Rosenberg praises Beilein's "virtue" by contrasting with, wait for it...
Rosenberg praises Beilein's "virtue" to the skies and supports his contract extension, calling him probably the most respected coach in college basketball. The mostly unspoken, giant flaming elephant in the room of the article is Rodriguez, who Rosenberg was no doubt dying to contrast to Beilein with a sentence like "as compared to Rodruguez, possibly the least respected coach..." His editors restrained him, though he did manage to compare the way the two handled their buyouts from WVA ("Beilein agreed to pay his own, Rodriguez fought a long legal battle"). It read like a Goofus and Gallant article with Goofus (RR) mostly standing just outside the frame.
http://www.freep.com/article/20100112/COL22/1120369/1354/SPORTS/U-M-wil…
January 12th, 2010 at 8:44 AM ^
Rosenberg is an ass, this isn't news.
No offense to you, though.
January 12th, 2010 at 8:54 AM ^
reading too much into it? I'll take your word for it because, you know, Freep links and all that.
If R'berg is really stooping this persistently low, then Freep is truly our common enemy.
BTW, is that a NU logo on your avatar?
January 12th, 2010 at 10:19 AM ^
Sadly, it is impossible to read too much negativity into Rosenpuke's ramblings. He should move south and work for the Columbus Discharge.
January 12th, 2010 at 12:13 PM ^
Their treatment of Michigan is much more evenhanded than his.
Perhaps The State News would entertain his application?
January 12th, 2010 at 8:59 AM ^
Ban any live links from Freep. Many other websites ban livelinks altogether so it's not unheard of.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:02 AM ^
I propose that MGoBlog should be a Rosenberg-free site.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:13 AM ^
In any event, it might be good to delegate an Mgoblog omsbudsman to monitor the Freep site for the rest of us and to report on any atrocities currently going on there. A daily summary so that nobody else has to link to it unless they just can't stop themselves.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:55 AM ^
I agree, the occasional Freep post is a service to those of us who do not want to generate click revenue, but do want to know what tripe we're up against.
Better to know your enemy, and what they're up to. That is why I find these Freep posts useful. They would be better though if the OP would put up the print version (non-revenue generating) link.
January 12th, 2010 at 10:28 AM ^
Now that you mention it, folks here seem to have the F$$$p-monitoring situation well-covered.
As far as revenue-neutral print links, did I read somewhere that F***p had disabled them and that only the revenue-generating links are available now? Or am I wrong -- does anybody know how this stuff works?
Because if the revenue-neutral-print-link option is available, it might be a worthwhile Mgoblog practice to use it exclusively.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:09 AM ^
I second that.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:15 AM ^
played football in college, went on to become a highly successful and hard driving entrepreneur in biotechnology, started and sold several companies, created a charitable foundation devoted to helping blind orphan kids, married one of the most beautiful women in the world, and is considered a shoo-in for the vacant US Senate seat in his home state.
Gallant was introduced to the joys of mescaline by a classmate in his high school AP calculus class, moved to San Francisco in 1968, was burned out on acid by 1970, and has spent the rest of his life as a custodian in the Columbus, Ohio public library system.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:25 AM ^
Needs to write for the Observer & Eccentric. He doesn't belong anywhere near a mass marketed news outlet.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:34 AM ^
Rosenberg just won't let up on RR. Not only is this nasty, it tries to go further and drive a wedge between RR and Beilein, which is a new level of sleaze. Elsewhere we see reports of high average GPA in the football program, quick resolution of disciplinary issues, not a whiff of any scandal regarding recruiting, and this is all he can come up with?
Someone in the mainstream media should really call the guy out on this stuff instead of just repeating it.
January 12th, 2010 at 10:22 AM ^
That will never happen, at least in a way that the public can see. It's not unknown for police departments or the military to erect unspoken walls of non-cooperation and silence when one of their own is being investigated for corruption or incompetence, and it's the exact same goddamn thing for members of the so-called mainstream media. The extent and amount of malfeasance, ignorance, incompetence, influence-peddling, sycophancy, and outright laziness exhibited by mainstream "professional journalists" over the last decade or more in the coverage of such things as politics, business, science, and of course sports is mind-boggling, but it's virtually unheard for other journalists to openly criticize a colleague. It won't happen in Rosenberg's case, either. Thank god for the internet, and MGoBlog.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:55 AM ^
I am sorry but the Freep and any other spartan sites are blocked on my computer.
