Tressel's new counsel, Gene Marsh, on Michigan.
This is not news as far as I am concerned, but it will be news to some. A few days ago, when it was announced that Gene Marsh of Lightfoot, Franklin & White in Birmingham AL had been retained as counsel for Jim Tressel in the NCAA investigation, I got into a big board-fight with some of the members who apparently had no knowledge that Gene Marsh had in fact served (brilliantly) as Michigan's own NCAA defense-counsel. The thread had started with numerous attacks on Tressel for lawyering up, and some personal attacks on Gene Marsh.
I immediately weighed in rather emphatically on the side of Gene Marsh, and the fight was on.
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/tressel-hires-big-gun-represent-him-front-ncaa
Anwyay, here's Gene Marsh (the guy that many MGoBloggers wanted to attack) in today's Columbus Dispatch, on the subject of ... Michigan:
Marsh, a native of Dayton, said he was in the Army infantry for three years before enrolling at Ohio State. When he showed up on campus, he was "all business," taking 20-plus hours per quarter on his way to a bachelor's degree, then a master's in 1978.
"I didn't go to one Ohio State football game during that time," Marsh said. "The last game I attended there was about in 1988. So I am not a rah-rah fan."
In fact, he and fellow attorney William King from the Birmingham, Ala.-based firm Lightfoot, Franklin & White worked with Michigan during its committee-on-infractions hearing last year.
"I think it's safe to say I had absolutely no ties to Ann Arbor," Marsh said. "But they were a great institution to work for, and they made me proud because they were so forthright about everything. When you are lawyering a case, you just squeeze the fan element out of it."
There is a post on this right below this one.
Section 1 double posted the thread. It happens to the best of us.
The other thread can die; this was the one I edited, and which got turned into a new thread. Thanks.
Okay, I'll write out my first comment again...
I immediately weighed in rather emphatically on the side of Gene Marsh, and the fight was on.
You very much didn't do this Section 1. You immediately weighted in using a rather dick-ish tone and picked a fight where there didn't need to be a fight in the first place. There is a subtle difference between the two. Making another thread to defend yourself just seems unnecessary to me.
Mods please kill both threads
Why would any Michigan fan want to hear one of the most prominent attorneys in NCAA athletics say nice things about Michigan's institutional integrity? Why let, say, recruits or recruits' parents, or students or alumni or boosters of Michigan athletics see something nice about Michigan?
He said that a former client was "forthright" and "great to work for." This is hardly something that will sway anyone's opinion on anything.
Not to meantion the fact that the "nice things about Michigan" were clearly not the porpose for this post.
I am not a huge stickler on spelling but this is pretty bad.
He clearly meant porpoise - it's a post about dolphins.
Now that you meantion it...... maybe you are right.
The porpoise of this thread is on the left; and the porpose is on the right. Glad to clear this up. I didn't want anyone to have a cow when we needed to focus on the main porpose.
Well played.
Typographical errors, rather than spelling, but point taken and ridicule well-deserved.
I just knew I should have stuck with Ted Kaczynski's property auction and Dirk Nowitsky's free throw record. The important stuff in advancing the cause of Michigan athletics.
And this is the dick-ish tone that you are can be so well known for. Just let the whole thing go man.
God, you sound like a 5 year old. "But what he did was worse!"
Just because someone else made a dumb thread doesn't mean you can too.
Hey at least what Gordon Lightfoot is doing these days.
Wat?
"The fight was on"
If I recall correctly, it wasn't as much of a fight as it was Section 1 using low brow insults to combat low brow jokes. I don't know if this thread was made to gloat over an argument that didn't exist, or if it is actual news. I'll assume the latter.
Here's another interesting quote. I'm glad hes cheering on my alma mater in that article, and all that jazz, but I'm not sure if this is the way to spin this case.
“This is a serious matter with serious people involved. They are not going to get all jazzed up or get their head turned by some dot-com writer somewhere.”
http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/confirmed-yahoo-to-rep-jim-tressel-before-ncaa-29701
to Gregg Doyel, who did one of his usual freakouts on the subject of Tressel, quite probably on the day that Marsh was being interviewed. Doyel, even more out of his kiddie-pool element than usual, went directly after Gene Marsh on the basis of influence peddling and conflicts of interest. Basic 100 per cent pure bullshit:
Are you defending lawyers, Marsh, or Tress?
None of the above. It seems to me the point is merely to call attention to himself.
Because that's just the kind of guy I am.
Point 1: This was a very nice thing said about Michigan, by a very important figure in the world of NCAA investigations. That part is agreeable enough, isn't it? Any problem with that so far?
Point 2: This was a news worthy quote. My evidence for that, as regrettable as this might be, is the fact that Mark Snyder did a story on the very same quote, for the Free Press. For a Board that scarcely lets a day goes by without a new thread posted about what a recruit posts on Twitter, this isn't such a high bar of newsworthiness, is it?
Point 3: This Board really did seem to display a remarkable general level of ignorance (NOT everybody, of course) about who and what Gene Marsh is, as demonstrated by that earlier thread, picking on 'Tressel's new lawyer.' It's good Board hygiene to correct that. Everybody; pay attention. You need to know about Gene Marsh and especially what he did for Michigan.
Point 4: This is part of the general Tatgate/OSU/Tressel/NCAA story that seems to be pretty much the hottest story in college football right now. This is decidedly a minor episode in that story. But hey, it's Michigan, mentioned in a flattering light, in the Columbus Dispatch. How often do you see that?
Point 5: The only reason people don't like this thread is they don't like me, and they especially don't like me when I'm right. If, on the earlier Tressel's lawyer thread, I had simply said very softly that, gosh, that same Gene Marsh was Michigan's lawyer, there still would have been two more pages with people going off on stupid and juvenile things like how dumb you gotta be to go to tO$U law school. (Read the thread yourself; the stupidity is remarkable.) So I thought I'd shake things up with some extra-hot rhetoric. And as usual, on the substance, I was right. And yeah, this was both a nice little story, and a chance to spike the football. If somebody else had done this story, with just a straight paragraph on the same quote by Gene Marsh, none of you guys would have given it a passing thought.
Are you defending lawyers, Marsh, or Tress?
I don't know. Do "lawyers" need defending in this instance? What has the legal profession done wrong in this instance? Marsh? Does Marsh need any defending? He's probably the premier practicioner of his specialty in America. A very good reason why Michigan hired him. Tressel? I pretty much share Gene Marsh's publicly-stated views on Tressel. Gene Marsh will defend Tressel better than I could hope to. So I guess what I'd say is that neither "lawyers," nor Gene Marsh need my defending, and Tressel now has has the best defender he could have chosen.
I think my work on this topic is now done. You're welcome.
I lol'd at Point #2, because the part about HS athletes' Twitter accounts is so damning. Your sarcasm levels are quite impressive on today's Board. Point 4 is also crucial; the Dispatch is THE hometown newspaper in Columbus, and its voice carries some weight with the Buckeye faithful.
I <3 Section 1 but even I think this is a little bananas.