SIAP: Connor Stalions on Cameo

Submitted by Swayze Howell Sheen on January 22nd, 2024 at 1:14 PM

Apologies if this was posted before, but I don't recall seeing it. 

Our old friend Connor is on Cameo!

https://www.cameo.com/cpstalions

I am quite tempted to get him to say some funny stuff and send the videos to my Buckeye friends.

Enjoy?

p.s. count me in the camp of being on this guy's side. He did what other programs are clearly doing but was the only one to get burned for it, and in a very public and negative way. 

mGrowOld

January 22nd, 2024 at 1:26 PM ^

100% co-signed.

While his motives may have been to help, the net effect in the court of public opinion was devastating to the reputation of this team and this lunatic seems blissfully unaware of the damage he's caused the team, the coaching staff and the school's reputation in general.

 

stephenrjking

January 22nd, 2024 at 1:54 PM ^

I'm with you two.

I'm inclined to be sympathetic to someone who is passionate and hardworking, and forgiving of someone who flies too close to the sun.

But that's on a personal level, nothing to do with promotion or acceptance by the program or the fanbase. And the amount of times Stallions has just popped up in public ways, apparently with no shame for the fact that his actions (in the most gracious interpretation, serious errors in judgment; in the worst, willful cheating) nearly cost this amazing team its best ever season and invited potential NCAA action that appears to be a central factor in the current uncertainty regarding the continued tenure of our head coach, suggests a man who is trying to capitalize on the attention he earned by hurting the program. Maybe I'm wrong, and it's just attention from others, but it feels like, rather than being humbled by his mistake, he's just cruising along on the wave of attention he brought for being dumb. Something distasteful about that, if it's accurate.*

He can keep being a fan of the team, of course, but he should recognize that his actions did serious damage to it, and he should stay away from the public eye. The fact that the people in the program haven't publicly dragged his name through the coals is all the gratitude he should expect. If he wants to do something public, a written apology is all that is necessary or wanted. 

*Maybe the answer is clear to someone who is paying attention, but I view any attention given to Conor Stallions to be an effort to hurt the program, whether that attention is drawn by hostile media or by Stallions himself, and I refuse to click to find out. 

ERdocLSA2004

January 22nd, 2024 at 2:02 PM ^

Totally agree.  That being said, I don’t think there’s a better way to troll your favorite buckeye fan(who’s obsessed with the whole “sign stealing scheme”) than a personalized video from the sign stealer himself.  Don’t know how much he is charging and I won’t support him, but I could see my uncles buckeye blood boiling if he got a video from Stalions.

dragonchild

January 22nd, 2024 at 3:34 PM ^

I would expect the reverse. I’d expect an MSU or OSU fan to amplify this guy because frankly I’d rather forget him.  It’s them who want to keep his name swirling, albeit in negative terms.

Sure, he’s the unspeakable devil to some but I’d wager almost all of the money he makes off this would come from rival fans who fancy themselves rabble-rousers.

It’s one more way he can hurt the program, which is grating because the whole thing started with obsessive fandom.

dragonchild

January 22nd, 2024 at 1:56 PM ^

Also, whatever his motives, he took on an approach that:

  1. Lacked transparency (that the other coaches didn't know exonerates them but it's NOT a good thing) and
  2. Lacked approval (else someone would've shut that nonsense down, see #1) and
  3. Ends justified the means

I don't see enough to call him a psychopath but a 600-page manifesto makes him an extremely obsessed dude with, per above, very questionable ethics.

I would never hire the guy, I'd refuse to work for the guy, and I found none of what he did funny.  OK, strike that last one, I laughed when I heard about the manifesto and the MGoBlog account, but not in a "oh silly boy" way but a "holy crap I can't believe this" way.

