Blessed Are The Meek

foleymeek

They say politics and sports do not mix but, maybe in one small way, politics helped Temple football on the evening of St. Patrick’s Day.

Joe Tacopina, a postgrad kicker from Cheshire Academy in Connecticut, committed to Temple that night. Tacopina is a preferred walk-on but so was Aaron Boumerhi and indications are he has the same kind of leg that Boomer has and might be able to do the same thing: Earn a scholarship.

If not, though, he will not be hurting for lunch money as his dad is Meek Mill’s attorney and that’s where the mixing of politics and sports comes into play.

Tacopina’s future coach–either head or special teams–is a big fan of his dad’s client and, in recruiting, every little advantage helps. Hell, Foley is about the same age as Tacopina’s dad, also named Joe.

Funny, I don’t picture the 50-year-old Foley for having Mill on his playlist. When Foley was 17, the top songs on the top 40 chart were Footloose by Kenny Loggins and Jump by Van Halen.  Somehow that evolved into “So Fly” or “Funk or Die” and “I’ve Got The Juice.” (Although that last track should be played when Frank Nutile throws a touchdown pass.)

When Foley is not rocking the Temple gear, he rocks the free Meek Mill wear.

Tacopina chose Temple over a similar offer from Scott Frost’s Nebraska program. Surely, Tacopina would probably be on national TV more with the Huskers, but there are other advantages of a four-year career in Philadelphia. Temple has a great law school should son chose to follow in dad’s footsteps and there are plenty of internship opportunities that exist here that do not exist the cornfields of the Midwest.

Temple will need a kicker after Boomer’s gone and apparently this young man has a chance to be just as good as Boomer. For Temple fans, that’s the kind of insurance policy they have been looking for and now have.

If it mixing sports and politics helped, the end result is all that matters.

Wednesday: Succession Plan

Sunday: Done Deal Part II

 

 

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8 thoughts on “Blessed Are The Meek

  1. I don’t have a problem with Foley supporting Meek Mill.

    The problem I have with the program, is when your LB, Atoki, decides he no longer wants to play football & Coach Collins keeps him scholarship as the team DJ !!!

    First a SWAG coordinator and now team DJ. Is Collins running a football program or promoting a rock festival ? What a waste of money. Time for Dr Kraft to step in and talk about fiscal responsibility.

  2. The stadium is never getting built. Today they rolled out about 20 disabled people to protest the stadium and the closing of 15th Street with the usual rant that TU lies and only screws over the “residents.” It’s the Linc or nothing. Wouldn’t be surprised if Lurie in some way was funding these protests. he’s a snake. ,

    • So we’ve gone from “Still hearing from sources in the know that construction is still on schedule to start in June. …” to reality. I think the reality has always been that there is no political gain for the stadium and politicians control the gears here. The only people I’ve ever heard say this is a “done deal” are people who live in Virginia, Long Island and New York. They are completely ignorant of how corrupt Philadelphia city politics is. They will learn soon enough.

      • It’s interesting, because either way the whole ordeal will eventually come to a head. Fact, we will get priced out of the Linc in time. To delay now only kicks the proverbial can (or punting a football?) further down the alley. The central issue of the cost of the Linc is not going away regardless of political climate, funds, or the neighborhood. A solution must be made and executed.

  3. Way out thought: If Amazon wanted to build the facility all the cities are bidding for adjacent to the campus, what would the reaction be?

  4. this is truly worthy of a social study…, what other urban university suffers a more acrimoniousness relationship with the local adjacent community? Most of the old Big East schools were ‘city’ schools…., what makes the Temple/North Philly relationship so oddly unique? the TUFB drain on the athletic budget is not sustainable in the long term

    • It would make a great story on 60 Minutes. Georgia Tech (Atlanta) Boston College, Navy (Annapolis), SMU (Dallas), Tulane (New Orleans) have no problems building stadiums in densely populated neighborhoods but Temple has had to deal with this twice (LC first and now). Why?

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