Is Eric Berry's Number Going To Be Retired?

#26
#26
I believe Florida & Tennessee should come together for one time. Build a statue at SEC headquarters in Bama of the infamous Tebow & Berry collision. That personifies SEC football. The only time reigning SEC offense and defense players of year met following season. And lived up to thw hype. Unstoppable force met the immovable object.
 
#27
#27
So you guys think Georgia should not have retired Herschel's jersey? Really? I don't think Berry should have his Jersey retired, at least not yet, but the fact he went pro has nothing to do with it. He made the right choice, and he gave his all to UT when he was here. He also reps UT well now. All told, he gave UT about 15 million dollars of free labor in exchange for about 60k in education.
 
#28
#28
bamawriter said:
I find it odd that Tennessee has NFL accomplishments in the requirements for jersey retirement. Not sure what that has to do with Tennessee.
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Agreed. I mean if a guy won a heisman & NC but was too small to play in NFL. You would penalize him?
 
#30
#30
Eric Berry would have been a fool to hang around and risk his shot at the NFL just to play for the 2010 Tennessee Volunteers. He absolutely made the right decision. With that said, I still think you should have to play 4 seasons for jersey retirement.
 
#31
#31
utvolpj said:
why 4 years? Why not make it 5yrs since that would completely exhaust all eligibility?

They sign a 1yr contract each season so he fulfilled his obligation. The point of college is to help get a better job and he did that. In fact, he did it better and is giving back more to UT than 99.9% of students that have attended classes there.
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Your first statement is kinda out there.....you have 5 to play 4.

The NCAA is considering allowing 4 year schollies because of the complaints about this. It appears that the schools are against it. However, he was in no danger at anytime of losing his. When you say the point of college is to get a better job, that is a twisted way of putting it. There are NO Engineers out there that have a job as an Engineer with 3 years of a 4 year degree. In fact, I would challenge you to find a career field that accepts 3 out of 4 years of a degree (Please translate this as 6 of 8 semesters or 12 of 16 quarters). There are none. The point of going to college for most (I hit the lottery I am going back for the CHICKS but don't tell my wife) is to get a degree. Some students get schollies, others don't. A fraction of the students are student athletes that get their asses kissed like the stud FB players. And the fact that he is giving back is wonderful but that statement is unfounded also since the VASF is made up of probably 99% non-former UT players. People give what they can. There are many folks that give to the academic side of the house, I doubt EB does. The fact that he can afford the time and money to give at a higher level is wonderful. HOWEVER, when The UT needed him to give them 13 more games, he couldn't do it. Now, when he wants The UT to give him a retired number, we shouldn't do it either.

We will see how effective he is for The UT when his brothers are on campus playing.
 
#32
#32
volinreallife said:
He made the decision for his family. They both lost their jobs. If Peyton's parents lost their jobs his junior year he makes the exact same decision he made because his parents were secure finacially.

Family comes before the college you chose anyday of the week.
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Hey I respect his decision. He did what he thought was right. I still love what he did while he was here at UT. Nothing will ever change that. However like I said before, I think jersey retirement should be regarded as the absolute highest honor a University can pay their athletes and I think the criteria for that should be very high. Part of that criteria should be that they play all 4 years of their eligibility.
 
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#33
#33
And after the long diatribe above, with the advent of the playoff system, we need to get used to 3 year players. Anyone with a shred of NFL talent will be gone in 3 years. I have no faith that the current system will last more than a few years and it will get expanded to 8 then 16 teams. When players start to play 14 -15 games a year over a 3 year period, they will begin to realize that they are simply shortening their time to earn big $$$ in the NFL.
 
#36
#36
TNGlen said:
And after the long diatribe above, with the advent of the playoff system, we need to get used to 3 year players. Anyone with a shred of NFL talent will be gone in 3 years. I have no faith that the current system will last more than a few years and it will get expanded to 8 then 16 teams. When players start to play 14 -15 games a year over a 3 year period, they will begin to realize that they are simply shortening their time to earn big $$$ in the NFL.
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I know it's naive to think this and it will never happen but I personally think the NFL should disallow drafting 3 year college athletes and if an athlete drops out of college after his junior year, the NFL should make them sit out a year before they can enter the draft. I think if you agree to play for a University and accept that free ride for 4-5 years of education, you should be obligated to play all 4 years of your eligibility. The injury factor is ridiculous because an athlete runs just as much (if not more) risk getting hurt their 1st three years in the program as they do their 4th.

The key here is that EDUCATION needs to be the thing that is put at the highest priority. Both the NCAA and the NFL need to work together to promote the maximum number of student athletes who actually finish school and earn their degree. The whole idea that colleges serve as nothing more than football vocational facilities needs to stop!
 
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#38
#38
TNGlen said:
HOWEVER, when The UT needed him to give them 13 more games, he couldn't do it. Now, when he wants The UT to give him a retired number, we shouldn't do it either.
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So if he ends his career with an injury like Inky Johnson. Then cant better his families finances and wont get oppurtunity to put up NFL numbers either so would never get jersey retired anyways. Selfish fans.
 
#39
#39
TNGlen said:
And after the long diatribe above, with the advent of the playoff system, we need to get used to 3 year players. Anyone with a shred of NFL talent will be gone in 3 years. I have no faith that the current system will last more than a few years and it will get expanded to 8 then 16 teams. When players start to play 14 -15 games a year over a 3 year period, they will begin to realize that they are simply shortening their time to earn big $$$ in the NFL.
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You won't see a 16 game playoff without a shortening of the regular season (and your numbers are off; as of currently such a format would jump teams up to a 16-17 game schedule for winning teams, not 14-15). But let's not (us) derail the thread debating ideal vs unideal playoff numbers or something as such.
 
