Newest ESPN "analysis" on the Freep article

Great article. He doesn't claim to know all the facts, and stays objective. I wonder if any of the players that made these claims are still on the team. Depending on the truthfulness of the allegations I have two hopes: 1. That if we are doing something wrong, we correct it. 2. If we're not doing anything wrong, the players that are so worked up about this that they'd go to the freep to talk about it are no longer on the team. We don't need that kind of cancer inside the locker room.

Could it be that it was former players and the ones they are saying are current are the Stokes and Hawthorne slip ups at Media Day ?

This quote bugged me: "I never understood that you were signing your life away when you sign [that Letter of Intent]," one FBS quarterback told Feldman. "They control everything you do: When you wake up, when you go to bed. I get told I'm going to birthday parties for kids. You don't have a choice. You have a dictatorship. Every time we don't show up to a voluntary workout, we've got stadiums and hills. And there's no money to show for it. You definitely don't realize it when you're getting recruited and they're being all nice to you." poor baby. you're getting all paid for food and first class education to play a fucking game. i guess i'm going to try and ignore this situation and look forward to saturday's game. if rodriguez was in face knowingly abusing the rules, that certainly doesn't bode well for his future in AA.

"You're naïve if you think every FBS program practices for no more than 20 hours a week or no more than four hours a day. You're naïve if you think members of the coaching staff don't attend voluntary 7-on-7 scrimmages during the offseason -- or receive direct reports about what happened. You're naïve if you think players aren't strongly encouraged to spend more than the required eight hours a week working out during the winter and summer. These "violations" happen everywhere." Wow, some sanity at last!!

Just one quibble with the article: "But what sets Michigan apart is the willingness of current and former players to speak publicly, albeit anonymously, about the alleged time-limit violations by coaches and trainers." should read: "But what sets Michigan apart is the presence of a beat writer at a local newspaper who thinks 'beat' means 'with a stick.'" You also have to love the Free Press taking Rittenberg entirely out of context and quoting this article in their online reactions blurb. The "friction between players and coaches" part is what they go with, not anything that would put a damper on their story. What the Freep did to Stokes and Hawthorne is horrible. The quotes they gave pretty clearly show they were asked very innocuous sounding questions. Now they're the star witnesses in a public vendetta. Rittenberg's is otherwise a spot-on article from top to bottom.

i am a former athlete (non-football) at u of m and we were always told that if school isnt in session, its unlimited time for practice, workouts etc. Secondly, it is hard to decipher what is or isn't mandatory, but when 99% of the team is participating in a "voluntary workout," your the oddball if you don't come. The Sunday sessions, granted not being a football guy, were not full out practices (from my sources), it was film, treatment, and positional meetings. Which broke and met at different times. so is it pausible that the football team was always there 10am to 9:30pm? yea, but there are people moving in and out of Shembecler. Also, the NCAA mandates one day off per week in-season. Nothing was said about that being broken. and btw Boren, from good sources, loved being coddled by the Carr regime and when RR came in, he actually had to work and didn't like that one bit. From the players I know, being both RR and LC recruits, they love RR, they work hard as a team, Barwis whoops everyone's ass equally. For the guys who were LC recruits, is it different? Hell yea, but they that they all are playing for Michigan not, LC or RR.

Rittenberg is great, and this proves it. You know, there were people who have called the Northwestern grad a moron because of a few less than satisfactory articles he almost seemed forced to write. This reaction by AR is just terrific. Sure, he's not going ahead and saying outright that Michigan is innocent (we don't know that yet), but he's also not saying that the program is certainly guilty. He is taking a stand for caution and reason; he isn't jumping to conclusions or simply going along with the accusations. He seems to be proving his large testicle size by mildly fisking the Freep. We all know too well how ESPN analysts make asses of themselves (See Holtz, Lou), but AR has taken a break from writing the mandatory fluff pieces and has written a brilliant and careful reaction piece that sets him apart from a number of sports writers. I know it seems like nothing, but I am just very impressed with Mr. Rittenberg right now. Btw, great point by one commenter who might actually be a Buckeye fan ("WoodyIsMyDad"): "Nice going, Free Press, you just took a new staff that was giving unprecedented access to the program and you're probably going to make them go right back to the bunker days of Carr where finding out anything was like pulling teeth. Brilliant."

He's not known for being one of the best or brightest writers out there, but he has some insights in his article about this mess and is rather reasonable. http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/12132874