idea of having union and nonunion programs would lead to competitive imbalances and therefore nixed the whole thing. It's important to know, though, that what Monday's decision didn't do was determine college athletes are not employees. There will be more to come on that issue in the coming years.
For now, I agree wholeheartedly with what my colleague Stewart Mandel writes here: This decision is not at all a total loss for the players. Since March 2014, when a NLRB director decided Northwestern players had the right to unionize and set in motion this whole process, college sports has improved exponentially for players. From Stew's piece, here are some things that were accomplished during that time:
Kudos to Kain Colter, the former Northwestern QB who led the players' charge, and the rest of the supporters for making a tangible difference. More changes will surely come.
2. NC State walk-on gets scholarship for being "no regular soldier in the game"
I know videos of walk-ons getting scholarships aren't exactly new to the Internet, but I'm a sucker for them and this one of NC State's Nicholas Lacy having his moment is really cool. His DB coach describes why he's a special player and guy while setting him up to be surprised by the team.
Couple other reads if you have a few minutes to spare: Chris Low went behind the scenes at Auburn for a day of fall camp, and George Schroeder stopped in on Texas A&M, where the Aggies believe they're building a team worthy of their gaudy new stadium.
3. Don't miss Bruce Feldman's 2015 Freaks!
Bruce rolled out his annual Freaks list this past week, with his top five guys running on Monday -- USC, TCU, Penn State, Texas A&M and Baylor are represented at the top of this year's class . "Freaks" is probably my favorite college football item of the whole year.
In case you missed the previous guys, here they are: 25-21 / 20-16 / 15-11 / 10-6
LASTLY
* Here are some details on Texas A&M's new deal with Adidas, which gives the Aggies the richest apparel deal in the SEC.
* And here is the largest high school video board in the country, which was just unveiled in Georgia.
Have a great Tuesday, everyone.
Teddy Mitrosilis works in social content development at FOX Sports Digital. Follow him on Twitter @TMitrosilis and email him at tmitrosilis@gmail.com.
