The Football Bust, and the press, 1 year ago...

Submitted by Section 1 on

Almost exactly one year ago, there was another Football Bust controversy involving Rich Rodriguez.  For those with memories of less than 352 days, it was December 7, 2009, and a day or so after the Bust, after which Mark Snyder of the Free Press had tried to blow up a story that Rich Rodriguez had mentioned 'Hurricane Katrina' in his speech to the team and the guests.

The import of Snyder's column was that it had somehow been a strange reference by Rich Rodriguez, sort of inappropriate and self-pitying, perhaps.  What Snyder did not say, and what was not well understood until it was reported on MGoBlog, and then picked up by Dave Birkett of AA.com (ironically, Birkett has now taken a job with the Freep), that Rodriguez's "hurricane" reference (I don't think Rich ever once said the word "Katrina") immediately followed the comments of Regent Kathryn White, an African-American attorney from Detroit and a WSU law prof, who had gone into an extended metaphorical reference to Katrina in her own address, as the representative of the Regents.  And Rodriguez, having personally spent some years in New Orleans while a coach at Tulane, had just a bit of personal recollection to share on the subject ot New Orleans.

But naturally, the Mark Snyder Rich Rodriguez/Katrina story went out on about 850 linked news services and news outlets.  And as is the case with the Free Press, their malevolence can never be underestimated.  It is thought (Snyder has never fessed up) that Snyder himself did not hear Regent White's comments, but that he was out in the hallway doing other interviews, and came into the main ballroom just in time to hear Rodriguez.  Where he got the kind of quote that he and Mike Rosenberg would have wanted.

Michigan's Athletic Department was pissed off by this; the MGoBlue.com webmasters immediately posted Regent White's video comments before Rich Rodriguez's comments.  Too late; the mainstream press was running with the Freep's hyperlinked story.

Dave Birkett, who now draws a paycheck from a thoroughly disreputable garbage-heap of a paper, actually did some fine reporting for AA.com at the time.  Here's his December, 2009 story:

http://www.annarbor.com/sports/michigan-coach-rich-rodriguez-on-recruiting-hurricanes/

blueheron

December 3rd, 2010 at 4:48 PM ^

I could be wrong, but I'm not sure you understand how the multiplier effect (for lack of a better expression) works with BS like Snyder's piece.

It doesn't take much for something (like Mike Boren's remark, through his brat, about Family Values) to cascade all over the @#$%ing WWW.  Braylon's whining about the #1 jersey is another example.  Pretty soon people like Mr. Smith of Clarkston (who may not be aware of any information sources outside the MSM) are mouthing off and recruits are catching wind of CONTROVERSIES.

See?

Blue_Sox

December 3rd, 2010 at 3:33 PM ^

The Wolverines landed their 22nd verbal commitment on Friday from Youngstown (Ohio) Cardinal Mooney safety Ray Vinopal. The 5-foot-10 Vinopal chose Michigan over offers from Bowling Green and Kent State,according to ESPN.com.

22nd recruit landed on December 9th last year? Very telling...

mackbru

December 3rd, 2010 at 5:24 PM ^

Then again, maybe the larger problem is that the coach hasn't beaten a single good team in three years.

The press didn't link Michigan football with Josh Grobin. Coach done did that all by hisself. 

 

Section 1

December 3rd, 2010 at 6:35 PM ^

Rich Rodriguez being "linked" to a recorded song; is that like being "linked" to a booster's offer to pay $180,000 to commit?  I'm having a hard time pinning down the precise element of ridicule-worthy error on the part of Rich Rodriuez in all of this.  I posted this query in the thread on Jim Rome's having joined the sports columnists' attack on Coach Rodriguez:  

For the 110,000 conversations that will be started this weekend...

about all of this, I'd just like to ask:  What, exactly, is the offense here? 

Is it a song, that RR self-effacingly introduced as "probably a little sappy"? 

Was it the text of his speech -- something that I've not heard anyone criticize in any particular detail? 

What, exactly, is so bad, and such a national news story about this Football Bust?

I do remember pretty clearly the other time that Rich Rodriguez was catching national-press flack, for "crying."  It was the first press conference after the Free Press Sunday edition story broke on August 30, 2009.  All that existed were the Free Press allegations.  There was no NCAA investigation, yet. 

And what had happened, was that Je'Ron Stokes and Brandin Hawthorne, both of whom had been quoted by name in the paper* had come to Rodriguez's office, terrified and upset that they had gotten their coach and their school in horrible trouble over something that they had innocently said at Media Day.  And it was up to Rodriguez to settle them down.

When Rodriguez began to relate the stories of those two students, that's when he got teary at the first September press conference.

*Nobody from the Free Press has ever explained how it is that former Michigan players would get anonymity, for "fear of retribution from coaches", but two current (then) freshman, two of the most vulnerable kids imaginable, who had only just joined the program, would not get anonymity.  Of all of the depredations of Michael Rosenberg and Mark Snyder, this was the lowest and most caclulated abuse of their subjects.  It was monstrous, and the two Free Press writers should never be forgiven.