What the hell has Gregg Doyel from Cbssports.com been smoking??

Submitted by wresler120 on

So, about 9 hours ago CBSSports beat writer Gregg Doyel tweets this:

I disagree with the William Gholston suspension. Doesn't deserve it. But Michigan's Lewan deserves that and more.

He basically sums up the incident to being Lewan's fault, and he felt Lewan should have been the one who got suspended.

Then, about 7 minutes ago he tweets:

I have to fall on the sword about Gholston. Stupidly, I didn't know he'd done more than the retaliatory punch. My apology to Lewan.

He then follows that up with this tweet:

Didn't realize Gholston was the same guy who jerked Shoelace's neck. My bad. Tweeted from the airport, no internet connection. Bad move.

and

Didn't know that, either. I'm not just ignorant. I'm a moron RT @victorshail: the arm bar was the worst out of the 3!

It's a pretty comical line of tweets ... How in the hell does he not know Gholston is the one who twisted Denard's facemask, and tried to throw an omoplata on Lewan??? This guys a friggin writer for one of the nation's top sports sites ... and he doesn't know anything further than the punch??? Is this dude living under a rock? I'm gonna apply at CBSSports ... my writing skills suck ... but I think I am more in the sports loop than he will ever be. 

http://twitter.com/#!/greggdoyelcbs

ClearEyesFullHart

October 21st, 2011 at 10:19 PM ^

Some people dont think about it being public, and just throw stream of consciousness out there.  It is what it is.

bacon1431

October 21st, 2011 at 10:20 PM ^

He's a big douchebag. Just read his bio on CBSsports.com. He's got little man syndrome or something. Actually, don't read it. He doesn't deserve the hits.

hart20

October 21st, 2011 at 10:21 PM ^

He could have smoked cigarettes, a cigar, a pipe, marijuana, hookah, crack, or perhaps some other hallucinogenic plant. I think we should eliminate marijuana and crack. If he was high on marijuana, I think he'd find something better to do than tweet. We can eliminate crack because his tweets are too far apart and are not erratic. That leaves us with hookah, cigarettes, a cigar, or a pipe. Let's eliminate hookah, he doesn't seem like the hookah type. A pipe? Perhaps, but not likely. That leaves us with cigars or cigarettes. I think the likely answer would be cigarettes. He's a writer, correct? And on The Wire, journalists smoke a lot. Therefore, we can say that he probably smoked cigarettes. The R-squared value for this was 0.996, so we can say that we have a high degree of confidence in this finding.

MGlobules

October 22nd, 2011 at 10:46 AM ^

for the most part, in the media. These clowns just suck down the koolaid like everyone else, then spin out words. Very few of them are any more insightful than you or I. 

energyblue1

October 21st, 2011 at 10:31 PM ^

are the reason nobody reads papers at all and why we completely follow blogs dedicated to our programs/teams.....and then look to national news for the rest..........

BRCE

October 21st, 2011 at 10:32 PM ^

Before reading the apologies, I simply assumed this:

Gregg Doyel makes it his mission to piss off as many readers as possible. There are more Michigan fans than Michigan State fans, thus more people to piss off with his commentary.

That often is the basis for his columns.

g_reaper3

October 22nd, 2011 at 2:53 PM ^

He is the most negative person around.  Short of being a championship contender in any sport, you are a failure.  He wrote that Michigan is the worst 6-1 team in the history of football or something along those lines.  How does he come with crap like that?

Geaux_Blue

October 21st, 2011 at 10:32 PM ^

MSU Fan: Gholston got suspended because Lewan made a racist comment. Even Michigan message board moderators have admitted it (Note: Chris Balas did a horrible job of confirming that Gholston was making the claim and not that the claim was legitimate).

Doyel: I disagree with the William Gholston suspension. Doesn't deserve it. But Michigan's Lewan deserves that and more.

UM Fan: WTF are you talking about?

Doyel researches if the racism has been confirmed or is just smoke created by MSU from top (MSU AD) to bottom (Gholston). Finds nothing. 

Doyel: I have to fall on the sword about Gholston. Stupidly, I didn't know he'd done more than the retaliatory punch. My apology to Lewan.

 

UM Fan: WTF are you talking about?

Doyel: Didn't realize Gholston was the same guy who jerked Shoelace's neck. My bad. Tweeted from the airport, no internet connection. Bad move.

UM Fan: Did you even watch the game? Here's my overreaction about even a third thing because I'm piling on out of sheer outrage.

Doyel: Didn't know that, either. I'm not just ignorant. I'm a moron.
 
 
This is not the symptom of a dumb writer. It's emblematic of an industry that has been swept up into reactionary entertainment and news effectiveness and timeliness. Doyel is just caught up in trying to break timely news with an editorial opinion, something being pushed by every medium attempting to have a relevant voice. Should it be that way? No. Is it? Yes.

