Dear Braylon
Shut up.
You were a very good player, on a good team. If you had a good time while you were at Michigan, you can thank your dad and decades of Michigan tradition. If you came out of Michigan a better person, you can thank Lloyd Carr for that.
When and if you have something thoughtful, something important, to say, by all means I encourage you to use your public position to do so.
But lately, you seem to be turning into some weird hybridized version of Chad Johnson Ocho Cinco Johnson, which is not a good thing. Is there something about being a wideout for the Bengals and/or the Jets that robs people of their cognitive abilities?
Braylon: Plaxico Burress, Andre Rison; those guys are not exactly career models. They went to Michigan STATE. You want some career models? Try Tom Harmon, Charles Woodson, Desmond Howard. Or more recently, Jake Long and Chad Henne. Tom Brady may not be a pefect role model, Braylon, but the bad news for you is that Brady is looking real good next to you.
Memo
To: Lloyd Carr, Stan Edwards
From: Me
Re: Braylon
Uh, do you suppose that both of you might want to have just a word or two with Braylon, maybe about the subjects of player-introductions for next week's playoff game?
January 5th, 2010 at 8:02 AM ^
I think it can be fairly assumed that Bill Martin encouraged RR to fight the buyout (as he did with Beilein). I would be very surprised if it were entirely RR's initiative.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:28 AM ^
It would not be fair to assume that, at all. Having been in that advisory position myself, and particularly since Bill Martin is not only not a contract litigator, but not even a lawyer, he'd sit with the lawyers, for maybe an hour at a time, and he'd ask, "What are our options? What does each option cost? How long will it take to get it done? What does Rich think about all of this? What do you guys recommend?" And then, he'd very likely accept their recommendations.
But, we digress...
January 5th, 2010 at 2:03 PM ^
It doesn't have to be entirely RR's decision...just partly. Because the original statement was absolving him of ALL blame for his bad PR. If Rich had said "I just want to pay the money and be done with it", none of it would have happened, and he could have done it. Now, did maybe others advice him otherwise? Sure. But it's his decision how to take it. Which makes him at least PARTLY responsible.
+1 point
January 5th, 2010 at 11:06 AM ^
"Rodriguez CHOSE to fight the buyout."
Not fighting the buyout would have made him an idiot. Contracts just set the legal terrain on which the fight will occur. For Bill Martin and RR to just pony up $4M or w/e it was without trying to use the army of UM lawyers to reduce it, well, that would be horribly stupid.
January 5th, 2010 at 2:00 PM ^
So they took months and months of bad press, mud slinging, and false claims, and still paid the $4 mil. Yeah, that sounds like a smart decision.
January 5th, 2010 at 6:55 PM ^
And had it been reduced like Belien's, it would have been a smart decision. Don't know unless you try.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:19 PM ^
So at what point do you go from this is not going well to this is getting ugly and we better cut our losses? Because we definitely passed that point.
January 5th, 2010 at 10:14 PM ^
It's subjective, and I say the point where WVU wanted to deposition MSC and Bill Martin is the appropriate point to pony up the money.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:33 PM ^
Don't necessarily disagree with your main point, but players who aren't from the state of Michigan might disagree with your implication that MSU is a bigger game than ND.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:40 PM ^
1-3. Fuck MSU.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:33 PM ^
...also refer to his high school instead of Michigan? In other words, it has happened before and it'll happen again.
My favorite MNF school reference is a tossup between Woodson saying "you know the school" -- f'ing sweet -- and Brady's near-maniacal "WOLVERINES!!!"