The Freep Is A Weak Pawn
I am personally boycotting the Freep.
BUT, it occurs to me that they are just "pawns in the game." Rosenberg and Snyder's lust for a juicy story to save their wretched jobs was exploited by the true "trouble makers." The people behind the scenes who were/are part of the football department who did not want RR to take over. A certain element felt they had to defend the program against RR, when in reality they were probably just defending their own jobs or those of their cronies.
I believe those people leaked the idea of a story about going over practice limits to the Freep. From what I have read, those people served Rosenberg and Snyder a "golden story" in which all they had to do was a little legwork to fill in the details. Admittedly, those two failed to accurately do (or report) the true findings or rules. At the least, some people inside the program were probably eager to "confirm" whatever allegations the Freep wanted to publish.
Those people inside the program who would "offer up" the imagine of the program in order to slight RR's name are the real LOSERS. They pretend to act on behalf of University, but it is really their own personal interest in seeing their friend get a coaching/staffing job or keeping one themselves. Those are the people I WANT to boycott. Those are the people I want to picket.
February 26th, 2010 at 3:53 PM ^
Michael Rosenberg never hid his disdain of Rich Rodriguez. It was on his agenda, and his editor approved of it. They should all go to hell.
Btw, I've heard here and even from Brian that Ron English put the disgruntled players in touch with the Freep. How true is this? How do we know?
February 26th, 2010 at 3:54 PM ^
That's letting the Freep off way too easy.
Reporters should be experts at listening to various sides of the story and getting through to the truth; the fact that someone might have an axe to grind isn't a great opportunity--it's a warning that you need to be extremely careful to verify what they have to say.
Additionally, this doesn't in any way address the clear absence of extremely important information needed to understand the allegations. Even if U of M had exceeded allowable practice hours by 2-3 times as alleged, it would still have been a bad article because it didn't give any background on how those hours are computed and determined. IME, any defense of the articles is disqualified by the fact that the difference between countable and uncountable hours is never even mentioned.
February 26th, 2010 at 4:38 PM ^
They knew exactly what they were doing, I can't believe those losers still have their jobs.
February 26th, 2010 at 4:50 PM ^
Thank you for venturing out of your woodland, "off the grid" habitat to bring us this information.
You may be right. I remember, back in 1654 when the Radziwiłł family of shit-eating pigs betrayed the Commonwealth to the Swedish crown, thus ending the most noble chapter of human civilization. Tragic, to say the least, but these things happen.
February 26th, 2010 at 5:08 PM ^
Remember the sports dept. managing editor Paul Anger is a MSU grad...just saying...
February 26th, 2010 at 7:33 PM ^
that the Freep would love to see RR fired and UM's name smeared in mud. Why? I will forever believe that certain individuals (at thr Freep) are AFRAID that UM, under RR, will again become a dominant football power. These individuals (who support MSU) feel, after all these years of domination and at the onset of a new head coach, that now is their chance to try and turn the tables. Well, it won't work. MSU will forever be "little brother". My support for RR, as strong as it was before, is even stronger after the NCAA allegations. I truly believe that RR is a good man and is trying to do a good, honest job. He needs and deserves our support.
February 26th, 2010 at 8:14 PM ^
RR appears to be a genuine man with a great offensive mind. I hope DB can build a sufficient bubble around this young football program and guard it against these factions. I am very concerned that these factions will persist year after year. How can a young football program win at the BCS level with these suck-asses throwing poo their way year after year?
If RR's justification is left to the football field then I predict BCS bowls and NC's for our new decade....
February 26th, 2010 at 8:50 PM ^
The Detroit Free Press writes articles that unfairly portray the University of Michigan football program in a negative light.
February 26th, 2010 at 9:10 PM ^
If there is a faction within the AD, hopefully David Brandon can root it out, but don't wait for a public hanging because he is smart enough to do it quietly and without incident.
You aren't ever going to know about it except to notice that perhaps there isn't qiute as much negative info being fed to the press.
The Free Press isn't going to change, they have dug their trenches and no matter what are going to be battling to retain as much credibility as the can. I would say they take this to the hilt and will be a source of negatively slanted news for some time to come. Unless M fans can get their advertisers and make some kind of impact that way, they are probably getting a massive amount of attention that dwarves what they might be losing by any boycott.
February 26th, 2010 at 9:32 PM ^
I think it's funny how they think they were 100% right in all of this. They blew it totally out of porportion. 2 to 3 times more than the limit? How about 20 minutes over the limit.