Kurt Wermers Got Out When He Had To
Former Michigan offensive lineman Kurt Wermers was academically ineligible when he announced his transfer to Ball State last week, sources told ESPN.com.
… But according to sources with knowledge of the situation, Wermers was already out.
His academic struggles would have prevented him from suiting up with the Wolverines. Wermers wasn't even enrolled in summer school at the time of his departure.
Four things:
Wermers' comments now appear even more self-serving. She didn't break up with me, I broke up with her. And she was a whore anyway. Meet my new girlfriend, who looks like a horse. I mean, really: "I thought I'd get out when I could." Super.
(No offense, Ball State fans, it's just that you're in the MAC and all that. You're a very pretty horse.)
Ugh APR. My concern about Michigan's APR tickling the edges of the 925 cutoff is now increased: you get two points per player per semester, one for keeping them at school and another for keeping them eligible. Michigan got 1/2 for Threet in his final semester; they get 0/2 for Wermers, which makes his departure the equivalent of two guys.
Um, why would Wermers be in summer school? Weird little addendum from Rittenberg there at the end. Wermers left the team months ago and Rodriguez officially announced it in May. Obviously he wasn't enrolled in summer school.
Who is Deep Throat here? I'm sure Wermers' academic status is common knowledge in a certain circle of folks close to the program, any one of whom could be a source credible enough for Rittenberg to go with. I hope none of the coaches were peeved enough to be one of them.
so you choose not to report the company either, then he's not much of a whistleblower. Or he's trying to be one, but you're WhistleBlocking him, or something.Whistleblocking? Dude, if the guy gave me information about his company on the record, I would of course report it. The ethical imperative is betraying his trust. In other words, he's not trying to whistleblow -- that's the whole point!!! Using our case, he's providing inside dope on how companies can defeat the public's system of protecting itself, and doing it on condition that he and his company remain anonymous. This is information useful to the public -- and the source will not provide it unless he can do it anonymously. This world in which everybody will sacrifice their livelihoods in order to sate the public's need for information simply doesn't exist. Sometimes you have to give one drug dealer immunity to build a case against a kingpin. Sometimes you have to stomach a guilty man walking to preserve a system that keeps the punishment of the innocent to a historical minimum. Sometimes you have to accept the fact that journalists have to hide some information in order to bring you any. Let's get back to what we're actually discussing -- Rittenberg and Wermers -- because my example is a bad one that has too many variables and never existed in the first place. Our question: should the source who outed Wermers's academic problems have been outed in the article. You suggest it is an ethical imperative for Rittenberg to divulge the source. But ask yourself this: do you ever want info like that again? As a Michigan fan, isn't it better to have a source -- even if it remains anonymous -- that tells us it wasn't our program, but the kid's own work ethic that caused him to leave the team? Rittenberg published this info as a public service. The only way he can get such info is to promise his source complete anonymity. For us, it's either the Wermers info with the caveat of an anonymous source, or no info at all. I find the info worth the small negative of protecting the person whose crime was only to divulge information that the program did not want leaked. And I'd much rather live in a society in which people with information that is valuable to the public can feel comfortable passing it on.
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