The recent philanthropic gesture by former Marshall defensive star Vinny Curry is a reminder of all that is good in college athletics.
The recent conviction of another former MU defender, C.J. Spillman, is a reminder to not put athletes on a pedestal.
I'd like to think that most of us in the sports media - at least in the smaller-town setting - prefer to tell about the former. Winning remains the bottom line, but when you have good people in good situations, good results follow.
And Curry is a darned good example.
He came to Marshall in 2007, but was benched by the NCAA clearinghouse, resigned to being a "prop" watching from a distance. That didn't help one of the Thundering Herd's most outmanned defenses, that's for sure.
When he joined the program and began the 2008 August camp, we got to meet. He wasn't shielded as he might have been today, but he didn't need to be. He was well-spoken beyond his years, beyond his year of college education.
At one point I had to ask: "How in the heck were you a 'prop'?"
He answered, "I don't know, man. Everybody back home [Neptune, N.J.] was, too."
The missed year gave him extra motivation, though he really didn't need it. He had that much-discussed "motor," that all-out, never-stopping effort that wears out tackles and plants negative thoughts in a quarterback's head. He also carried the proper dosage of bad intent, which he never seemed to possess off-field.
He adapted to playing for two head coaches, two coordinators and four position coaches. He absorbed the teachings of another great MU end, Albert McClellan, and passed them along to younger players such as RaShawde Myers and Jeremiah Taylor.
You remember Myers recovering a fumble for the go-ahead points in the 2014 game at Alabama-Birmingham? Yeah, Curry taught him well.
And now, after signing a lucrative NFL contract, Curry gives back. The Vinny Curry Project does more than endow a scholarship in his mother's name and give seed money to a long-overdue renovation of the MU locker room.
It sets an example for Marshall football players of past, present and future to follow.
Another fantastic example: The Herd's relief efforts after the devastating floods of two weeks ago. The stories of giving to this and other disasters will never get old, and neither will MU's loading of multiple tractor-trailers with supplies to Clendenin and Greenbrier County.
It's my experience that when athletes come to this state to play collegiately, West Virginia qualities rub off on most of them. It's great to witness.
Alas, MU athletes received another example last week, one to not follow. Spillman, who was an exemplary safety for the Herd from 2005-08, was convicted of sexual assault in an incident at the Gaylord Texas Resort in Grapevine. A jury found him guilty after less than two hours of deliberation Thursday, and he received a five-year sentence Friday.
I won't rehash accounts by the Dallas and Fort Worth papers, but they will make a Herd fan cringe. I don't surprise easily in my advanced youth, but I didn't foresee this when he played at MU.
He handled four MU losing seasons admirably, then rose from undrafted free agent to a special-teams standout in San Francisco and Dallas. He played in a Super Bowl and seemed to be a good example on the field.
Off the field, not so much. Two months after becoming a free agent in March 2015, he was indicted for the crime for which he has been found guilty.
Two shining examples, one bad. When a coach talks about making good decisions, there you go.
nnn
It's official: Patrick Patterson is the greatest player of the 2007 Huntington Highlanders, West Virginia's most dazzling high school basketball team ever.
It really doesn't matter to me that Patterson is a reserve who hasn't averaged more than 26.6 minutes or 11.6 points a game in six seasons in the NBA.
A closer look reveals he has received more minutes in the Toronto Raptors' three playoff appearances. He has been a critical piece for the Raptors, though, and could end up starting at power forward in 2016-17. Stay tuned.
I've always admired his talent and willingness to get his hands dirty. It's to his credit that he has developed a respectable 3-point shot in the pros.
Patterson is expected to land a nice contract in these days of the higher NBA salary cap. As for one of his Huntington teammates, O.J. Mayo just frittered away a bunch of money.
Mayo has been "dismissed and disqualified" by the league for a major violation of the drug policy jointly enforced by the NBA and its players' union. Suffice it to say, he wasn't busted for smoking a doobie.
He is done for two years and reinstatement is not automatic.
In his third season with the Milwaukee Bucks, Mayo averaged 7.8 points and 2.9 assists in 41 games - a far cry from all that superstar hype of years ago. In his eight NBA seasons, he averaged 13.8 points and 2.9 assists.
I have one observation: Mayo played at Rose Hill Christian in Ashland, Kentucky (he could play as a middle-schooler under Kentucky rules), North College Hill in suburban Cincinnati and Huntington for a year. He then spent his "one-and-done" year at Southern California, which was tainted by his receiving of improper benefits.
Patterson went to Huntington three years and the University of Kentucky three years. No high school free agency here, plus he earned his UK degree before being drafted.
Seeing a pattern here? I no longer care that Mayo went 41-10-10 in the state championship game; Patterson is the best of the very best, and he took the right route in doing so.