The Red and White From State

Mike Paulus, the red-shirt freshman quarterback at UNC had this to say about his brother Greg, the starting point guard at Duke, and then a little tidbit about himself tonight on a Jason Jennings WRAL-TV sports segment:

“He is a little punk out there, and I think a lot of people know that, but when I get in there to play, I talk a lot, I do.  I think you have to be cocky confident to make your team believe into [sic] you.”

Interesting.  Paulus the Younger is saying that his brother is a “punk” on the basketball court.  His word, not ours, let’s be clear about that.  Anyway, that’s hardly news.  You’ll hear a lot of fans say that about Greg Paulus.  That’s nothing new from the Blue Devils, as Paulus is only one of a seemingly endless string of Duke provocateurs who stir it up with both jabber and jabs and then play the victim and fall over like a tossed rag doll when a breeze blows across their rosy cheeks.  We’ve seen that before from Duke players and when Greg Paulus leaves there will be another coming in to take his place.  After all, the ACC’s referees have bought into their acting skills for years and there’s no sign of that ever changing.

What’s really interesting to me in the quote is Mike Paulus telling us in advance that he runs his mouth out on the football field.  That’s nothing new either, but you would think that it is considering a media firestorm about that very subject just recently. Seems I remember a certain NFL quarterback who played his college ball locally being vilified for his cocky yap out on the football field and on the sidelines.  Keep that in mind in the future when Paulus The Younger makes good on his promise to trash-talk out on the football field, and let’s see how this is handled in the local sports media.  If they glad-hand Mike Paulus on the heels of crucifying Philip Rivers for that very same thing, then, hmmm.  That will say more about them than anything Paulus ever utters on the gridiron.

File this quote away for the future.