 

JD_UofM_90

October 22nd, 2011 at 11:14 AM ^

there were also 3 plays during the game, where (TFT) Gholston was rushing against our OT's and should have been flagged for hands to the face.  Didn't get called once.  He could have / should have had about 100 yards in P.F. penalties that game.... Doyel is a dork on this topic...

TFT = That F#$%ing Thug....

BLUE HIKER

October 21st, 2011 at 10:43 PM ^

  1. Michigan/MSU is not a high priority to CBS since they mostly televise SEC games.
  2. If the punch play was the first/only thing I saw, I would agree that Lewan was the aggressor.
  3. When more film is shown, the overall context is further understood.

 

At least he was man enough to publicly admit he made a mistake and apologize for it.  Hopefully he will learn to get all the facts in the future prior to posting comments.

If Michigan football is important to you, than I don't think CBSSports would be a good place to be employed.

SysMark

October 21st, 2011 at 10:47 PM ^

everyone has to have an opinion on everything, even when it is something they know nothing about...that's what this comes down to

guy is a complete idiot...period

mGrowOld

October 21st, 2011 at 10:48 PM ^

Exactly right.  I thought the OP was referring to the apology, not the inane calling for Lewan to be punished as proof positive that the writer was stoned.

Apologies from the media are not easy to come by.  Just ask RR.

03 Blue 07

October 22nd, 2011 at 2:59 AM ^

Like the first time Dr. Andre smoked pot. He even framed it. Boy, was HE pissed when the guys told him about what was REALLY in that joint, 15 years later!!!

What, am I the only one who watches "The League?" Or just the only one to immediately think of that episode when reading the comment above? Or just the only one lame enough to post this comment? Answer: Probably numbers 2 and/or 3 but definitely 3.

mejunglechop

October 21st, 2011 at 11:04 PM ^

This is the trouuble with national columnists. You can't expect one to follow your team as well as you do when they're tasked with following every team (+ other sports in Doyel's case).

03 Blue 07

October 22nd, 2011 at 3:02 AM ^

For four months, I lived in western Louisiana/Eastern Texas. I'm talking Lake Charles/Beaumont. Your comment accurately describes the marijuana widely available there. I even threw it away because it was so terrible. Think about that: throwing away pot for reasons other than "the law" and "quitting smoking pot." That's how bad it was. Yellow cat shit indeed.

/drunk post.

GeoTracker

October 22nd, 2011 at 2:28 AM ^

Gholston wasn't In position for an omoplata and he had a crappy arm bar on Lewan. Regardless, he obviously was trying to hurt Lewan and Denard. I don't understand how the Big Ten excused both incidents for Gholston and Rush's slam.

Tater

October 22nd, 2011 at 8:27 AM ^

Doyel is a national guy.  He covers a lot of games.  Apparently, Michigan vs Sparty isn't as big of a deal elsewhere as it is to us.  Consequently, he probably only saw one "incident:" not the entire laundry list like we have.  National writers "research" semi-relevant games on a much more superficial level than people who are actually following the teams.

For those who think he is a bit crazy, read his "hate mail" column every week.  It's really funny and it will further cement your opinion that he is a bit "out there."  My sense of humor is often sophomoric, so I look forward to it every week.  It's almost as enjoyable as TWIS.  YMMV.

m1jjb00

October 22nd, 2011 at 9:08 AM ^

I'm not a doyel fan. Punches have to result in suspensions but just that really doesn't raise my outrage. Of course what does is
1. The neck twist and judo chop
2. The fact that there were multiple instances
3. Other msu infractions like the final injury on DR
4. The fact that cheap shots were celebrated on the sideline
5. Dantonio did nothing about it in the game
6. Dantonio did nothing afterwards including the non apologies and the lies about being clean
So when doyel thought it was just a punch so didn't deserve anything, meh I just disagreed. So when he found out there was more he changed. Points for that

Correct me if I'm wrong but the suspension was for the punch. So nothing for all the other stuff. That's the outrage. That's what he should be outraged about. But that's common across the media.

Red is Blue

October 22nd, 2011 at 10:23 AM ^

Maybe he wants to interview for a job at the Freep and he had to prove that he is more than willing to make comments with the requisite research?  But in the end he blew his Freep chance, because 1) he dug digger, 2) when he found out he was wrong he corrected himself.

UMgradMSUdad

October 22nd, 2011 at 9:29 AM ^

This is a problem with national sports writers. They make ignorant comments all the time.  I'm willing to cut someone a bit more slack for a tweet than a column or something that carries a bit more weight.  And like Snoopblue, I give credit for the guy at least admitting his error and correcting himself.  How many blowhard sports commentators ever do that?  It seems most double down on their original stupid remark by adding some after-the-fact rationalization, or move on and pretend it never happened and just ignore any attempts to point out how ignorant the original comment was.  I know it's a pretty low standard, to offer some praise to a guy who owns up to his mistake, but that does seem to be a rarity in today's world.

Also, kudos to those pointing out the error.  That may be the only recourse to such stupidity: continually providing background, context, and facts to educate the ignorant.