#40
#40
DeepSpringsVol said:
So if he ends his career with an injury like Inky Johnson. Then cant better his families finances and wont get oppurtunity to put upf NFL numbers either so would never get jersey retired anyways. Selfish fans.
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If what happened to Inky happened to Eric we wouldn't even be having this discussion because Eric wouldn't have had the numbers he put up while at UT to even consider jersey retirement.

Plus I'm sorry, is there some sort of "life or death" situation that I'm missing here with regards to Eric's jersey being retired? Some of you act like it's the end of the world if Eric's number doesn't get retired. Oooooh the humanity!
 
#41
#41
DeepSpringsVol said:
Agreed. I mean if a guy won a heisman & NC but was too small to play in NFL. You would penalize him?
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....unless you're talking like a Doug Flutie QB I'm not sure how likely/possible that scenario would be

(and the success rate of those is seemingly - though debatable - less as well)
 
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#42
#42
TNBV said:
So you guys think Georgia should not have retired Herschel's jersey? Really? I don't think Berry should have his Jersey retired, at least not yet, but the fact he went pro has nothing to do with it. He made the right choice, and he gave his all to UT when he was here. He also reps UT well now. All told, he gave UT about 15 million dollars of free labor in exchange for about 60k in education.
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So what you're saying is we should retire every player's jersey then?
 
#44
#44
bamawriter said:
I find it odd that Tennessee has NFL accomplishments in the requirements for jersey retirement. Not sure what that has to do with Tennessee.
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I had figured just that the university was never too keen on the idea of retiring college jersey numbers

(not like, with the current setup, there's been a ton of room on the stadium for them anyways either)
 
#47
#47
No way. What did he do? Yea he was a great player but he did not do anything worthy of having his number retired.
 
#48
#48
Brave Volunteer said:
I know it's naive to think this and it will never happen but I personally think the NFL should disallow drafting 3 year college athletes and if an athlete drops out of college after his junior year, the NFL should make them sit out a year before they can enter the draft. I think if you agree to play for a University and accept that free ride for 4-5 years of education, you should be obligated to play all 4 years of your eligibility. The injury factor is ridiculous because an athlete runs just as much (if not more) risk getting hurt their 1st three years in the program as they do their 4th.

The key here is that EDUCATION needs to be the thing that is put at the highest priority. Both the NCAA and the NFL need to work together to promote the maximum number of student athletes who actually finish school and earn their degree. The whole idea that colleges serve as nothing more than football vocational facilities needs to stop!
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So you are advocating slave labor? Why should anyone be forced to play college ball? And no one gets a 4 year scholarship. It is a year by year scholarship. The NFL is a job. A great job. Why do you think someone should be required to provide their service for free( and yes, the cost of an education compared to an NFL salary is basically nothing). The NCAA makes nearly all or their decisions on money. What makes it all right to force people to earn money for them? I would love to see college players stay for 4 years, but there is certainly something wrong with not allowing players to skip college if they have the skills. And the "value of education" is a horse crap argument. The value of a college education these days is very relative. Certainly doesn't guarantee a good salary. An NFL salary can provide enough freedom to travel the world and read all day long in your 30's. More education than most people every get from a 4 year degree.
 
#49
#49
Brave Volunteer said:
Some of you act like it's the end of the world if Eric's number doesn't get retired. Oooooh the humanity!
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Not the end of the world but honoring the one of the best players ever. It only makes sense. Now if its not a jersey retirement then engrave his likeness into a brick wall or something. Same with Wilson and others like Majors and Condredge. Players who fans cant agree on who gets jerseys retired and still honors and gives current players an honor to strive for. It stinks tht Doug Atkins got honored so late in his life he couldnt walk out on the field. But thats a side gripe of mine, I believe he should have been honored a long time ago.
 
#50
#50
Brave Volunteer said:
If what happened to Inky happened to Eric we wouldn't even be having this discussion because Eric wouldn't have had the numbers he put up while at UT to even consider jersey retirement.

Plus I'm sorry, is there some sort of "life or death" situation that I'm missing here with regards to Eric's jersey being retired? Some of you act like it's the end of the world if Eric's number doesn't get retired. Oooooh the humanity!
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The poster you're responding to said in his Last season. Regardless of his last season, his Jr. Year stats wouldn't change...

I think everyone is acting like him leaving 1 year early makes him a traitor to the university. I think if he would have stayed one more year with is financial status would have made him a traitor to his family, and indirectly to the university.

The fact of the matter is, since Al Wilson, he's the ONLY player that has come close to earning jersey retirement, and IMO, both have EARNED jersey retirement. I hate how it's a formula to decide who's to retire. This formula, to my knowledge, can't factor in off the field contributions to the university. E.B. has epitomized what VFL really means. I haven't seen any interviews where he doesn't mention his time at Tennessee.

I guarantee you as well, that E.B. will be the next player to offer a significant financial contribution for some sort of upgrade to the Football program.

Truth of the matter is E.B. did what was the best for his family, which is greater than any one year he could have served here. Selfish fans think he doesn't deserve it because he didn't finish his 4 years here, well that's crap. There is no understood "4-year duty requirement". The University is held to no such standard in offering scholarships, and players have no standard in accepting these for x amount of years.

E.B. SHOULD have his Jersey retired, and I think WILL have his jersey retired, because he has EARNED it, much past his tenure here on the Hill.
 
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