Unverified Voracity Signed A Bad Contract
Hey, what about… Nope. Don't care.
Here's another bullet? Stop it.
It's in your contract to talk about these things. What contract?
The one you foolishly signed with the internet before clearing with with Richard Hoeg? Ah, dammit, never sign a contract with the internet. FINE. You win:
IN WHICH JIM HARBAUGH SAYS A THING LIKE A WEEK AGO. Jim Harbaugh has an unusual tendency for a head football coach: sometimes he opens his mouth and says things that he thinks. At Big Ten Media Days he made the case for a one-time no-sit transfer by invoking the prospect of players making stuff up, particularly about their mental health, in an attempt to get a waiver.
Since James Hudson is currently trying to get a waiver by asserting his transfer was due to mental health issues he did not report to anyone at Michigan, people put two and two together. And they're probably right: Harbaugh probably was referencing Hudson, and probably thinks his case is dubious.
But people mess up and Harbaugh in particular will occasionally speak like a human being instead of a robot preprogrammed to expel the most boring things possible. Harbaugh was trying to say that Hudson should be eligible. Okay. It seems like he does take mental health issues seriously. Okay. Sometimes he says stuff badly. Okay.
[After THE JUMP: the bad thing Harbaugh didn't say]
Oh right the other comments. Urban Meyer enabled a domestic abuser for years, the only thing wrong with Harbaugh saying "controversy follows him everywhere he goes" is that he didn't go harder. Joan Niesen:
But certainly, instead of taking Harbaugh’s words in stride, or even acknowledging them as accuracy from one of the game’s more bombastic sets of vocal cords, let’s drum them up as controversy. Instead of thinking, wow, a college coach actually speaking the plain truth, let’s expound upon the fact that Harbaugh’s teams at Michigan never beat Meyer’s Ohio State squads—because one must beat another coach in order to point out obvious truths about him, it seems.
Harbaugh could have gone Ralphie on Urban and it would have been appropriate.
In one sentence. Jay Bilas sums it up:
.@JayBilas on NCAA player rights: pic.twitter.com/opxEm0gdAv
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) July 21, 2019
It's pro sports. Everything that Jim Delany did over the last 20 years was designed to maximize revenue.
Bredeson on the OL. Isaiah Hole got a lot of good stuff from Bredeson at the media day breakout sessions. On the freshmen:
“I love them,” Bredeson said. “I think this is a very hardworking class of O-linemen. Don’t complain. Don’t do anything to embarrass the room. Like I said, they’re hard-working. They’re always bugging people to watch film with them, teach them stuff, work with them after practice. They do an outstanding job and they’re making a lot of strides.”
Delany gonna Delany. He died like he lived: saying absolute nonsense. Delany complained that the Big Ten champion has not made the last two playoffs—because OSU got defenestrated by 4+ scores. This perked up the ears of PSU fans, because:
Imagine a world where a Big Ten team (like, say, Penn State) won the conference, but yet was ranked behind another Big Ten team (like, say, Ohio State) that not only was a divisional runner-up, but lost straight-up to Penn State.
Now obviously, that’s all hypothetical, but just imagine a world (say, the year 2016) where that happened. I’m sure at the very least Jimbo would have argued in favor of both teams making the College Football Playoff. There’s no way he would have only argued in favor of the divisional runner-up, and then when his conference champion was snubbed, would have said the committee got the four teams right.
No way that would have happened.
Hopefully the new guy speaks only in mime.
Exit Wiseman. Brian Wiseman is making the jump to the NHL:
Per sources, Michigan assistant coach Brian Wiseman is leaving the Wolverines to join Dave Tippett's staff with Edmonton Oilers. He played under Tippett with Houston Aeros (AHL) and worked under him as video coach with Dallas Stars.
— Jeff Cox (@JeffCoxSports) July 22, 2019
Wiseman was an awkward fit once Bill Muckalt came along; Wiseman, a former forward, coached the defensemen. The defensemen… did not look particularly well-coached last year. John Buccigross has a name for the opening that makes a ton of sense:
The Michigan Assistant Hockey Coach opening is a very desirable opening. Mike Komisarek seems like the logical choice for it. I’d expect that outcome. #cawlidgehawkey pic.twitter.com/cfsKdTB0ZI
— Bucci Mane (@Buccigross) July 25, 2019
Komisarek was a volunteer assistant with the program as he completed his degree and has been a player development coach with the Sabres for the past couple years. Also he was an NHL defenseman for 13 years after getting drafted seventh overall.
Etc.: Adam Rittenberg on the vibe out of Chicago. If you've got 350 bucks lying around you can get a bunch of Michigan coaching DVDs. The men who paint the dongs out of the Tour de France. Do you like Michigan-related beards? Majoring in football.
Komisarek was a great player for Michigan, but my favorite memory remains his tap on the back of the skates of a Saint Cloud cheerleader, nearly-but-not-quite causing her to fall, during warmups at the Molly Game. What a wild half hour that was.