Yeoman

January 22nd, 2024 at 3:18 PM ^

someone would've shut that nonsense down

Would we have? I honestly don't know--except for CMU (for sure nobody would have signed off on that) it wasn't obviously a violation and a fair amount of similar grey-area stuff (and some clearly outside the grey) seems to be going on out there elsewhere. I'm at least uncertain enough about what would have happened to be glad it wasn't put to the test.

rice4114

January 22nd, 2024 at 4:18 PM ^

So what if the people that brought you:

-PI firm investigation

-info to ESPN/NCAA

-Coordinated leaks to/from the press every 24 hours for days

also brought you

4. Connor Stallions has a 600 page manifesto.

Just because we all have repeated it (including the big wigs at MGOBLOG) does it make it fact? Maybe we put up walls on UM smear campaigns but for all his faults maybe this guy was also getting a heavy dose of that same treatment. Im not asking to hoist him up on our shoulders but maybe the worst parts about him (reported) could be fabricated to a certain extent?

rice4114

January 22nd, 2024 at 6:42 PM ^

Im with you DC I dont like what he did but I see most of the hate come from what could possibly be a fairy tale. Everything that happened this year was a part of what led us to a championship. In spite of it or because of it but we will never know. So ill just embrace the entire thing as our twisted story to glory!

grumbler

January 22nd, 2024 at 8:51 PM ^

A million times this.  I cannot believe that there are posters here who still subscribe to the OSU fiction about Conner Stalions.

Read the fucking rulebook.  It says nothing about paying for game film, and their rational for eliminating the advance scouting restrictions included the fact that teams could and did pay for game film.  There's no difference between the "vast scheme" and All-22.

The fact that Tiny PeTeeny bought into all that bullshit doesn't mean that people here should.

meeashagin

January 22nd, 2024 at 7:23 PM ^

How OSU is acquiring their roster is cheating. I guarantee they're doing exactly what FSU just got popped for. Picking a recruit up at the airport & driving them over to Bob the Boosters house sitting them down and hashing out a monthly $$$ amount that has everyone in his fam happy.

What's crazy is people in and around FSU basically said that while paying Mims 15k was illegal it's chump change compared to what they're now paying players

The reason they openly brag about breaking the rules even after getting caught for it is because with out it you aren't getting any top 100 players, (see Michigan classes for proof) so openly admitting you're still cheating by paying way more is a massive recruiting tool.

theyellowdart

January 22nd, 2024 at 1:23 PM ^

"p.s. count me in the camp of being on this guy's side. He did what other programs are clearly doing but was the only one to get burned for it, and in a very public and negative way. "

 

I 100% do not understand this mindset in anyway.   By all accounts he was doing something behind the back of his superiors, was unbelievably sloppy and amateur about it, hurt the players, coaches, and the schools reputation, and will forever give our rivals ammo to talk crap about our NC season (even if it's an attempt for them to cope with reality.)

That's not even getting into the BS he pulled with Blake.

Dude doesn't deserve an ounce of praise or respect, and sure as hell won't be getting a dime from me on Cameo trying to cash in on his pathetic 15 minutes of fame.

grumbler

January 22nd, 2024 at 9:05 PM ^

I 100% do not understand this mindset in any way.  By all accounts he was using funs from the Bank of Dad to go that extra 1% because he could.  He wasn't "sloppy" about it, he just didn't try to hide anything because there was no reason to hide anything.  He was no more doing this "behind the back of his superiors" than an equipment manager goes behind the back of his superior by not informing Harbaugh about the source of the last shipment of socks.

As far as I can tell, the Blake LLC thing was just another false flag operation.  Other than the fact that someone submitted a vague business application and signed themselves "Conner Stalions" there's no evidence that CS was actually involved.

I'm not saying that Stalions should be lionized.  But I will point out that he gave up his dream job without attempting to fight the bullshit because he knew that defending himself could have saved his job but would have been a distraction to the team.

