Meyer fined $30K by essseesseee

Submitted by DesHow21 on

If you came in here looking for either:

1. Me railing about how insignificant this punishment is
or
2. Gloating about Meyer getting what he deserved

you are going to be disappointed.

He is a good but annoying guy and nowhere near the douche-baggery levels that Dantonio or Saban have established.

I hate Meyer as much as the next guy, but it is not personal. I actually hate him more because of all the UF sloberring ESPN does and the whole Tebow thing.

Having said that, I think this fine is absolute bull-crap. The play Meyer was highlighting was a blatant roughing the passer that the refs blew (no surprise there). Why shouldn't this be brought up in a presser? This isn't China is it?

I hate how the Refs can suck at their job at historic levels (that's Brian talking not me) and nobody is allowed to point this out.

We have an outspoken coach in RR and such muzzling by the conference is not something any fan should stand by and accept.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

November 6th, 2009 at 1:43 PM ^

I sort of suspect that outwardly, the conferences slap their coaches for railing against the refereeing, and inwardly, they know their reffing ain't perfect and use the coaches' comments to fix it. The last thing a conference needs is for the coaches to be eroding confidence in the referees. I know the refs do that well enough on their own, but if coaches were allowed free rein to say whatever whenever, they'd bring a powerpoint slideshow to their press conferences and highlight every mistake and things would not be good. I suppose you could rely on the good sportsmanship of the coaches not to do that, but we know what happens when we do that in the recruiting realm, especially in the SEC.

joeyb

November 6th, 2009 at 1:45 PM ^

Technically, I am not sure that it was roughing the passer (he wasn't passing), but probably unnecessary roughness.

Also, you don't have a link so I can't see what they are actually fining him for, but he tried to rag on the officials in that conference with a disclaimer that he didn't want to rag on them. They specifically have new rules that prohibit this and he broke them. I don't think it is a bad decision to fine him, but he probably thinks it was necessary and worth it considering the bad play call.

4godkingandwol…

November 6th, 2009 at 2:51 PM ^

... I hate when people play the "this isn't communism" card. You're right, it isn't communism, it is a business, a huge business, and the business is served best by coaches not commenting on the officiating in public forums. It only serves to undermine the credibility of the business and potentially alienate the customer base.

Coaches should keep their mouths shut in these public forums and air grievances to the governing body in private. Then, that governing body should continually evaluate the officiating and provide rewards and punishments based on performance in hopes of improving that performance over time. Bitching about refs in a public forum is both cliche and petty and serves only to sully the reputation of the sport overall.

EDIT: Bitching publicly also hurts employee (in this case, referee) morale, which leads to poorer performance, higher stress, and ultimately higher turnover. Higher turnover leads to less experienced refs making worse calls. So, yeah, he should shut his pie hole (same goes for that whale in Indiana)