I recall him also playing some role in the mascot fracas immediately afterwards, although the further it recedes, the less reliable my memory of the incident becomes. I'm a little surprised that no video has ever emerged. We're all probably spoiled now with the profusion of cell phone cameras and cheap digital storage.
The protagonist of the mascot brouhaha was the recently anointed CCHA Humanitarian of the Year, backup goalie Kevin O’Malley.
Right. As I remember it, the mascot tried to use his stick on Komisarek after he tripped the cheerleader, maybe with a cross-check. Then Komisarek started to retaliate, maybe even shoved the mascot, and then O'Malley jumped in. Like I said, the things I would give for a video of the whole thing. Just such a bonkers weekend all around.
Brandon Rogers was the guy that the mascot tripped. And I agree with you, the absence of video of that pregame is one of the great disappointments I have as a Michigan fan.
And after all that, they still thought it was a good idea to put those cheerleaders right next to the Michigan students.
Very fitting that the post about calling college players professional comes after the post on Urban Meyer. After Urban enabled DV, the NCAA lost ALL moral credibility (if it had any).
I love that John Bucigross is a big Hockey fan, but that "Cawlidge Hawkey" stuff makes me want to gouge my eyeballs out through my ear holes.
Your comment is so fetch.
I had no idea this was a thing, or rather trying to be a thing. And I wish I still didn't.
Strong disagree, Bucci does more to grow the game than anyone else in media. His hats are pretty cool, even made one in my beloved BG Falcons’ colors and some proceeds go to charity. It’s a good way to get around licensing too.
I didn't think I would ever say this but Jay Bilas is right on.
I agree with Jay Bilas regarding college sports being a professional endeavor, but he's been all over the map when it comes to amateurism that I have a hard time knowing if he actually believes what he's saying.
The thing that has always bothered me most about Meyer is that people keep giving him passes because "that happened in the past", as if the sum total of a person isn't best demonstrated in his or her past actions. Yes, we love the redemptive stories of someone going from bad to good, but the reality is if you're a shitty person who covers up assaults, drug abuse, etc. for years, it's unlikely you'll suddenly give a shit and reverse your ways when given another opportunity. Harbaugh pointing this out was always going to lead to victim blaming by the mouth breathing set, but in a couple of years I'm sure most OSU fans will be like Florida fans, happy they won a title but denouncing Meyer as a bad seed whose bad behavior was completely unpredictable.
In a “couple of years”?
I predict that as soon as Urban signs on to coach another team, they will all miraculously have the scales fall from their eyes, will curse him for the scumbag that he is, and henceforth only refer to him as scUMbag.
Exactly. There are plenty in that fanbase who still think that he stayed with OSU because he hates Drake, and once that "football-hating liberal from California" leaves, then Meyer will step back in.
As soon as he goes elsewhere and starts winning, they will turn bitter.
Guaranteed. I asked a Buckeye acquaintance if they were upset that Meyer quit. Answer: no, because of his “health issues.” Me: And if he accepts another coaching job? Buckeye: Oh, we’ll hate him then.
The whole mental health outrage never made sense to me. The coaches would know much more about the mental health of their players than some randos on twitter.
The coaches have the opportunity to know more, but they may still not see anything.
Or say anything...
the outrage had nothing to do with Harbaugh's actual knowledge of Hudson's mental health nor was it based on the quote in context. it was a fat bag of nothing based on nothing, as is often true with internet outrage.
the program takes mental health seriously. there's plenty of evidence for that. harbaugh thinks kids should have a free no-questions-asked transfer without having to deal with this bullshit. reporters and internet doofuses need something to talk about so they talked about something else entirely that wasn't what was said. Can anyone point to the part where JH said that "James Hudson doesnt have mental health issues and he's making it up to get his transfer approved immediately and oh by the way im opposed to that." Nope, they sure can't.
Actually, it seems Hudson and his mom focused in on the part about players potentially using mental health as an excuse as an accusation - without realizing Coach was saying those same players should be allowed a one time transfer with no delay in eligibility.
They posted about it Part A, and the press ran with it, with the eventual response being a reminder of Part B.
"it was a fat bag of nothing based on nothing, as is often true with internet outrage."
True, but they can sure make a whole lot of nothing.
I would pay big money to see Harbaugh go Ralphie on Urban. Shirtless, of course.
I would have been first in line to call Harbaugh out if he were making mental health pronouncements, which he obviously is not qualified to make. But his inability to make such judgments was precisely his point.
Whether or not he had Hudson in mind (it's certainly possible he did and that he doesn't believe Hudson has an actual mental health issue, but he never said either of those things), he was arguing that: (1) football coaches and the NCAA are not qualified to make mental health judgments, (2) the current system can require them in some instances to do exactly that, (3) the current system almost certainly incentivizes student athletes to use difficult-to-verify rationales such as mental health to gain transfer status (and, absent any actual mental health issue, to do so falsely), and (4) most of this could be avoided with a single free transfer. He was thus arguing that players in Hudson's position should be allowed to transfer without having to prove a thing -- much less that they have an actual mental health issue.
The internet response to this was a joke. It was entirely clear in context what Harbaugh was advocating, and he's 100% correct.
Comments