Mandel on Sanctions
I think Stewart Mandel's reaction gets it just right.
Don't be surprised if the committee adds to the school's own self-imposed punishment (it usually does), but don't expect anything major, either. Maybe another year's probation. Maybe a couple of docked scholarships, which the school apparently deemed unwarranted based on past precedent. The USC/Reggie Bush scandal, this is not.
Since the Detroit Free Press first leveled accusations of excessive practice time last September, it's been tough to get too indignant over something any semi-aware follower of the sport understands takes place to some extent at most football-playing factories. It's a troubling but largely unavoidable reality of the sport that players are asked to put in far more time than the straight letter of the law allows, and that coaches constantly skirt the gray area surrounding such rules. If nothing else, Michigan's exhaustive investigation shows just how dependant programs are on compliance departments and other administrators to monitor said activities, and what a gargantuan headache it must be.
change your title i was expecting it to be howie mandel
Lesson: Don't make jokes on days that UM imposed sanctions on its program, I guess.
Mandel's take was pretty measured and intelligent. Every major football factory is breathing a sigh of relief that their local papers treat them like deities, and that UM took the heat for something that goes on everywhere. Not saying it's OK because it goes on everywhere, I'm saying that this story got legs because of the Freep's apparent animosity towards the staff and the trumping up of charges.
Looking forward to moving on.
no love today...i thought this was funny
apparently no deal.
at all, without also mentioning that the Free Press appears to have exaggerated, if not falsified, much of the story.
I have never liked the defense that "everybody does it."
I'd rather have the NCAA acknowledge the same conclusion as did Michigan; the original reporting was exaggerated if not false.
Because he and Rosenberg are now employed by SI.com.
You're right! And what does that say?
I'd give you +100 if I could.
Because you're a heckuva guy.
like to ignore the facts also. This will all go away soon. The media is always lookng for the next big, non-story. Go Blue !!!
That poll is a manfiestation of being #1 in wins. Of course everyone will want us to get hammered. Just like everyone wants the Yankees to get hammered by MLB someday.
...the last line. I think 7-6 would be enough for RR to keep his job as long as the team doesn't get badly outgained in most games like it did last year.
You will virtually never read a word of public criticism by one writer about another. They close ranks and protect their own, regardless of what the issue is.
You ever hear a doctor publicly come out and say, "Dr. Beeper is so full of shit his eyes are brown?" Yeah. Me, neither.
My eyes are naturally brown and they have nothing to do with my chronic constipation.
and called it "journalistic malpractice" for Rosenberg to have worked on the August '09 story.
And Chait was not merely a UM grad like Rosenberg but also a fellow Michigan Daily editor as was Rosenberg. Chait had been asked to review Rosenberg's book, and did so, favorably. So much for the "thin ink line" among journalists, when one of them reeeeeaaallly fucks up.
There's a big difference between Chait, who covers national politics for a magazine, and a local sportswriter.
Indeed! Chait is almost "the exception that proves the rule."
There's almost nobody in the local media who will publicly take on the Free Press. If you ever want to get cut off local sportstalk radio, open with this comment; "I really think that the big story with Michigan, is how the Free Press has stirred up so much trouble and bad public relations, over nothing." {Click. Dial tone.} They are too desperate to keep a clear channel to get Free Press reporters as on-air guests.
We criticize each other all the time, especially in D.C. journalism. Every journalist worth his or her salt knows the Freep report was BS. That's not to say if they were all aware of it, but, if made aware of the facts, I'm confident they'd willingly criticize those reports.
I like his take, especially the fact that he broke down the self-imposed sanctions correctly and laid out the 2-for-1 practice hours (like ESPN should have). I do agree that RR needs to win next year, and 8 wins might be the magic number.
But I guess it is due to my long days and nights at North Campus trying to get code to work, but I always thought the NCAA practice rules seemed needlessly strict; provided the coaches did not overwork the players excessively, spending a couple hours more a week to make sure everyone is healthy and ready, that the job will get done, doesn't seem abusive. I know some people love to prop up the veneer that these guys are student-athletes, but big-college sports is a business, and most of these guys understand that spending an extra 20 minutes practicing and stretching every couple of days is the expected cost of being a good player.
all this junk will be forgotten.
Did you mean win? Because if RR loses to UConn to start the season, expect Ann Arbor Fire & Pitchfork to run a special 2-for-1 sale.
Yeah I would think it would have the opposite effect in that everyone would be calling for his head.
Winning is the cure.
I think we need to get aware from this win-X-number-of-games-or-else mentality. We're still three months away from the start of the season and who knows what might yet happen.
Maybe we win five games this year. Maybe we win ten games. Who knows, maybe our top two quarterbacks are injured in a car crash on the eve of the Uconn game, miss the season with injuries and the team does not even win a single game, 0-12. Crazy, but shit happens and it's not even remotely fair to judge a coach on his performance before it even takes place.
Some highlights:
"To break down all the mumbo-jumbo from the NCAA and all the tap dancing from Michigan, basically, Rodriguez and the football program got hit with a speeding ticket at the Indianapolis 500."
"EVERY coach and EVERY program blow past the NCAA guidelines for time that’s supposed to spent on football. Michigan was sloppy, and the people in charge of reporting these things to the NCAA didn’t have RichRod’s back."
I think everyone now, even the national media has realized what the Free Press did. They tried to make our coach look like a person that doesn't have any morals and treated our players terribly. I think everyone has realized how truly stupid they are now.
While I appreciate that Mandel has put forth a reasoned take on this, I would like to see someone, somewhere, do a nice breakdown on what was originally alleged and what actually happened. Brian has done a spectacular job, but I haven't seen anything comparable outside of MGoBlog. More specifically, I would like to see someone say "The FreeP alleged X number of violations for Y hours in Z ways. Actual inspection not based on hearsay and pseudo-manufactured quotes revelealed that this was not the case and that Michigan had fewer violations for 65 hours only for stretching, etc." I'm half-convinced that much of the animus derives from the total lack of follow up or explanation of wtf happened. Admittedly, this does nothing for the crazies on message boards, but the more reasoned complainants might stfu.
you just did
for writers to take shots at their own, but we really need to find one. We need to find a reporter who's willing to do a story on fabrication and witch hunts. We need someone to go into the financial circumstances of the freep, and what is really behind their actions. I think slamming this paper and their so called "reporters" would be an interesting story that could be just as popular as the anti RR stories themselves.