January 12th, 2010 at 9:57 AM ^
for the way football coaches should be. I was surprised it did not make it in.
January 12th, 2010 at 10:51 AM ^
... no ads.
http://www.freep.com/print/article/20100112/COL22/1120369/Michigan-will…
EDIT: Just read it. Don't think it's too big a deal. The only thing that really is amateurish is the comparison between the buy outs. Football and basketball are two different sports and football is our cash cow. To compare contracts across both as apples to apples is absurd.
January 12th, 2010 at 11:09 AM ^
Don't read it. We know he's the equivalent of an internet troll. It's a waste of time.
January 12th, 2010 at 11:27 AM ^
Dramaberg is at it again. Is anyone really questioning the new contract Beilein just signed. He just does not know when to admit he is wrong. I for one would love to see Dramaberg spend some energy on real reporting.
January 12th, 2010 at 11:27 AM ^
Rosenberg's opening gambit is that Beilein's departure from West Virgina was an honorable one, in keeping with the character of this fine and honorable man; Beilein negotiated down his own buyout, and arranged to pay it himself.
And he compares to Rich Ridriguez, whose buyout was much bigger, and partly paid by Michigan after ugly and protracted litigation.
Of course, there are several things that Rosenberg conveniently ovelooks in his pursuit of his anti-Rodriguez agenda:
~Rodriguez and Beilein had different contracts, with different clauses, and very much different buyout amounts, following different negotiations to get them to come to Michigan.
~Rosenberg ignores, and probably doesn't much understand, how Michigan's payment of one of its new coaches' buyout provision is a taxable event, creating (in all liklihood) some form of a tax liability for the beneficiary of the payment (the coach). Litigation can actually aid the resolution of those issues.
~Virtually all of the "ugliness" in the Rodriguez buyout litigation stemmed from wild, unsupported and ultimately disproven allegations made against Rodriguez; stealing files, emptying offices, etc., etc. The Free Press did a remarkably terrible job of reporting on the resolution of those matters in Rodriguez's favor. Terrible even by the truly rotten standards of the Free Press.
Then Rosenberg launches a remarkable thesis of his own; that Michigan's contract extension and a raise for Beilein was intended as "repayment" for what Beilein had already paid himself on his own buyout dispute. Are we to understand that there is any value judgment to be made, over Michigan's paying part of Rich Rodriguez's buyout as part and parcel of a settlement, whereas Michigan's later-on payment (repayment) to Beilein is different, or better?
One thing that this column did, was to afford Rosenberg an opportunity to restate his own view that "[t]he [Michigan] athletic department is obviously going through a tumultuous time." Which is very much like Chris Brown suggesting that Rihanna's life has been "going through a tumultouous time."
Uh, tell us; what sort of "tumult" is there at Michigan? We are undergoing the most orderly-imaginable transtion of Athletic Directors, virtually on schedule. We have a program that is operating with superb institutional control, on solid financials, with spectacular facilities, in a state where almost nothing else is on such solid financial ground. (The Free Press' newspaper operation can only dream of being on the same solid financial footing as the Michigan Athletic Department.) If there is even the faintest whiff of 'scandal,' it is because the Free Press has created it. And the Free Press feeds it, by repeating, without substance, that Michigan is "going through a tumultuous time."
And lets' be clear -- you media people out there; you are not doing your jobs, when and if you repeat these kinds of characterizations and, most critically, when you fail to take on Mike Rosenberg. That means you, Doug Karsch. And you, Pat Caputo. And you, Ryan Ermanni, Matt Shepard, Mike Valenti, Tery Foster. And you, Don Shane. And all the rest.
January 12th, 2010 at 12:48 PM ^
Between Rich Rodriguez and John Beilein.
- Rodriguez players have legal trouble (J.Feagin), Beilein's do not.
- Rodriguez "wades deep enough into dirty recruiting waters to land players", while Beilein does not.
