You had to follow college basketball fairly closely during a fairly brief period of time even to have an impression of Teddy Dupay, a former McDonald’s All-American who spent three years at Florida during the early years of the Billy Donovan administration. Dupay put up points at Pete Maravich-ian volume as a prep, but proved in college to be more the Gulf Coast version of Greg Paulus — a cocky caucasian guard who was universally loathed by opposing fans and pretty limited in certain easy-to-notice ways, but who managed to make some big shots and contribute on some deep and talented teams. If that were all he did, Dupay and Matt Walsh and Andrew DeClerq would be running a sports bar in Fort Myers or something and no one would care. Well, I might, but that would be my problem.
But off the court, Dupay (above) was an absolutely epic fuck-up machine. On a team that featured the even-more-feral beta-testing version of Jason Williams, Dupay was the undisputed go-to Botchmaster. He finally got kicked out of Florida for consorting with known gamblers, and proceeded to bounce around the pro hoops bushes for awhile before getting arrested for beating up and allegedly raping his girlfriend in Utah; he pled and got 30 days in jail. Which, honestly, still didn’t preclude the eventual opening of Reviled White Ex-Gators Sports Grille and Lounge. But, as Chris Harry reports at FanHouse, Dupay had more ambitious — that is to say, genius — plans in mind. Actually, I’m not sure about the word count, there. Would you use the word “ambitious” to describe a pot-based crypto-pyramid scheme called S’Boalnation?
In his suburban office about 10 miles out of Salt Lake City, Dupay stood at a large grease board and for an audience of one made a detailed and diagrammed case — rather convincingly, in fact — that legalizing pot and hemp could solve much of America’s health, industrial, environmental and hunger problems. Then came the spin that is his and his alone.
“The problem is not the laws. The problem isn’t the prohibition of cannabis or the hypocrisy of it all,” he explained. “The problem is that over 75 to 80 percent of our country, when polled, thinks marijuana should be legal, yet nobody stands up to do anything ’cause there’s nothing in it for them. But people now can be part of the solution by joining S’Boalnation. There’s money in it.”
…S’Boalnation members pay $94.20 to join the cause and $24.20 per month, then are compensated for members they sign up. All expenses (home office, mileage, cell phone, etc.) are tax deductible and Dupay donates $5 of each payment to the charity of each member’s choice. There are incentives for merchandise sales, too.
The whole piece is worth reading. There is basically zero chance that S’Boalnation winds up being legit, but Dupay’s Scott Caan imitation in the group’s YouTube infomercials and S’Boalnation’s No Fear-jacking merch aesthetic should provide ample reward for your time. It’s hard to argue that Gulf Coast Paulus is doing good, in the classic definition of the phrase, but he’s at least still entertaining. Which is more than DeClerq can say, for instance. Thanks to Brendan Flynn for the link.