Critiquing "thosewhostay7" as a Source.

Submitted by State Street on

Brian has vouched for this guy, twice, on the front page.  However, if you go back far enough in his twitter feed, it appears he's a weird highschool kid who loves tweeting at recruits.

I don't know what Brian has on the guy, but an explanation would be nice, especially considering the gravity of the stuff he's posting.  You don't just go from doing the above to eloquently narrating a backroom, high stakes contract negotiation overnight from a "source" that happens to be an NFL agent.

M-Dog

December 20th, 2014 at 10:14 AM ^

Little Jenny comes home from school crying because all the boys have a penis and she doesn't.

The next day she shows up at school smiling and happy.  The boys say "Why are you smiling and happy, Jenny?  Yesterday you were crying because you don't have a penis."

Little Jenny points down below and says "My mommy told me that with one of these, I can get all of those I want." 

 

Tater

December 20th, 2014 at 12:45 AM ^

If I ever had any inside information on anything from someone who wanted to be anonymous, I would never, ever bother writing it here.  There are too many people who seem to have automatic responses of "reveal your source" or "your source sucks."

It's gotten to a point where those who try to be helpful end up getting shit on by default.

bo_lives

December 19th, 2014 at 10:57 PM ^

probably.

But if not I'd say it's because the info he's giving is consistent with other reports Brian has heard. E.g. Schefter's fb message today was pretty lockstep with Thosewhostay7's "text" from yesterday.

Victor Valiant

December 19th, 2014 at 10:59 PM ^

The dude seems sketchy to me as well. Hard to put my finger on it but he seems to be simply tweeting things that you can infer from breaking stories but can't prove and are likely to be disproven.

MGoVictory

December 19th, 2014 at 10:59 PM ^

As I posted earlier, the following tweet from September 29 has me suspicious, because he basically claims he has a contact in the Michigan athletic department in addition to a contact to Harbaugh's agent (maybe even directly). 

 

Based on his other tweets to recruits and what not, this doesn't reconcile in my opinion.

bo_lives

December 19th, 2014 at 11:23 PM ^

E.g. grad assistant, equipment manager, etc. There are some who suggested he may even be an athlete but the athletes themselves are not usually so reserved about keeping their identities hidden, and their twitter handles are basically their actual names.

The thing is, Brian is not usually so leniant with these kind of characters, which suggests to me there is something else in play that we are not aware of and that the players involved want to keep hidden. Brian is usually quite adamant that the fans not directly try to interact with recruits, yet Thosewhostay7 has done this on many occasions. Is it possible Brian himself has private messaged Thosewhostay7 or found some other way to verify his identity secondhand?

Also, does anyone know where Thosewhostay7 claimed that his uncle was high school friends with David Dunn and is getting info that way? I can't find it in his twitter feed. I ask this because it was mentioned before that certain former U-M athletes are currently using AthletesFirst and are potentially connected to people now work for the team/AD at Michigan.

PeterKlima

December 19th, 2014 at 11:33 PM ^

I read the uncle connection tweet in his feed before Brian referenced him. If it's not there, he must have deleted it (which he is apparently prone to do a lot). I know what I read though. I was really curious hoe he got his info and the claimed connection seemed odd.



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evenyoubrutus

December 19th, 2014 at 11:44 PM ^

I agree. I don't have a hard time believing he got a smidgen of insider information (like maybe finding out second hand about the official offer) the amount of detail he goes into about what Jim is thinking, etc seems like a stretch. If Harbaugh's agent is a family friend of his I just don't see him getting a play-by-play of every single thing that goes on between Harbaugh and his agent the way he claims.

Yeoman

December 20th, 2014 at 12:37 AM ^

...why would somebody at Athletes First be blabbing about this to their old college buddies?

In the middle of a sensitive negotiation either (1) you keep your mouth shut or (2) you want to leak something, in which case you leak it, you don't pass it to some anonymous internet dude.

MGoMarley

December 20th, 2014 at 1:11 AM ^

I did the same thing. Checked who Harbaugh's agent is and noticed Schulman, who works at Athlete's First, went to UofM. Tried searching for something on him with regards to this coaching search but came up empty. I think he (and their whole team of agents for that matter) is a good thing to keep an eye on if you are trying to catch some early signs.

I checked this because of an experience during Osu's coaching change. I live in Columbus. Before any of the Urban news about him taking the osu job broke, I had a friend tip me off that he was coming. My friend caddied at a very nice country club in Columbus and happened to be on the bag of one of Urban's agents. Now I didn't go posting it all over the internet because I didn't know back then that I could claim "sources" and I also didn't want to get my buddy in trouble knowing people would ask for specifics (which country club, what date etc) that would eventually lead management of the country club to my friend.

But moral of the story.. In anything as big as a coaching change with so many moving parts, there will be clues so be on the lookout. Would be cool if MgoBlog could figure it out before any of these "professional" reporters.

Optimism Attache

December 20th, 2014 at 6:47 AM ^

Without previous examples of this guy having insider information, I assume Brian has done due diligence that convinces him TWS does have some connection. But just becuase he has some access, doesn't mean he is going to have timely, accurate info all the time. In any case, the info he has put out there doesn't seem like the "leak for leverage" variety, so if I were leading this (on either side) I'd be trying to find the person letting this info get out. 

Ray

December 19th, 2014 at 11:03 PM ^

On the edge of the Internet that purports to discredit him. If I had to bet anything, it would be on Brian, who has a stake in being credible, rather than anonymous bloggers.

ikestoys

December 19th, 2014 at 11:01 PM ^

When the hell does this:

"I find the react posted by thosewhostay7 to be pretty credible; people have been questioning whether I still buy it. I'm not saying it's gospel, but it is a data point, one that agrees with other stuff I've heard: Harbaugh is just now seriously considering his future, Michigan wants this done by January 1st, and that even if an NFL team promises him the moon the fact remains that he has an owner who is likely to meddle"

= Vouch for?

 

come the fuck on