Poor William Gholston is misunderstood
Get out the hankies when you read this article about Will Gholston, the "quiet, unassuming friend" who is learning how to better "play through adversity" (with "adversity" apparently translating to "being on the field with Denard" or "getting owned by Lewan").
To set the stage, let's start with the article's false statement that Gholson was "flagged for . . . [t]wisting the face mask of Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson." In fact, he was penalized for a late hit on that play, and no action was taken (at the time or later) for the neck-wrenching.
We can then proceed through the rest of the article as though the neck-wrenching never occurred. For example, here's the head coach to whom the players look for guidance:
"It really bothered him because he was characterized in a bad light," coach Mark Dantonio said. "He is emotional and it was an emotional response. It was not premeditated and I think people hung him out to dry. I think they hung him out to dry on TV, but they gotta talk about something, I guess."
Teammates agree that "Will is not the type of guy to just go out and punch a guy for no reason" (neck wrenching is another matter), and that he was "provoked" and "pa[id] the price." All of this is expected to "provide some extra motivation" for Gholson this week, so I guess we'll wait and see what he can do to top last year's performance.
October 18th, 2012 at 3:33 PM ^
October 18th, 2012 at 3:51 PM ^
Yes, we thought there was an understanding that Gholston was an AA type talent... We were def misunderstood.
October 18th, 2012 at 3:35 PM ^
I never knew that being a total dick was so emotionally stressful . . .
October 18th, 2012 at 3:42 PM ^
"They have to talk about something."
Sure, Dantonio. And if one of our players did that exact same move to Kurt Cousins last year, you being angry would be just because you needed something to talk about.
October 18th, 2012 at 3:42 PM ^
Poor ol' Tom. First he's misunterstood. Now he's had the wind knocked out of his head. I think he'll have more yards in personal fouls saturday than the offense will have total
October 18th, 2012 at 3:43 PM ^
could have just put up Gholston's picture and played "the Wind Beneath my Wings." We would have gotten the point without all that pesky writing.
October 19th, 2012 at 7:21 AM ^
need a pic of Mork "flying" with Tom at the front of the Titanic, stat.
October 18th, 2012 at 3:44 PM ^
The coaches at the next level won't have the luxury of being as forgiving and understanding with Gholston as Dantonio seems to be. At draft time when you've got two guys on your board with comparable talent, and only one of them has game film of himself acting like an idiot, the choice is made for you.
October 18th, 2012 at 4:01 PM ^
(1) dramatically improves and (2) checks his attitude. He certainly has the height and weight of an NFL DE but he needs to perform on the field and needs to check his attitude on the field otherwise he'll need to look for an actual job. NFL coaches, GENERALLY, do not put up with dirty players (unless you're from Nawlins'). A player with character issues has to be really really really darn good for a coach/owner to give him serious consideration in the draft, and I am not sure if Gholston comes anywhere close to really good. He had a good season last year and is having a lackluster season this year. He certainly has not proven himself as the heir apparent to Worthy.
October 18th, 2012 at 4:21 PM ^
I'm sure the Lions would LOVE to have him!
October 18th, 2012 at 4:53 PM ^
The NFL's concern about his lack of production is going to be heightened by the total washout of his cousin, too.
October 18th, 2012 at 3:52 PM ^
This is completely ridiculous. In one of sparties early hype videos for this year Gholston can be seen twisting another QB's helmet in the EXACT same way as he did Denard's. But yeah, completely emotional, one-time thing...
Judge for yourself, check out 2:36-40 : http://youtu.be/xVz3l81qB90?t=2m35s
EDIT: For Link
October 18th, 2012 at 4:06 PM ^
by itselt, but add it to Denard, and yeah I'd say we have a pattern here.
The things about the Denard incident that stuck out so much were 1) How late it was, 2) the force that he twisted with and how far he took it, and 3) His attempt to conceal it immediately after doing it. It was an obvious non-football play with one clear intent. It is funny how this article does not mention these things.
October 18th, 2012 at 4:19 PM ^
I wouldn't worry about WG in the larger context of his collegiate career. He will be a bust like his cousin in the pros, and no one will even remember all that much about his time in the BIG. Anyone with half-a-sense-oh-lick-da-shredd of football knowledge can see he makes two plays a game, usually on the weaker tackle, then pretty much disappears. Lewan and Hyuge did well against him last year.
