Still can't understand how you have a man like dat and a simple phone call from the TTFF was too much for dem. Maybe Jack didn't approve the expense.
VB
I can answer that question. I called into a tv interview Jack was giving asking why Rocke and Shaka(at that time - 93/94) were not being called up to the Senior National team... his response was that the TTFA didn't have any info on the level of competition those fellas were playing at, and as such wanted them (the players) to pay their own way to come back to T&T and try out for the team.
Sounds reasonable to me. If TTFA was to pay to bring back every man who could "turn he back on a man and sex him" or who people say is dis "big player", dey would be even more bankrupt.
I'm sure Rocke made return visits to T&T when he was in College in de US. Did he ever offer himself for trials? Maybe he felt that was beneath him...me eh know. What I do know is that if yuh TRULY want something, yuh put yuhself in a position & do whatever it takes to try & make it happen.
I eh understand how jack's response could be considered "reasonable." I would think that when one is running/operating a football federation on behalf of a Nation, you set up a system (including a scout team) to keep tabs on all your available or potential talent. How could jack and the ttff "not know" what competition shaka was coming up against when he was at Howard U? N E Way....I guess the real perspective for jack here is, "why invest money in anything to do with proper football operations when I can simply pocket the money."
Up until recently, the US College system was a black hole for T&T youth footballers. The TTFA hardly used to pay any attention to the hundreds of players from that system. This goes back to men like Leiba, Bain etc. Yuh hear people talk about how Ian Bain should have played for T&T (or played more..me eh know if he ever did) and he was de best midfielder we produce in dem times etc. Is really only in de past few years a concerted effort has been made to properly scout and keep tabs on our players in that system. Colin Rocke was a good colleges league player but IMO he couldn't hold a candle to Wendell Moore for example...and he was also swallowed up in the black hole of US College Football.
I not sayin dat it was right to ignore the US College system, I jes sayin dat was de reality. The US...especially in those days, was not considered a football power. Matter of fact, when we lost to the US in 1989, they were the decided underdogs. Their own media and players expected to lose. They were described as a bunch of college players. We had a sense of superiority to them (which lasts to this day despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary) that says we have more skills and they cyah play.
I'm saying given that REALITY, if Rocke really wanted to play for T&T, he could have come and at least try out himself. Make contact with the administrators and not wait for them to contact him. Maybe he did...I doh know...but from the articles, it seems as if he vex because they didn't contact him. Every action have it's consequence. Every inaction too.
From what you're saying there, Palos, WE are the ones that are are/were arrogant. If that U-16 tournament didn't teach us, or at least teach jack and the ttfa, that the usa was not to be taken lightly, then nothing was going to do it for us. Indeed it hasn't. I had been keeping up with this thread for days, (as a matter of fact, I read that Rocke interview on another medium a long time ago) and I never thought his words represented arrogance. Bitterness, yes, but not arrogance. Being borne out of T&T culture, I could see how Colin, or any player at that time, could have expected a call up from our national team if they were doing the things in college football as he was doing. I thought that when it came to our National team, ours has always been a system of "call ups." I also know of one major, big named T&T player who, for the few years he was excelling at an American university, more than made himself available to our national team, only to be shooed away and later on have jackula try to hijack the man's professional and international career when he was doing well for himself. But for all the people that want to criticize Rocke for not doing whatever it takes to "make the national team" well, if the people running the team don't know how to manage the players and player development how can we expect the players to do it themselves. After playing against Colin a few times while at school, (QRC) I had a chance encounter with him down in El Paso, TX when, by chance, I learned of and attended the University games that he performed so well in back in the late 80's. I only know who the participating players were going to be when I walked through the gates and bought a programme, and when I had a chance to call out the man, he recognized me, came and sat in the stands and ole talk and was talking to me like we knew each other for years. After watching the performance he had put down that weekend, and knowing the reputation he had in school, I couldn't believe the man was as humble he actually was. I said all of that to reiterate that, I don't think the man's words were representative of his arrogance. I think the man looking at our football how it is NOW and seeing how things maybe could have been a whole lot better for T&T football, had the powers-that-be done a much better job of developing our talent. Including himself, from way back when.
