"What Happened Was A Violent Crime"

Did we expect better out of any of these guys? That answer is no.

Excellent post.

Drew Sharp's article today? Basically tears into Kevin Smith for wanting to win preseason games. Any time you're interview gets a "c'mon, man" from your subject, you know you've got a winning article on your hands.

I'd link, but I don't want to give Sharp any more hits. What a jack ass.

I don't know a lot about these events, but is Sturges out of hockey because of that bleeding in his brain? Is Winston good enough to play or start this year? Bullshit on these "restrictions" Winston has. Maybe they'll sit him out against Montana State. What a joke Drew Sharp is. I wish someone would come out and tell it like it is because it's really starting to piss me off.

I hope The Other Brian has another state bashing article to write.

Sharp is as predictable as MSU football: awful 90% of the time, always hatin' on big brother, and just second rate in every way.

"If a hockey player falls at a party and the other program in town is run by a West Virginian, does it make a sound?"

That was beautiful, Brian. I didn't realize there was three carloads of football players involved. That gets ignored, while the parting shots of academically-ineligible malcontent Kurt Wermers make the front page.

Imagine if Rodriguez decided today to reinstate Mike Milano. I can guarantee the headline wouldn't be about how RichRod is such a gracious head coach as to give a player who made a mistake a 2nd chance.

It's almost funny (almost) how analogous the two situations are (except that Milano didn't spend time in jail). Yet the guy who handled the situation the right way is losing control of his program, and over in East Lansing the savior of football can do no wrong.

is that ghost photo a chipped tooth?

some people have taken the position that the reinstatement of winston is not "news" because, according to msu policy, only those convicted of felonies (not misdemeanors) are ineligible for reinstatement. msu is merely follow its policy these people state.

that argument is nonsense either way you slice it. it is either news that msu has some arcane policy that apparently constrains it to reinstate all former jailbirds convicted only of misdemeanors or it is news that, notwithstanding its policy, msu believes it is appropriate to again bestow the privilege of an athletic scholarship on this violent and unrepentant man.

i'm all for second chances. but there is a threshold that must be passed before consideration for a second chance is an option. among the components of that threshold are a sincere apology, an adequate display of reformation and some sort of penalty beyond what is given to all people - afterall this particular person benefits from a scholarship not given to everyone.

this isn't merely news because it happened at msu. had this happened anywhere, it'd be deserving of criticism and loud criticism. that it happened at msu just means we voice that criticism here because for better or worse, the programs are in the same state and therefore compared.

Rosenberg did "a lot" of work sending a FOIA letter and got a national story out of the Feagin situation. He must have been happy.

It was later pointed out that he missed the point and there was nothing scandalous happening. (Neither Michigan nor RR knew and kicked him off the team when finding out.)

So Rosenberg tried to save face and restore the "newsworthiness" of his original story by claiming RR should have known because of the Lazear incident. He tried to manufacture a higher duty on RR.

Everyone could tell it was a just flimsy attempt to justify his first article.

In the end, Rosenberg is only concerned with his own reputation, but he doesn't seem to think his readers are smart enough to judge him on the true merits of his reporting.

Sorry to say this, but I can't believe Michigan gave him a degree if he can't see that.

the hipocrisy is awfully disgusting and one has to feel terrible for sturges. howeva the only way to shut up state is to win, which I hope to god we do. whatever you want to say about dantonio, he sure his livened up this rivalry.

ugh

Drew Sharp is a Michigan grad. Does anyone from that era know of anything that happened to him at school that made him such a enemy of all things Wolverine? I assume he wrote for the Daily. Was someone mean to him there, or was there a professor who gave him a bad grade?

Nearly all Michigan grads I have talked to, and I have met them around the world, are proud for the school and it's accomplishments. So why is Drew Sharp different? Is it just for the money, or is there some other reason?

...that said, i'm still not convinced that the "yeah but what about state" is the best approach when this stuff (inevitably) happens.

i'd rather address our own issues than talk about someone else's. let's just talk about us.

i hasten to add that i agree that the feagin incident has been vastly, incredibly overblown, that i have no problems with how rodriguez has handled this, either during feagin's recruitment or after his arrival.

Wait, Feagin had two traffic tickets and a dropped misdemeanor?

Who is this guy, Tony Montana?

he's an idiot.

The media narrative seems pretty much set. Samuelson's 8/12 blog at the Freep supposedly defending RR and analyzing the role reversal issue includes these statements which really struck me as trying to stoke that same fire. I give the subtext after.

"Did Rich Rodriguez know about Justin Feagin’s activities prior to his dismissal? He says no." -- He "says" no but WE know otherwise. He's sooooo a liar. I can just tell.

"...there’s nothing in this particular case that indicates that Rodriguez is lying." -- We just haven't found out what he's lying about yet, but it's got to be something! And if not this case then surely he's lying about something else.

"The coach claims he dismissed Feagin “that instant” he found out about the drug charges." -- He "claims" to have, but can we at the Freep really believe a guy who would recruit a kid like this?

"The larger question though is another point Rosenberg touched upon. And that is, when you accept players of questionable character, you run the risk of getting burned — badly." -- Clearly Feagin was of questionable character. I mean who couldn't have known that with hindsight. RR is a conniving win-at-all costs coach.

"The lesson here is that when you do roll the dice, you better make sure you keep tabs on those players." Because RR didn't and he's a scum and is willing to ruin the reputation of Michigan.

The whole situation up at state is absurd. I keep waiting to hear that none of it really happened because I am in such disbelief that Winston is allowed on that campus. Disgusting.

Come on... Boys will be boys!!!

/sarcasm

The sad part of this whole ordeal is that a student that this happened to is having to ask these questions at all. Winston and any other player that can be proven to have commited a VIOLENT crime should be gone. Is there any way that the Big 10 or NCAA would step in on a situation like this of is it totally up to the insitution? If the university wants to keep him enrolled, fine but people like this should never recieve a free education no matter what type of athlete they are! RANT COMPLETE!