People seem to love to hate because they just love to hate.

jmblue

January 22nd, 2024 at 9:18 PM ^

 But I will point out that he gave up his dream job without attempting to fight the bullshit because he knew that defending himself could have saved his job 

There was no way he could have saved his job.  Low-level staffers accused of NCAA violations do not stay in those positions.

kehnonymous

January 22nd, 2024 at 1:25 PM ^

p.s. count me in the camp of being on this guy's side. He did what other programs are clearly doing but was the only one to get burned for it, and in a very public and negative way

So, other than the ending, how did you enjoy the play Ms Lincoln? 

Look, we all agree SignGate was mostly penny-ante bullshit, but the only net positive Stalions brought was galvanizing a team that was already pretty tight-knit and purposeful, and even that is mostly a push at best.  But EVEN IF we disregard SignGate, are we not going to talk about him trading on Blake Corum's name (without Blake's consent) for whatever goofy-ass LLC thing he was doing?  That alone is fireable.

dragonchild

January 22nd, 2024 at 1:59 PM ^

Eh, I'm with stephenrjking above -- I think he should still be allowed to be a fan, not a fugitive, but he should keep a low profile.  Any attempt to approach the team or pop his head up in public should be met with a shower of rotting leftovers, but he should want to be left alone.

Instead he's showing up on Cameo.  What a jackass!

RibbleMcDibble

January 22nd, 2024 at 1:34 PM ^

I'm good on Stalions stuff, not so much for the advanced scouting - which I think Michigan should have pushed back way harder on as not even being against the rules - but for the LLC business and potentially the CMU sideline appearance. 

The one quibble I have with people criticizing him is to criticize his sloppiness: IMO its unfair because his advanced scouting was being looked into by a PI firm. If a PI firm were hired to look into any major program, my guess is they would be able to uncover plenty of illegal or grey area behavior. 

IndyBlue

January 22nd, 2024 at 2:24 PM ^

I can see your point. But on the other hand, it seems he found a loophole in that what he was doing was not against the written rules. So for him, maybe it was about going above and beyond his duties to do his job better in the hopes that the higher-ups would take notice and he could move up into a more prominent role.

Once the shit hit the fan, I agree he should be trying to lay low out of the spotlight, not showing up at big events, etc.

Bluesince89

January 22nd, 2024 at 2:46 PM ^

That's not his judgment call to make. I'm a partner in a law firm. I have any where between 7-9 associates working under me at any time and 3-4 paralegals. If something is questionable or doesn't seem 100% right, you run that shit up the flagpole, and if there was a 50/50 call that I wasn't consulted on, I'd be pissed because at the end of the day, I'm going to take the fall on the sword with the client or a potential malpractice claim - not the team working underneath me.

Either he's too dumb to know what he was doing was in the gray or he did and didn't care anyways because his own ambition was more important. Nothing you said really changes my view on what he did. At the end of the day, this was not his judgment call to make. If his higher ups told him to do it, my view changes completely. But nothing indicates that's the case.

IndyBlue

January 22nd, 2024 at 4:18 PM ^

IDK that any of that is correct. He was initially suspended with pay, last reports I saw were that NCAA hadn't made contact with him, then he eventually resigned his position. Once he's no longer an employee, he has absolutely can tell the NCAA to fuck off if they want to interview him (might get him a show-cause, but no program is hiring him anytime soon anyway).

grumbler

January 22nd, 2024 at 9:16 PM ^

This is pretty much 100% wrong, except where it is naked unsupported opinion.  He wasn't fired, didn't refuse to cooperate with anyone, knew that what he was doing was entirely proper, but didn't think that his work on his own time was worth bragging to his superiors about.  He gave up his dream job just to avoid being a distraction to the team.

MGoFoam

January 22nd, 2024 at 1:35 PM ^

He broke the rules and created the entire mess. If he knew he was breaking the rules, then fuck him. If he didn't know, then he's just stupid because it was his job, so fuck him!

LB

January 22nd, 2024 at 1:35 PM ^

We have players who were quoted as saying the accusations thrown around served to diminish their accomplishments in the eyes of many people. My personal thoughts aside, are you out of your mind?