treetown

October 30th, 2023 at 11:37 AM ^

Gil Thorp unfortunately is going through a weird phase where the writer and artist both seem to  have a passing familiarity with American football and sports.

For example, in a recent strip, Milford High (where Gil is the AD and FB HC) playing against Batavia High. Late in the game the Milford HIgh Mudlarks are behing but are driving when they give up the ball on an interception. Batavia wins the game. 

The odd looks of Gil and his coaching staff in frame 2 shows the general confusion. Why would a team ahead SPIKE the ball to run out the clock?

But it wasn't always this way. Once upon a time 3 years ago, Gil decided to upgrade his offense to that new-fangled Delaware Wing-T ...

 

mGrowOld

October 30th, 2023 at 10:59 AM ^

FWIW

Last year I watched a very concerted attempt by all the NFL blue-checks to absolutely destroy Desean Watson in the court of public opinion.  Literally every day there was some new article on him, each one more salicious and reputation-damaging than the last.  It started around May-ish and kept going through the summer.  And regardless of your personal opinion of the guy, it's my contention that the NFL could care less about the women he allegedly molested but was VERY pissed at the guarenteed contract he got from the Browns.  

So when the independent arbitrator ruled on a 6 game suspension the public was outraged and demanded more.  And Roger was only too happy to oblige and added five more games to his punishment to appease the casual fan.  BTW, notice you never read any more hit pieces on the guy as a person anymore? (plenty on him as a player but that's a different story)

Anyways, be very wary of what's coming next.  The mass media has really jumped on this story and made us the supreme evil ones in college football.  So when the B1G and the NCAA decide what to do next, my concern is they'll be more concerned about how it will be perceived by the casual fan/viewer (who right now sees us as nothing more than cheaters) than they will their bylaws and what actually happened.

grumbler

October 30th, 2023 at 11:29 AM ^

It's not just the mass media.  A lot of social media posts content designed to draw clicks and thus advertising revenue.  This is especially true of the niche social media who need to constantly play the OUTRAGED! game to draw the largest percentage of their small market as possible.

Erik_in_Dayton

October 30th, 2023 at 11:14 AM ^

I am also worried that the NCAA will ignore the facts and bylaws/rules, but I am hoping against hope that Michigan will finally its muscles if that occurs.  I don't know enough about NCAA-related law to say exactly what this would look like, but there needs to be a "The heck with you; you're an illegitimate institution" lawsuit in that instance.  Too much is at stake for this to be handled by a kangaroo court. 

jdemille9

October 30th, 2023 at 11:19 AM ^

I'm worried about the NCAA doing that too. But I doubt Michigan flexes any muscles against the NCAA. They seem to be content treating the NCAA as a legit, and honest, organization acting in the best interests of student-athletes - which is ludicrous, I know, but that's how it feels like Michigan is acting towards the NCAA.