Harbaugh on Pipkins
Jim Harbaugh spoke publically about Pipkins's medical per the above story in the Detroit News. The coach clears the air on this, underscoring that it's natural for a player to not want to hear that their playing career is over, but Harbaugh's primary responsibility is the safety of his players. It's good to hear him address this directly.
Three concussions (not two), the torn knee ligament, and a neck issue. I have tremendous sympathy for Pipkins, but it does indeed sound like it's time for him to move on and take full advantage of his educational opportunity.
"@mfalcon21: That's the stuff that make people wanna rethink where they go smh..."
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I don't savvy twitterese, especially when spoken by kids... can you translate exactly what Falcon means?
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I think that there's a massive liklihood he's referring to the Pipkins issue.
Highly doubt he's tweeting that he's rethinking his decision to head over to burger king.
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It was a stupid move on his part to make that statement publically. I imagine that the coaching staff will be none too pleased.
Maybe the team should institute a STFU about team business on social media policy.
I don't think there's a massive chance. This isn't a new story. JH responded last week. Why would the JH response last night make anyone rethink anything? JH's response last night was player and health-focused. Why would a re-statement of 5 day-old news make Falcon react? If Falcon thought Pipkins was getting a raw deal, you would have seen his tweet last week when this blew up.
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If he is truly concerned about that then he's not going to get answers via the twitterverse. A simple phone call to one of the coaches is all it would take. Of course, this young man has to know that, right?
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I think this is about his friend Will Small wanting a scholarship. I think back when Falcon committed, the staff told Will that they want to evaluate him at the Michigan camp in June (based on Will's tweets at that time, which I think have now been deleted). Reading the tea leaves makes me think that they evaluated him and didn't extend an offer. That's why Will asked Matt to do detective work and I guess they didn't have any spots left for him.
If you're unfamiliar with Will, he is a very good LB prospect on Matt's HS team. Currently unranked, but he is apparently #16 LB in Michigan according to his twitter. In addition, as you know, we are currently in the hunt for some elite LB prospects as we get close to a full class size.
The above is my theory based on the twitterverse, but I'm sure others think of other theories.
...if Pipkins were 100% healthy with no concussion history, he would have been a great addition to the D-Line this year, even if he weren't a starter. I think Harbaugh would have been happy to keep him active and participating.
To me this likelihood underscores the validity of Harbaugh's position in this case. Pipkins long-term health remains the issue.
Looked at the other way, what if Pipkins stayed active and suffered another severe neck injury or devasting concussion? The cries against Harbaugh keeping this repeatedly injured player active would have been loud and incessant.
Pipkin's scholarship wasn't the issue, either. He could have finished up at Michigan, which would have been the wise move IMHO.
That said, I wish Pipkins the best of luck as he pursues his dreams.
All parties agree that Michigan was going to honor Pipkins' scholarship. The only remotely reasonable "debate" is the level of pressure applied. Harbaugh could have said "OK, keep at it, buddy" and kept him sidelined. He's been more direct with the player, and as recently noted on a completely unrelated story, it's a free country. If anyone is lying here, it is about minutiae anyway.
Sad to see him leave. Sadder that such a young man has gone through the injuries he has. Not much more need be said.
Every school that puts players on medical honors their scholarship. The issue is that Pipkins wanted to keep playing football at Michigan, and, if he's healthy and staying within the team rules, he's entiteld to do that. He wanted to stay on the sidelines and "keep at it" with the hope of playing. Now, who knows if he actually was healthy enough, but if he was, he was absolutely wronged here.
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The medical team, I guess. If they think his concussion risk is so severe that it is dangerous for him to practice, he shouldn't be able to. That's a day-to-day question of being cleared to play, I would guess.
The coaches should also have zero involvement in that decision, and they also shouldn't benefit from it in the form of a freed-up scholarship. There should be no coaches chasing players down asking them to sign a form. It should be a doctor saying "you're not cleared to be on the field this day/week/whatever."
If I recall correctly, the medical staff said he should rest his body for six months
If that's the case, then he shouldn't play. But I'm very skeptical that team doctors are free from coach influence at any school, so I strongly think the rules need to eliminate any benefit a coach might get from a player not being able to play. Saban's medicals are all backed by doctor support as well. Let's take the guessing out of it.
if um was so concerened about his health why was he allowed to participate in spring practice? i'm sure new coaching staffs run off guys that they can't use in there system. when meyer took over they just had such a tough off season conditioning program most of the lazy players quit on their own. or they probably required some players at a certain weight that they knew they would never attain. meyer said he didn't think cardale was going to make it @ TOSU in 2012. several guys surprised meyer as they turned their careers around. Cardale was one of them. harbaugh got a little sloppy with the pipkins situation.
I'm not intent on finding wrongdoing. I have no idea which side of the story to believe. I was just explaining why, IF Pipkins is correct that he's healthy, he has reason to be upset despite the fact that he gets to finiosh his degree. Really, my frustration is more that the system currently in place encourages coaches to force unproductive players out, and that is really, really dumb.
If you say so. But I've read all your comments on this thread, and the general tenor of them seems to be that "M fans are hypocrites because they criticize Saban and Meyer for shady roster management, but have no problem when Harbaugh does it."
Although I think you are probably correct that plenty of M fans would defend Harbaugh even if he did engage in some truly unethical player move, I think you have to wait for such a transgression to occur before you can start calling people hypocrites. In this case, I think the greater weight of the evidence suggests that Pipkins is not healthy enough to play, or at least that JH doesn't believe he is healthy enough to play--which ought to be good enough.
