Greg Paulus: From Scapegoat to Savior

Greg Paulus has always been the player Duke fans blame for everything. I did it, and you probably did too. He was everything Duke basketball has resembled over the last ten, horrible, years. White player? Check. Slow? Check. Small for his position? Check. Role model was Coach K? Check. He was all these things and was hated for four years. Finally, Coach K made a smart decision and benched him.



Images like the one above embodied Paulus' career at Duke. About five seconds later, Paulus would get beat to the basket by a much quicker, bigger, and stronger player and then try to flop. What most people don't know about Paulus is that in high school he was a better football player than basketball player. He was the Gatorade National High School Football Player of the Year and had scholarship offers from Notre Dame and Miami.



After his basketball career at Duke didn't work out. Let me re-phrase that sentence. After his basketball career at Duke failed miserably, like a two year old trying to ride a bike for the first time, Paulus decided to try football at Syracuse University. Syracuse is his hometown, but it's also my second favorite college.



At first, I wondered why Greg was trying to ruin college sports for me. Then, I realized that Syracuse football is absolutely terrible. He, as a hometown hero, could actually help. Help? Usually when Greg Paulus and help are in the same sentence it results in a picture like this.



However, yesterday he was named starting quarterback for Syracuse. With the return of wide receiver Mike Williams, Paulus could actually form a good connection. Now I don't expect Syracuse to go to the Rose Bowl, but I expect an improvement over last year.



Paulus also finally gets a chance to redeem himself for four years of mistakes and flops. There isn't a football equivalent to a flop is there? Paulus can prove that he really is an athlete, and he can do it in front of his home crowd just like he did in high school at CBA.