Does anyone else think Brock Mealer got the bums rush?
It seems to me the University helped Brock Mealer and used his work with Barwis and RR for a PR advantage last year. Brock obviously benefited from working with Barwis. But it seems to me he got kicked to the curb. http://toledoblade.com/article/20110118/SPORTS17/110119570/-1/SPORTS16
I don't expect the coaching staff or current weight coach to get involved at this point as they really have their hands full, but shouldn't someone at Michigan step up and offer to help? I'm sure we have great rehabilitation staff elsewhere.
It just seems like we used him for PR and when we fired Barwis gave hims the bum rush. Am I the only one that finds this lack of a transition a bit unseemly after all the hype last year?
January 19th, 2011 at 10:21 PM ^
That story made me cry so they better do all the can do to get him back. Truly one of the best moments of my life was being at that stadium watching him walk out onto the field.
January 19th, 2011 at 11:47 PM ^
... I don't care how the rest of the season goes, this was a great moment and a great season based on what we saw there that day.
Also my daughter's first game (6 months old, she won't remember; but I will)
January 19th, 2011 at 10:22 PM ^
barwis wasnt the only one working with him. pretty sure some u of m medical trainers are still working with him
January 19th, 2011 at 10:29 PM ^
January 19th, 2011 at 10:31 PM ^
you'd see this is completely not the case
January 19th, 2011 at 10:35 PM ^
i read it. basically just said they dont really know anything yet?
January 19th, 2011 at 10:38 PM ^
I missed that line. I wonder why they don't allow him to work out there. Do they think he'll spy on their team?
January 19th, 2011 at 11:00 PM ^
it was more about not wanting to relocate in columbus for just exercise versus ann arbor, where he had his brother and the relationships developed from the moment he got out of the hospital. aka osu, at this point bc of his hiatus from school, would just be locking himself into a locale - if he's gonna do that, there's better places to go.
which, you know, duh. it's columbus.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:31 PM ^
after his insurance ran out, correct?
January 19th, 2011 at 11:08 PM ^
OMG Tressel hates babies!
Brock's story is probably 80% sheer effort and 20% having a staff that was able to put in the work to help him. There are a ton of reasons he couldn't work out at OSU, but my guess is that it's either their strength coach not wanting to take the (significant) amount of time, their strength coach not having the expertise necessary (IIRC Barwis had to learn quite a bit), or the lawyas getting the way for liability reasons. It's awfully hard to take in a guy like Brock, because then the OSU staff would probably feel like they needed to take in any student with significant rehab issues. Brock's brother plays at Michigan, so it seems like a much easier decision to help your player's family than any number of the 40K+ students that attend OSU.
Would you expect Michigan to give you that treatment? I wouldn't...just sayin'.
January 19th, 2011 at 11:41 PM ^
Good point.
January 20th, 2011 at 6:57 AM ^
get off of Hoke's jock. This just proves to me that the staff just isn't what I consider "Michigan Men". Just because you have ties to the university doesn't make you a Michigan Man and almost the entire staff has no ties to anything bet non BCS football. Say all you want, but the time and effort put in for a member of the Michigan family by the previous staff puts them up on my list no matter what happened on the field. One of the best sport stories of the decade in my opinion.
January 19th, 2011 at 10:22 PM ^
Poster on GBW wrote to Brandon regarding this article. Brandon responded that Hoke has been in contact with Brock and let him know that they fully intend to continue to support his rehab. Michigan was never contacted re: this article and Brock wasn't happy how it was presented
January 19th, 2011 at 10:23 PM ^
Great, thanks! I hope Michigan can continue to work with him.
January 19th, 2011 at 10:24 PM ^
Hopefully they can get the word out, though at this point, I'm not sure it'll get much traction in the MSM. What's the draw? "New Michigan Coaches to continue what Old Michigan Coaches were doing"?
January 19th, 2011 at 11:15 PM ^
January 19th, 2011 at 10:41 PM ^
Thanks for the info.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:19 AM ^
Yeah, that just left me scratching my head at first.
January 20th, 2011 at 7:47 PM ^
So, is this where the great journalism hit pieces begin? You know, build them up so they can tear them down since the press seems to have been quite enamoured with hoke up until now.
January 19th, 2011 at 10:22 PM ^
Ohio might be a third world state but they have physical therapists there.
January 20th, 2011 at 8:34 AM ^
But not PTs that work for FREE dude -Mealer's insurance coverage has run out
January 19th, 2011 at 10:23 PM ^
To me all I saw in the article was Mealer and his people saying they had to find someplace/something else, no one from UM was quoted in there saying they had nothing more for Mealer. Give it some time, I bet UM will step up again.
January 19th, 2011 at 10:33 PM ^
Brock said "i worked a lot with them but they're not there anymore so I'm not sure what's going on anymore."
simple as that. the only indictment anyone could throw out there was Hoke didn't call Brock in the past week. and that's a weak indictment.
January 19th, 2011 at 10:36 PM ^
Awwww hamburgers? You mean I can't use this as an excuse to rally a DB lynch mob? Well if you'll excuse me, I need to go make some returns to AA Torch and Pitchfork before it closes.
January 20th, 2011 at 12:25 AM ^
I'm holding on to my merchandise until I see how Denard fits in to the new offense. They're not turning him into Ryan Mallett 2.0!
January 19th, 2011 at 10:46 PM ^
.... Hoke's got quite a bit of other stuff to worry about - like recruiting.
