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College football 2019 offseason thread

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by micropolitan guy, Jan 10, 2019.

  1. Regan MacNeil

    Regan MacNeil Well-Known Member

    We thank you.
     
  2. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    Boo-fucking hoo.
    They have several million dollars a year to cry in their beer over. And a buyout if they get fired.

    Adults complaining about unpaid 20-year olds transferring - actually looking out for their own self interests, instead of the interests of Dabo, or the boosters of Good 'Ol State U - is absolutely fascinating to me.
     
  3. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Well, I mean, it’s a practical lived-in reality for them and moral issue for you, unless you’re a college coach.

    Burning a bunch of reps on a kid who transfers in August is a little like burning part of a project on a reporter who quits for another job the minute you’re about to start writing it. That reporter is, too, free to leave. It’s frustrating nonetheless. It’s a human emotion I think we all can generally appreciate.
     
  4. HappyCurmudgeon

    HappyCurmudgeon Well-Known Member

    Even more, he had his name included on a police report on two separate sexual assaults in the same night.
     
  5. Slacker

    Slacker Well-Known Member

    UF fans will say the Steele dossier is a pack of lies.

    [​IMG]
     
    Baron Scicluna and Batman like this.
  6. Slacker

    Slacker Well-Known Member

    This is bullshit. Have you worked in bad newsrooms, or have you never worked in a newsroom at all?
     
  7. dirtybird

    dirtybird Well-Known Member

    You don't think the media would've eaten up if he stayed and played the good soldier?

    Dabo set it up so Bryant could've left if he wanted, or he simply did exquisite damage control. He could've held off naming a full-time starter. But he didn't. he let the kid know the play, and the kid decided he's like to play more competitive football, an option Clemson decided it wouldn't give him unless something bad happened.

    The kid had no wrong choice. He played for a program that in his first season played it so that he'd be gone sooner. They could've had him all year had they not set the pieces in motion to shuffle him off as a true freshman. But choices have consequences.

    (As for No. 2, tough shit. You get paid to find good kids and manage them. That you couldn't do so is your damn problem. If you find yourself without a swing tackle because the only one you have doesn't want to play for you, that's a spot you put yourself in)
     
  8. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Oh for goodness sakes it’s not. Journalists do it all the time. Political journalists have four irons in the fire - TV, radio, podcasts. They/we love to be loved, and there’s a libertarian mindset to work. With freelancers there has to be.
     
  9. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    First, yes, Bryant would have been praised either way, but what he chose to do...it’s the lesser of the two choices from a team standpoint. If you feel any kind of significant responsibility to your teammates in a given season, you don’t do what he did. Now, the fact that, in many circles, he was defended as praised is partially rooted, IMO, in the kind of ruthless, meritocratic, transitory way journalists look at things (in some cases, rightfully so). It’s rooted, too, in the way we look at the individual in post (post?) modern society. The “you do you” phenomenon.

    Again, for Clemson, it worked out OK. They beat Syracuse when Lawrence got hurt. Good thing.

    As for No. 2, I was merely sharing a frustration I’ve heard coaches have about a guy or two. The moral “tough shit” response underlines my point. Yeah, coaching is a weird business of pushing many buttons, especially in football. Sometimes guys leave. It’s a human response, to be pissed off. That’s all.

    We can debate sovereign rights and ethics, I guess. Lord knows I’ve done enough of that. I come at most issues from a perspective of interdependence.
     
  10. Slacker

    Slacker Well-Known Member

    OK, I see your point when spreading it across different media. We had a guy who spread his NFL beat out like that, and our SE allowed it because it was "good for our brand." But pretty soon the guy kept missing deadlines, even on advance features, for his newspaper job, which still was his primary responsibility, because he would delay filing so he could fit in his call-ins to local radio shows. Screwed up the desk when his stuff kept coming in late at night, when all the live games were wrapping up.
     
  11. dirtybird

    dirtybird Well-Known Member

    I see those first two words, and I can only think of the spiel just about every coach alive gives, especially at the highest levels. You might've started for two seasons, but your job isn't safe if someone is better. That would be the purest form of ruthless meritocracy.

    And college football is in fact horrifically transitory. The players get 4-5 years. In most jobs, if a guy does very well, he leaves. When he does somewhat badly, he leaves.

    So what we're saying is, journalists seem to be seeing college football for what it is, not for what we wish it was. I suppose we're splitting the hair that when the season starts, it's all in, but when it's the offseason, runoffs are just a fact of life. We're just talking about slightly shifting the boundaries of when we accept all that ruthlessness (as said, his first game on campus, his coaches subtly informed him they didn't want him around as long as possible).

    (I'll admit, I'd probably treat it differently if Bryant had in fact not been a backup on a title team already and his team hadn't been to three consecutive playoffs. But he'd wanted to be the guy to get his team to the mountain top, and let's face it, it’s a human response, to be pissed off)
     
  12. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Writers go on the radio, share more there than they did in print and somehow print is cool with that.
     
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