October 18th, 2012 at 4:40 PM ^
October 18th, 2012 at 4:28 PM ^
October 18th, 2012 at 4:37 PM ^
If you haven't seen "Star Wars" how was "Space Balls" funny?
May The Schwartz Be With You
October 19th, 2012 at 9:27 AM ^
there are plenty of great jokes in there that don't require you to have seen star wars in order to laugh (gives great helmet is just one example amongst oh so so many). My wife still hasn't seen Star Wars yet but she found Spaceballs to be funny. Sure, there were some jokes that didn't resonate as well for her due to her lack of Star Wars knowledge, but really that film franchise has so seeped into pop culture that you can get the general gist of most of the references even if you never saw the films.
October 18th, 2012 at 4:48 PM ^
Let's be clear; the harmless punch thrown by Gholston at Taylor Lewan's facemask really was just routine, over-emotional football. A few Michigan players have themselves done as bad, in the heat of battle. No. Big. Deal.
But the reasons that I felt that the loaded term "sociopath" fit Gholston included:
- The outrageously vicious, injury-intending helmet-twist on Denard;
- The pre-punch, injury-producing arm-bar on Taylor Lewan early in the game, and;
- The bizarre and creepy approach made to Brady Hoke after the game. (Made all the more creepy by Gholston's frankly weird explanation to the press afterward; saying that he wanted to "congratulate" coach Hoke, for somehow renewing the U-M/MSU rivalry. Say what?)
Video of Gholston talking about "thanking" Brady Hoke (@1:07 of this clip):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7OYRO7aiIY
Gholston is nuts.
The reasons that Michigan fans (and now others across the Big Ten landscape) are calling Michigan "Sixty Minutes of Unneccessary Roughnes" State dirty, is, uh, because the numbers tell us that Michigan-MSU is not only one of the dirtiest rivarly games in all of college football based on personal foul calls but it is also the most one-sided filthiness, by a lot. Congrats, Sparty. The Wall Street Journal's numbers put you in a class by yourself:
Thank you, Darren Everson. ;-)
And lest we pin too much personal blame on Ghoslton for last year's dirty play, remember this particular personal foul by Marcus Rush on Denard Robinson, for which MSU drew a 15-yard penalty, and Denard Robinson was knocked out of the game. Had Rush done this in the NFL, I have zero doubt that he'd have been fined, heavily. Rush didn't get an ejection or a suspension for this play, and I still maintain that Rush deserved a suspension. Much more than for the Gholston punch, but just the same as the Gholston helmet-twist.
October 18th, 2012 at 4:54 PM ^
IMO, he's clearly a thug but I didn't think he sounded insane in that interview. He was what, 19 or 20 when he gave it? I was a complete idiot at that age (and still am, to be honest).
October 18th, 2012 at 6:18 PM ^
The reporters knew what Gholston did after that game. Gholston went straight to Hoke (it's seen on the tv footage, and I saw it myself at the game) and with his helmet still on he sort of lunges his way up to a startled Hoke and says something. "Thanks" was part of it; the rest is probably only known to the people around the two of them at the time. I presume it was something punkish like "thanks for not recruiting me" or, "thanks for that crappy camp in Ann Arbor so that I knew I'd be a Spartan." In any event, if you honestly believe that after that game, Gholston was thanking Brady Hoke for 'renewing the rivalry' (two years earlier, Rich Rodriguez's Wolverines had taken them to OT on that field)... I've got some swampland near East Lansing to sell.
More video. More Gholston video; this is his arm-bar on Taylor Lewan, early in the game. The video quality is not good because it is so far away from the play (which only makes Gholston's clear intent to injure all th more clear). This is Gholston, trying to tear Lewan's right arm off. Gholston almost succeeded; but that's one arm that is hard to tear off. Anyway, Gholston uses both hands and his full body weight, locked on to Lewan's arm, in an effort to try to injure him early in the game. This was in the first four minutes of last year's game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL4iM4vNKF0
October 19th, 2012 at 4:23 PM ^
Oh, don't get me wrong, Gholston is clearly an undisciplined thug/gangsta/a--hole, however you want to phrase it. I just wouldn't call him certifiably insane.
