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The
Daily Gyro January 4, 2006 Greek Restaurant Booster May Put Trojans in Hot Water …after breaking plates and busting out the belly dancers, Papadakis urges recruits to declare “I want to be a Trojan”… Tonight’s National Championship Game in College Football again features the University of Southern California Trojans, our sympathetic favorite simply for their use of a Greek-related mascot. (If the Redskins incredible late season run somehow leads them to the Super Bowl, there will be enough national attention focused on them to have Politically Correct calls for them to change their mascot to something less offensive. I’ve never heard of Greeks protesting the use of their subgroups as mascots, but I’d pay good money to see a mob of descendants of Aeneas picketing the Rose Bowl tonight. They should go after the unfortunately named prophylactics instead.) Another Greek link to this USC Trojan team is reports of possible recruiting violations stemming from recruiting dinners at Papadakis Taverna, a Greek restaurant owned by a former USC linebacker John Papadakis, about 25 miles from USC. The first violation may be the extravagance of the meal – the restaurant features $60 entries – which may be high for the standard fare allowed on these recruiting dinners. (That must be some lamb.) But the focus of the inquiry is more about the restaurant owner himself, who according to reports published by CBS SportsLine.com, after breaking plates and busting out the belly dancers, Papadakis urges recruits to declare “I want to be a Trojan” with an inspirational speech about the symbolism of the school’s colors, cardinal and gold. The story is a good one. Papadakis tells CBS SportsLine.com, "The message is this: Our colors stand for something. The cardinal is our blood, we're all equal, we're all real inside, we're all the same. The Spartan army wore cardinal colors so when they were stabbed, the enemy wouldn't see the blood. The gold is what every man will fight for and die for. Gold makes a man rich.” While I get the part about the gold (Stop and ask yourself the last time you heard that speech from the Greek patriarch in your family?) isn’t he talking about trying to get recruits to go to USC and not Michigan State. (The Michigan State Spartans wear green for some reason, where’s the symbolism there?)
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