OT: HBO Bishop Sycamore doc
HBO showing Netflix how to make a proper sports documentary.
Roy Johnson should be in jail.
August 24th, 2023 at 3:33 PM ^
It's on my list to watch right after "They Shall Not Grow Old."
Edit: HOLY SHIT! One of the Branham brothers was committed to Michigan at one point - Khalil. His brother John Jr. went to EMU for a time. Neither got much playing time.
Edit 2: Roy Johnson seems like a dude who has a lot of vision but wasn't willing to cross his t's and dot his i's and do things a responsible business founder should do...
That being said, and I'm sure a lot of ppl on here will disagree with me, but there's nothing philosophically wrong with him wanting to build an all-black staffed football academy. A lot of people act like successful businesses didn't start on patchy finances and brutal circumstances.
Further complicating the situation, I see a lot of white middle managers talking, particlarly the OSHAA guy, about compliance to an inherently classist and racist system. People who haven't grown up in poverty don't understand that when you're subsisting - rules mostly drafted by white people mean very little to you.
The scale of "successful businessman" and "con-man" is more grey than people think. Steve Jobs booked orders for a company that barely had an LLC, was in a garage, and the initial products he sold weren't even built yet. But he won/succeeded, so nobody gives a shit in hindsight. But if he hadn't bootstrapped that first order, he would have been strapped with lawsuits too.
I'm not saying what Roy did was acceptable but most people have never bootstrapped a business and don't understand the financial pressure and "fake it til you make it" nature of it. It's a chicken and egg problem - it's not built yet but wealthy customers/investors won't buy until it's already built. Any successful business owner who claims they never lied/stretched the truth to "get over the hump" is a liar.
That being said, Roy is def a con man.
Roy's biggest sin was overestimating his own abilities and cutting too many corners to put his vision together in a sustainable way - whether that says more about him, a single actor, or the system itself and what it incentivizes... I'll leave that up to debate.
August 24th, 2023 at 4:09 PM ^
They shall not grow old is very good, if you can find the 30 "making of" it's also very worth the watch.
August 24th, 2023 at 6:11 PM ^
That edit is really appalling.
Firstly, every system man creates is biased. There is no such thing as a system without bias.
Secondly, while there is some merit to what you say about “bootstrapping” this wasn’t it. The man fucked over kids to make a buck/name for himself. He showed zero concern for their well being. He ruthlessly exploited those kids. Blaming “systems” is a cop out and lame.
Thirdly, his bootstrapping was poorly planned and organized. Normally those who cut corners at least have an idea of what they are doing. This clown didn’t. Putting those kids on national television was fucking stupid. They were in no way prepared for that level of play. They didn’t even have trainers or enough helmets for the team.
If he truly wanted to help those kids he would have found less physically dangerous ways of doing and on, not using their names to apply for PPP loans.
There is no defending Roy Johnson. Blaming “the system” is a weak attempt at fobbing off immoral conduct on a faceless enemy.
August 24th, 2023 at 6:14 PM ^
I'm not defending anything Roy did. Def a con man. I'm also saying that what he did is symptomatic of the structure around football and how our economy overall is found.
A key element of capitalism is "information asymmetry" - a nice way to say "lie by omission."
Until elite high school and college players are paid directly as employees - they are slaves on a plantation, but yes, let's focus on the single idiot who wanted a seat at the power table and was too incompetent to do it.
There are thousands of Roys and they're currently steering banks, fortune 500 companies, ESPN, athletic commissions, etc.
Also, regarding his PPP abuses, there was widespread and currently unprosecuted PPP loan fraud and many of those loans were forgiven. You probably think student loans shouldn't be forgiven. Yikes, man.
It's like as soon as something becomes "official" in your mind, you can't scale up the con to apply to the whole system because America told you not to.
August 28th, 2023 at 8:21 AM ^
IMO, all you need to do is post your 'secondly' paragraph and stop there. That is enough for me to feel compelled to hunt this fucker down and choke him out. Sick.
August 24th, 2023 at 4:09 PM ^
This looks really, really good.
August 24th, 2023 at 4:16 PM ^
“I’m the best liar I know.” So fitting for a school in Columbus. Just wondering whether Sycamore learned a few things from the university team in town, or vice-versa?
August 24th, 2023 at 4:34 PM ^
Well, after watching Painkiller on Netflix (semi-fictionalized with composite characters but broadly accurate) and being reminded of the whole Oxycontin catastrophe, what this guy did at Bishop Sycamore is small potatoes compared to the carnage and billions of dollars reaped by the most successful crime family in history, the Sacklers.
Which, of course, makes it more likely that he would get punished eventually, because the Sacklers are definitely walking away with the bulk of their blood fortune and immunity from further prosecution pending SCOTUS review of the settlement.
August 24th, 2023 at 4:51 PM ^
Painkiller wasnt very good. Dopesick on Hulu was fantastic, and the documentary Crime of the Century on HBO was also fantastic.
All cover the same subject matter
August 24th, 2023 at 4:53 PM ^
I've held off on watching Painkiller because the other documentaries on it made me so angry. Sacklers are the scum of the earth. I don't know how they could live with themselves.
August 24th, 2023 at 4:55 PM ^
Hmmm. Mafia has been around longer and with little overhead compared to big pharma. Still rolling with them.
August 24th, 2023 at 6:10 PM ^
And the Catholic Church has been around longer than both. What is your actual point?
August 24th, 2023 at 6:15 PM ^
That the Mafia is the greatest of organized criminals in modern history.
Technically, the Sacklers are not an organized crime family. If we use actions then there is no one who equals government. Over the centuries and across the globe governments have been committing criminal acts on a massive scale.
August 24th, 2023 at 6:23 PM ^
He doesn't have a point. He's always out to argue that he knows the face of evil better than anyone else...
August 24th, 2023 at 4:42 PM ^
"Ohio was embarrassed by this." The same state that employed Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer?
August 24th, 2023 at 5:18 PM ^
Yep, it's that same state that holds a person, who tried to crush a kids trachea because he intercepted a pass in a bowl game against his team, in higher regard than any other human that's ever lived.
August 24th, 2023 at 4:51 PM ^
BS High. Wonder if that was intentional.
August 24th, 2023 at 6:32 PM ^
You have severely undersold this documentary! IT. IS. BANANAS.
August 24th, 2023 at 8:42 PM ^
Really good show. How that man is not in jail is beyond me. And his response/ reactions to some of the things in the show are just sickening.
August 25th, 2023 at 12:47 AM ^
That coach is a Classic Narcissist! It was sickening watching him at the end, acting like the players victimized him.
August 25th, 2023 at 1:27 AM ^
Just watched. That was bananas. But I'd like some of the other complicit parties to step up and comment, especially the idiots at ESPN who did zero diligence into who or what they were showcasing on their platform. And I'd love to see an investigative, non-fluff doc on IMG one of these days.
Not gonna lie: I want one of those BS UnderArmor performance fleece pullovers with the logo. I want to wear it while I drink coffee out of my Theranos branded mug (which I actually have).
August 25th, 2023 at 3:25 PM ^
I was just about to read an article on GQ that headlines it as it is way darker then we ever imagined. I saved it about 2 minutes ago to read after I looked over this site. Edit so I did read some of the story and these guys had to leave a lot of crazy stuff off the documentary. This guy thinks he and Trump are the same and idolizes Trump they act one in the same. A black man idolizes a racist is crazy enough.