- Beilein puts hard-core emphasis on academics. And Rodriguez? *Crickets*
- Beilein was the only coach on the UM athletic director position search committee, while Rich Rodriguez was intentionally excluded from such duties.
- Beilein has an oustanding, long-term track record over 30 years, while Rodriguez's past at GVSU, Tulane, Clemson and WVU must therefore be "questionable" or "murky".
January 12th, 2010 at 2:05 PM ^
I think that in part, Rosenberg was comparing Beilein favorably to other college basketball coaches, and not RR.
In particular, the vague references to the filthy world of college basketball recruiting.
So, yeah, Rosenberg has a point if he wanted to say, "Beilein is such a breath of fresh air compared to most of the rest of college basketball..." But that's not what he wrote.
And remember, sportsfans, the Freep was the paper that featured a big photo of Chris Webber in front of the U.S. Courthouse in Detroit, as an accoutrement to its sparkling August "investigation." How cute. Now there's a good comparison.
So yeah, maybe Rosenberg gets cut some slack. Not very goddamned much.
January 12th, 2010 at 12:49 PM ^
This column only makes the most fleeting of referrences to Rodriguez. It was a column about Beilein. The idea that what Rosenburg really meant to make a point about was Rodriguez, is hysterical and paranoid.
I suspect the echo chamber effect here is quite strong. I doubt more than half of commenters here actually read it.
January 12th, 2010 at 1:50 PM ^
Aw heck, you're always trying to take away our fun.
January 12th, 2010 at 4:02 PM ^
I've really become somewhat of a miser haven't I? I guess that's what happens when the 3 major sports poop the bed.
January 12th, 2010 at 2:12 PM ^
You think I didn't read Rosenberg's (Not 'Rosenburg')story?
Allow me to be the first to award you -1 for that. I'd neg you again for Bruce Springsteen, but it's not possible.
January 12th, 2010 at 3:52 PM ^
I have no idea how you got from me saying I doubt more than half of the people who commented read it to you, specifically, did not read it.
January 12th, 2010 at 1:20 PM ^
I'm new to this big place, and a lifelong M fan, and this blog is amazing. And I hope to hell hope RR comes out of the whole mess unscathed. But I keep wondering: Is anyone worried that the NCAA investigation may actually turn out badly for M?
The NCAA did say it found enough cause to, at least, investigate further. This tells me that there's at least some chance that there's something to all this (god forbid).
But everyone else seems to assume the NCAA will totally exonerate RR and, by implication, discredit the Freep. Is everyone really that confident? I wish I were.
Thanks for indulging a rookie.
January 12th, 2010 at 2:21 PM ^
I for one have NOT concluded that the Freep will end up in a smoking rubbish-pile, as Michigan is exonerated. The NCAA doesn't work that way.
To the contrary, I have concluded that the Freep will claim victory, no matter what.
What our mutual host Brian Cook generally indicates (and I agree) is that any NCAA investigation that goes this far is a real problem, but that in the grand scheme of things, the nature of the allegations are so far outside of what is imaginable in terms of detailed CARA violations, that it is very hard to imagine any major violations, or the equivalent.
Brain Cook seems to indicate (and again I agree) that the original reporting by Rosenberg and Snyder seemed to betray a very bad misunderstanding, on the part of the reporters (or, more likely, the interview subjects) of what Countable Hours are, and how exactly they are counted.
I certainly haven't predicted how the investigation will come out. And I won't.
What I propose to do is only to challenge the Free Press, its methods, its reporting and its staff, without which this investigation would not exist.
January 12th, 2010 at 1:43 PM ^
I really want to harm Rosie.
January 12th, 2010 at 2:51 PM ^
I am not going to reply to your post directly. Thereby affording you an opportunity to erase and/or change it.
What I will say is this; I hate to give Rosenberg and Co. any excuse to say that the Michigan fanboys are a reckless and threatening bunch.
What I will further say is this; if you really want to find a cesspool of internet wackoffs, just go to the Comments pages of any of the Free Press' Michigan-Athleitc-Department stories. There you will find all manner of references to "DickRod," "Rich Fraudriguez," "ToolRod" and "scUM." Mind you, these are the Free Press' MONITORED webpages. I suppose only Freep.com knows how many "I wish he would die" posts their webmasters have taken down.