January 20th, 2011 at 8:50 AM ^
Bingo. That article was irresponsible in its implication that U-M booted his ass. They buried the part where Brock was waiting to see what would happen.
January 19th, 2011 at 10:24 PM ^
There is barely any information in this article at all. I imagine things are a bit up in the air with the staff changes (and it certianly sucks that Brock had a good relationship with Barwis and staff which can't be remade in a day), but I can't imagine that Michigan is just going to leave him in the lurch.
January 19th, 2011 at 10:29 PM ^
But to keep gratutiously bringing up Mealer as some sort of indictment of this current staff is ridiculous. Something tells me Michigan didn't push him out the door with a whack in the ass and present him with a bill for services rendered. when RR was dumped. Why does this stuff keep popping up?
The last guys did great--and it has been a great story.
but now you seem to be hinting that UM used him up and has jettisoned him because they no longer need him. I think that's absurd.
Brock need not be used as a pawn by anyone--even people making points grabs on MGoBlog.
January 19th, 2011 at 10:37 PM ^
Are you a dick on purpose or does it just come naturally?
January 19th, 2011 at 10:27 PM ^
Why do you think DB hired a PR guy?
January 19th, 2011 at 10:27 PM ^
January 19th, 2011 at 10:32 PM ^
Please read my post above, this is all a non-issue. Brock will continue to work with M's S & C staff.
January 19th, 2011 at 10:33 PM ^
January 19th, 2011 at 10:36 PM ^
I think there is a lot of context missing here; I am sure Michigan will do the right thing here.
January 19th, 2011 at 10:45 PM ^
I'm glad Michigan is reaching out to him, assuming everything works out that way. That was one of the greatest scenes I've seen when he led the team out against UConn. I was in the student section crying, proud that our university had done so much for him. It's things like this that make me proud to be a student here.
January 19th, 2011 at 11:12 PM ^
neg on sight feature in his extension.
January 19th, 2011 at 11:14 PM ^
I think Brock Mealer is crushed that two people who have been like family to him and have helped him immensely got fired and won't be a part of his life on a daily basis anymore. I would be astounded if the current staff didn't tell him it would be fine to continue his workouts at Michigan. It's just that they probably won't have as much time to spend with him initially.
I don't like the way this entire episode has gone down, and I think a lot of things were done wrong, but I don't think anyone has mistreated Brock Mealer. It is my hope that Mealer eventually finds out he still has a place around the program if he wants it and decides to continue rehabbing himself in Ann Arbor.
He could still both give and recieve plenty of inspiration.
January 19th, 2011 at 11:51 PM ^
This makes no sense. Brock Mealer is not the reason for the coaching change!
January 20th, 2011 at 12:07 AM ^
I agree...I would like to see his progress continue and see him one day RUN out of that tunnel with the team, to beat his alma mater.
GO BLUE!!!!!
January 20th, 2011 at 12:34 AM ^
has a home here, thats for sure
January 20th, 2011 at 1:27 AM ^
OP you need to remember just because Barwis is gone the door isn't closed to him. Doing that would create a media circus. I'm sure DB is well aware of Brock's work in the weight room, and he probably doesn't want to upset Elliot by telling his brother to "hit the road" now that a new S&C coach is in place. Yeah he may have had a connection with the old staff but Hoke doesn't strike me as the type to not want to help. I see open arms for Brock via the new staff to let him continue his rehab and still help him, if that's not the case I'd be pretty upset about that, so should any UM fan.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:32 AM ^
[Note: I removed my name and DB's email address (which is public, but I don't want to contribute to him getting spammed]
---
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 04:12 PM
To: [acs236]
Subject: RE: Brock Mealer
[acs236],
The article was posted a few hours after decisions were made about the former strength and conditioning staff. It was an attempt to “stir up controversy” vs. any attempt to report the facts. Coach Hoke was on the phone with Brock the next day making it clear he was always welcome here and to ensure him we would provide staff support to help him continue his recovery….and Brock was just great with it. The Toledo Blade never bothered to contact the Athletic Department to consider our plans or feelings about Brock’s situation. Likely because they knew it might make their story far less attractive if we explained to them that we plan to take care of Brock in whatever manner we can to help him. He is part of the team around here!
As I understand it, Brock was not happy with the characterization of his remarks in the article…because it was written to suggest Brock had been “left behind” by our department…. which just wasn’t true.
Don’t believe everything you read on-line….sometimes the objective of the authors are not to write the news….but an attempt to create news.
Go Blue!
Dave
January 20th, 2011 at 6:25 AM ^
From a guy who lives in Toledo let me just say The Blade is garbage I figured Ryan Artillo stole everything off this blog because everything he writes I've read on this blog the day before when I read the article. the day it came out I was pist to read that especially being at the UCONN game and seeing Brock walk. Then I remembered who wrote it.
<br> Ryan you kno shit about UofM football I think you should deliver the papers instead of writing them. Go Blue
<br>
January 20th, 2011 at 8:17 AM ^
good to see DB and UM still have their compass.
January 20th, 2011 at 8:57 AM ^
One of the most inspirational stories from the RichRod Era at Michigan will remain the Brock Mealer story. If Rich Rodriguez wasn't the successful coach whom Michigan fans hoped he'd be, he surely made his mark by quickly embracing the Mealer family after he arrived in Ann Arbor and giving Brock the encouragement to prove to the doubters that a one percent chance of walking again meant that there WAS a chance he could walk again.
It might be nice for the Michigan football family to offer Brock the opportunity to make the walk again at the start of the 2011 season by leading the team out of the tunnel for the opening game at The Big House.