OSU Guy Apologizes For Bounty, Donates $2000 To UM

Twitter unfortunately is a gateway for some pretty unforgivable statements. This is probably the best route he could have taken.

This is a classy and business-savvy move by the guy (assuming he goes through with it).
This whole story, to me, demonstrates the danger of treating high school recruits as celebrities. People figure that they can get away with a lot with celebrities who seem bigger than life and hardly human. In fact, there's probably some legitimacy to that: they're used to it, most chose that life of celebrity, etc. High school recruits, though, are 15ish-year-olds who happen to be good at sports, want to go to college, and do the occasional dumb thing that most 15-year-olds do. I think that we should treat them like 15-year-olds (in a good way), not like famous actors and musicians.

He meant "whomever."

I've been wanting to say that since yesterday.

Not buying. This guy sounds like some of my students that get sent to the assistant principal. I am willing to bet anything that money never gets sent to UM.

Just because you donate money does not mean your not a asshole.

The bounty offeror--Mr Harrison Watson--who heads a business which deals in social media management--now makes a "sincere" apology to convince us that his bounty offer was "insincere."  But how can we really know which was insincere: the apology or the bounty offer?'

How can we possibly characterize the bounty offer he put on the head of a 17 year old high schooler?  A simple slip of the tongue? I doubt it.  The incoherent ramblings of a drunk?  His message sounded plenty clear to me.   An attempt at "kidding"?  That might be plausbile for some, but this guy's business was social media communication. 

And how can we believe the sincerity of his apology?   He offered it only after people pounded his twitter account.  They could even see his name and picture on "linked in"  (his name is now hidden and his picture removed).  

So, at best, Mr Watson is making an insincere apology for a bounty offer with unclear intent.
 

At worst, Mr Harrison Watson could be using an even more disgusting tool in the arsenal of social media manipulators. 

Mr. Harrison Watson advertises himself as the head of a business (Espire marketing in Columbus), which deals in social media management (Ohio itself pays such companies millions to manage its scandals).  Therefore, just as Mr Harrison's business informs him about how to make an issue go away---through an insincere public apology and a measly $2000 "donation"---it also tells him that this apology does not erase the psychological effect of a bounty message he sent out on the internet.  

No, I am not saying that his bounty offer was intended to mobilize the army of fools who were actually making death threats vs LTT.   However, because Mr Watson is in the social media business, I can only wonder if he might have thought about the possible value of publicity for his business.  The fact is: Mr Watson"s indiscretion gained him publicity, and even negative publicity is--as he knows--better than no publicity at all.  Indeed, movie stars are told by advertisers, like Mr Watson, to behave outrageously, then apologize.  And, how much money would it cost him to get as much publicity for his (perhaps failing) business as he got from his bounty threat.? A lot more than a measly $2000, I bet.  Granted, most reasonable people would have nothing to do with Mr Watson's business after this fiasco.  But "reasonable" is not a word readily applied to the Ohio FB boosters, who may' be Mr Watson's prospective clients.

I am just speculating.  I do not know Mr Harrison Watson.   I cannot judge why he offered a "reward" to hurt LTT and then a "reward" to UM to forget the whole thing.   However, if I were a UM administrator, I would return the money---publicly.  Tell him that we do not take bribes.

Who found out where he worked through twitter. He contacted the company saying that this guy cost them his business when he heard about it. His retraction came shortly after. I thought this was pure awesome. I'm wondering how much more backlash they received as a result.

Deal.

Dare I say...props to this guy. And let me add:

SEPTEMBER 1ST CANNOT COME FAST ENOUGH.

I don't know if I've seen an off-season with this many people going absolute apesheeeeet with their downtime... I guess it's affecting Ohio as well.

Reading the guy's blog entry, it's clear that he just loves the sport, the game, and the rivalry. He has a respect for both institutions, and I think we can move on. He admitted it was a bad joke and put his money where his mouth is. I think that's a way to man-up to your mistakes.

This rivalry needs more fans who are adult enough to admit when they are wrong. This is a quality that should be respected. I admire that, and I think we should all aspire to such levels of maturity.

Additionally...

I'm just impressed that someone from Ohio who wasn't a football player actually had 2000 bucks.

We should all apply to academic departments at OSU and burn the acceptance letters........

I'm not buying it.

Namely, his claim that it was meant as a "joke among friends." C'mon man, if that were the case then 1) why did you publish it on the Twitters and 2) why did you write as if addressing Logan personally ("Enjoy purgatory, Logan")? For Logan to read it was clearly the intent. Whether it was originally meant as a bounty is uncertain; some may be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt....

Good for him for apologizing, but this comes off as completely disingenuous.

Also, note how he still hasn't formally stated that the bounty is off. Not sayin', just sayin'.

Look at Mr. Warbucks over there with his $2,000 donation!  His OSU brethren would be shocked that he has a year's salary to waste on that school connected to them via a series of roads.

if your comment was intended to be amongst friends you wouldn't put said comment on a social networking site and use a hash tag that would link it to the entire osu twitterverse. this guy is full of it. he's just reacting to save his arse after making a horrible decision.