Simers vs. Mora

[mediaguy]

Watching postgame presser of Jim Mora after Stanford, he and Simers twice got into it. Here's link with video:

http://coachingsearch.com/home/1818-jim-mora-jr-argues-with-columnist-over-uclas-effort-you-dont-scare-me.html

Too adversarial for a press conference? Suppose it would be difficult to get him off to side after it's finished.

 

[Boom_70]

Starting to think that is Simers schtick

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I thought Simers was way out of line with some of those questions and I thought Mora handled himself pretty well.

Asking someone if they gave up and stopped trying intentionally is highly offensive to any player or coach.

Simers was looking for a big reaction and I get that, but I have no problem with the way Mora answered anything.

The "You don't scare me" line also wasn't nearly as "threatening" as they are trying to make it seem.

I'm a huge Simers fan, but he was the one being ultra-confrontational here...

 

[Versatile]

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I thought Simers was way out of line with some of those questions and I thought Mora handled himself pretty well.

Asking someone if they gave up and stopped trying intentionally is highly offensive to any player or coach.

Simers was looking for a big reaction and I get that, but I have no problem with the way Mora answered anything.

The "You don't scare me" line also wasn't nearly as "threatening" as they are trying to make it seem.

I'm a huge Simers fan, but he was the one being ultra-confrontational here...

I like T.J. Simers almost as much as you, but I agree.

Also, Jim L. Mora doesn't deserve that. He's not Rick Neuheisel. I am pretty sure Neuheisel would have liked to punch Simers in the face a few dozen times on the day he got canned.

 

[Scoop returns]

See this is why coaches and athletes have so little respect for us. That was bull**** on the part of Simers. If say that was really Mora's intention he would have been an idiot to admit it in a press conference. At the very least he would have pissed off Stanford for next week and at the most he might have been fired. But honestly I don't believe any coach in that situation considers not giving his best in a game. That is not how it works. Simers boss should be in his ass today.

 

[Versatile]

Almost forgot to add: Jim Mora Jr. is not a person.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Simers usually comes across as being somewhat playful, even if he's intentionally annoying the subject to get a certain reaction or quote.

He was way over the line here. He all but accused Mora of tanking the game.

 

[Versatile]

Simers usually comes across as being somewhat playful, even if he's intentionally annoying the subject to get a certain reaction or quote.

He was way over the line here. He all but accused Mora of tanking the game.

You can scratch the "all but" part.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/football/la-sp-1125-simers-ucla-20121125,0,5265812,full.column

 

[poindexter]

Simers: "How do you deal with that (beating USC)?"
Mora: "I don't know yet TJ. What I'll do is follow my routine."
Simers: "This isn't routine."
Mora: "Well it is for me. I'm 1-0."


Scoreboard.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Simers was indeed way out of line.

However, Mora's quotes were excellent, far better than what he ever would have given with the perfunctory "Coach, talk about how you handled knowing you were going to the championship anyway."

So the method worked for Simers, it worked for Mora and it worked for the readers.

 

[Versatile]

Simers was indeed way out of line.

However, Mora's quotes were excellent, far better than what he ever would have given with the perfunctory "Coach, talk about how you handled knowing you were going to the championship anyway."

So the method worked for Simers, it worked for Mora and it worked for the readers.

That's a good summation. I liked the column.

 

[Azrael]

In heaven, every sentence is a paragraph.

 

[Versatile]

In heaven, every sentence is a paragraph.

You know, that's a Los Angeles Times thing that I think extends back to Bill Dwyre. Or maybe before him. Or maybe beyond sports. I hate it, but I deal with it for T.J. Simers.

It gets really annoying when Baxter Holmes or David Wharton has a good, long feature story and that paragraph structure is used.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Simers' line of reasoning isn't exactly outlandish either, BTW. This kind of thing is very common in the NFL. A couple of years ago the Jets laid down for the Bengals, Cincinnati got in and Texas went home, and then the Jets beat the crap out of the Bengals the next week.

The most famous one is probably 1991 when the Chiefs and Raiders played in the regular-season finale but they were already locked into a first-round playoff matchup too. I think maybe home field was being decided but Marty didn't really care about that. He just went vanilla the first time.

Marinovich on Dec. 22: 23-40, 243, 3 TDs, 0 INTs
Marinovich on Dec. 28: 12-23, 140, 0 TDs, 4 INTs

So the idea of tanking or other manipulation is unpleasant, but hardly unprecedented.

 

[Versatile]

Simers' line of reasoning isn't exactly outlandish either, BTW. This kind of thing is very common in the NFL. A couple of years ago the Jets laid down for the Bengals, Cincinnati got in and Texas went home, and then the Jets beat the crap out of the Bengals the next week.

Actually, the Bengals laid down for the Jets, then the Jets proceeded to beat them again.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=300103020

 

[LongTimeListener]

Ah yes. So the Bengals thought they were helping themselves out.

In any case, the intent was definitely there, and I don't think it's unique.

 

[Versatile]

Ah yes. So the Bengals thought they were helping themselves out.

In any case, the intent was definitely there, and I don't think it's unique.

I agree. But I also think it's interesting Simers thinks Oregon is better than Stanford. Stanford won in Eugene two weeks ago and hasn't lost with Kevin Hogan at quarterback.

 

[Azrael]

Contra:

Simers doesn't succeed in making his case - in fact stipulates in the first sentence he can't make his case - and most of the quotes are Simers' own.

Like every Simers column, it's entirely about Simers.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Of course it is. But he's pretty good at it. I could never do it, standing up in public and wanting to be the asshole everybody's looking at, but he has settled that question for himself and has built a pretty good following that way.

 

[Versatile]

From the UCLA perspective, this was the story of the game. Only T.J. Simers had the balls to really write about it.