October 19th, 2012 at 6:41 AM ^
October 18th, 2012 at 4:58 PM ^
I thought this website was a log of things from Gob Bluth...
October 18th, 2012 at 5:00 PM ^
My first name is Patrick and I would sucker-punch people too if they started calling me Rick. Everyone kills people, punches people, twists my head off, twists your head off.
October 18th, 2012 at 5:14 PM ^
"To his 2-month-old son, he is simply dad."
Beautiful, sophisticated, non-cliched writing. Time to pencil in Matt Charboneau for this year's Pulitzer.
October 18th, 2012 at 5:20 PM ^
October 18th, 2012 at 5:28 PM ^
The odds that Lewan suffers a serious injury from a punch to his helmet are practically nothing. I've punched dudes wearing helmets before; that's not something I'm particularly proud of, but I don't feel like I really risked injuring them badly. The odds Denard gets injured very badly (or that he breaks Lewan's arm) were much higher and thus were much bigger deals.
A punch should be a fifteen yard penalty and should be an lolunsportsmanlike type moment, the Gholston helmet twist warranted a lengthy suspension, IMO.
October 18th, 2012 at 5:54 PM ^
The punch offers the press more wiggle room - they can spin it as though Lewan instigated it.
The facemask-twist is unambiguously nasty and can only make Gholston look bad. No one, not even Spartan fans, will defend it. The media finds that boring.
October 18th, 2012 at 6:13 PM ^
That the Big 10 decided to use the punch as the reason to suspend him, rather than the helmet twist (which still boggles the mind), makes the punch the story and the video clip that people remember.
October 18th, 2012 at 5:59 PM ^
This completely mystifies me. I'd love to have a national cfb writer sit down, watch that replay, and explain to me why it is treated as much ado about nothing. Actually, it isn't even given much ado. Virtually no ado.
Seriously, what the f*&@?? Where was/is the ado? Does it actually require a broken neck/paralysis/death to be worthy? Evidently not, given the attention the harmless punch received.
October 18th, 2012 at 6:21 PM ^
October 18th, 2012 at 9:24 PM ^
The punch looks exciting; it's sensational. The twist, much more subtle. Not good highlight reel material.
Consider the infamous "Suh stomp" last year. From the proper vantage point, it is clear that Suh's foot did not make contact with the dude's arm. Not trying to excuse the temper tantrum, which was definitely unprofessional, in addition to his other antics -- in fact, his slamming of the dude's head while piled on top was the more potentially harmful act during that whole fiasco. But the stomp got played up ad nauseum in the media because it looked sensational; they also showed it from the vantage point that made it look like Suh actually stomped the dude (although, you can tell from the dude's complete non-response to it, that he did not get hit).
Same principle, I vouch.
October 18th, 2012 at 10:52 PM ^
I kind of wish Denard had feined an injury after that happened just so it would've drawn the attention. If he had laid there motionless for a little bit, people would be calling for that goon to be banned from collegiate play
October 18th, 2012 at 11:05 PM ^
It is commonly thought that Denard wasn't hurt on the play where Gholston twisted his face mask, trying to injure him.
People think that, because Denard popped up quickly, and didn't miss a down.
But in fact, if you had been there, and if you now watch carefully the video of the telecast, Denard was hurt. He was flexing his neck after that play; moving his head from side to side. He was hurting. He (and Gholston) are just lucky that it wasn't a more serious injury.
October 18th, 2012 at 5:28 PM ^
It's not easy being a thug. I'm gratified by the fact his NFL stock has dropped this year.
October 18th, 2012 at 5:30 PM ^
October 18th, 2012 at 6:03 PM ^
October 19th, 2012 at 7:35 AM ^
"Teammates agree that 'Will is not the type of guy to just go out and punch a guy for no reason'"
...is a complete effing load of crap. That is EXACTLY the type of guy he is. I would not be a bit surprised if Tom is wearing stripes one day.
Section 1 is dead on: the helmet twist warranted a lengthy suspension.