I suppose, ultimately, that I may have kind of a minority viewpoint on these situations because I don't really see anything morally wrong with using medical hardships to clear roster spots from players who have become unproductive due to medical reasons. I agree the *system* (for lack of a better word) could use some improvements (to at least bring transparency, if not better a substantive procedure), but I would tend to clarify the standards and permissible considerations for using a medical hardship and require some level of independent verification rather than expand the opportunity for injured players to remain on active rosters.
Mlive posted this as well and included the quote from Jim Harbaugh stating
"We don't run off players,"Also Tuesday, Harbaugh addressed the question of whether or not he's told multiple players on the roster that they have until July 1 to get healthy or sign a medical hardship waiver, another claim Pipkins made to ESPN. He denied that, too. "(We haven't done that), it varies with different circumstances, there's no set date for the team, no," Harbaugh said. "There never has been."
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2015/06/jim_harbaugh_says_he_…
Seems strange. If a school like Michigan is telling a kid he should stop playing I'd have a hard time accepting him on my team with a clear conscience.
Didn't OSU pretty much tell a kid he shouldn't play anymore and so the kid transferred to Auburn?
Heck, it took 3-4 doctors before one of them figured out the pain my wife was having in her abdomen was kidney stones. As much as we assume the medical staffs at these big time programs are perfect, you very well could get conflicting reports as to what they think the problems are and what they think the further risk of injury is.
The kid from OSU was cleared to play by Dr. James Andrews. Pipkins said he felt good enough to play but I never saw if he received a second opinion by anyone, let alone someone as reputable as Andrews.
What Andrews did say was that he needed more rehab and "should" be ready by the summer.thats not being cleared to resume football activities just rehab activities. auburn took a chance because he has to sit out a year via the ncaa transfer rules. maybe he gets the knee to heal 100% by then?
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Can you imagine if our quarterback suffered a concussion during a game and then was put back in still visibly wobbly? I wonder how the board would react then? It's so weird that nothing more serious than this has ever happend before.
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Yeah, but michgoblue, I don't like this story and so we should blot it out from the board.
We also have to make room for the other pertinent board topics of the day, such as "OT Video: 13 yr old drinking prodigy attends OSU" and "Happy Trails: Samson the Wallaby"
Never let it be said that we don't let the odd human interest story stand, at least for a little bit, and in the case of the Ohio State drinking prodigy story, when I say "human interest" I mean that there is surely a human out there who might be interested in it.
Pipkins needs to freshen up his Hoke impression - leaving town quietly.
That Hoke impression was great. It's too bad things didn't work out for the young man.
The most telling part of this story to me is how Pipkins would be allowed to remain on scholarship and finish his degree. I cant imagine how much Pipkins wants to contribute and finish his career, but outside looking in it seems JH made the right call.
That's true for every medical hardship everywhere. The issue is that he doesn't get to play football.
Probably my misinterpretation that assumed by "being forced out" he wouldnt be allowed to remain on scholly.
Three concussions, torn knee ligaments, neck issues. For the sake of his health, he might want to consider Harbaugh's advice. But if he goes to play somewhere else, best of luck to him.
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Feel bad for the guy and at the same time relieved that JH is making the right decision. This could have been pretty awful for the public perception of the program, but it turns out Pipkins' body just can't do it anymore. I wish him well.
on hipaa. Not to belabor a boring topic but it covers docs and anyone with access to the medical record from disclosing protected health info. Health statements regarding players like neck issue, torn ligament or concussion are not really PHI coming from a coach making a general comment as to why a player is getting medically discharged from the program. I am sure there are lawyers out there that would love to argue that point but harbaughs statement doesn't really qualify. Hoke as we know didn't want to disclose info because he thought it would give other team's an advantage with thinking along the lines of the movie the longest yard (the first one), lol.
Only "covered entities" are subject to the Privacy Rule under HIPAA. UM is a "hybrid entity" meaning that some portions of it are a covered entity, some are not. For example (I'm generalizing here) the health care systems are while the athletic department is not. A non-covered entity is not subject to the Privacy Rule and can disclose health information.
Most universities require players to sign a HIPAA Authorization that allows the covered entities (health care providers) to disclose PHI to the coaches, trainers, athletic departments, etc. Once there, those individuals can disclose without violating HIPAA.
I think most of us have rose colored glasses when it comes to Harbaugh, but in this situation we don't have to put them on. If anyone thinks after teh Shane Morris incident last year that the school or coach are going to do ANYTHING that would be potentially questionable in relation to an athletes health they are an idiot. Not that there's much question about why this is happening. Yea, it sucks to be told, you're done. But it's better than being told you will have pain in your leg the rest of your life, or brain damage from concussions. I don't blame Pipkins and I don't blame Harbaugh. Should have been a non-story to begin with, but what else are the news outlets supposed to do during the offseason?
he seems to wear out his welcome everywhere accept Stanford. i mean the old right guard @ um, (the alumni and donors that didn't like DickRod from the beginning) must be cringing @ harbaughs antics.like the video of him reppin like a gangsta with recruits, his cowherd interview, taking his shirt off at a fb camp and the pipkins situation. some of those things just do not fit a HC @ P5 school imo, then again nowadays nothing surprises me. we will see how much harbaugh is reveered by the faithful after the Utah game. as much as um fans want to believe he is the answer i'm not sure abouth that. time will tell but i think i will be saying "watch what you wish for" down the road.