Now forget for a second that Petrino is a douchebag, this guy makes good points. This speaks to a point dear to me as a college football fan. ESPN has moved from reporting the news to a Hearst-like stance of making the news...or at a minimum, influencing it heavily.
8) I'm not buying any of this Southern fried crap: 1. Sports news is not real news. It's entertainment. 2. Bob Griese being a Purdue alum makes him an "SEC hater?" Exqueeze me, but didn't Griese play his entire NFL career in the South for the Miami Dolphins? 3. Sean Salisbury being a USC alum makes him another anti-Southerner? Those Yahoos don't know much about Southern California; do they? 4. I heard this exact, same anti-Petrino diatribe on EVERY TV channel: not just ESPN! I heard it on CBS, Foxx and even local news shows. What Petrino did was cowardly. There is no other word for it and no, I wouldn't want one of my sons or grandsons to play for a turd like that either. Football is all about learning to overcome adversity and displaying courage. That rat/coward has no business teaching young people anything. He's a fraud and the University of Arkansas should be ashamed of themselves...
Wow, what we have here is family disagreement! I'll say this, if they guy hadn't had to drag Tebow into his argument it might have carried more weight with me. What I will give him, and Corey, is that ESPN all to often does want to influence the news rather than report it.
Are we talking about the Bobby Petrino who left the Falcons before the season ended? Correct me if I'm wrong here but didn't Lou leave the Jets in an identical situation? See. I just turned a family strap match into a three man battle royal? Can you smell what George is cookin'? :twisted:
please ignore the old man behind the curtain <t>The overall point of the article isn't Petrino, per se, as much as it is that ESPN is creating news and reporting totally unevenly. You can almost substitute the subject and their method is becoming predictable.<br/> <br/> And if this is nothing more than entertainment, let the steroids flow and rope off the football field. Let's have the guys come out in little speedos and name Hulk Hogan commissioner with Vince McMahon in charge of BCS selection. Maybe Ric Flair can head the officials?<br/> <br/> BTW, why is the coach a coward for giving up on the lost cause Falcons (who btw gave up on themselves the second the felon was arrested) but the owner skates for firing a good head coach with 3 games left in the season the year before?</t>
Oh really? Like Gary Danielson a Purdue alum and obvious SEC booster? From now on, I guess every media person who's a SEC alum is suspect when it comes to conferences other than the SEC. Bullshiit!!!"rich selfish players?" Geez, he was in his element wasn't he? This must be Arkansas logic. Sounds like why Clinton commited perjury "to protect his family." Sorry Petrino you don't have a legal right to do what's best for your family your obligation is to perform your contractural promises. Reports today that WVa is bringing a suit for 4 mil. against Rodriguez. Wrong again. Don't let the facts get in your way.
no <t>there are people from WEST VIRGINIA who have wanted to fight the University's run for the buyout. At this point in time, West Virginia is just looking worse and worse. They are the jilted lover who can't let go.<br/> <br/> I still think you guys are missing the overall point here. You're talking about honor among thieves when you're talking about some of these places, especially the NFL.<br/> <br/> A contract in the NFL hasn't mattered one damned bit in more than 10 or 20 years.<br/> <br/> I was talking about this with JOCO on the phone the other day.. Petrino signed a contract, he didn't sell his soul. (assuming he has one)<br/> <br/> This guy took a job with a franchise and just a few moments later, had the franchise QB gets sent to prison for at least a year. A franchise player that literally had the team built around him.. They also traded away Schaub. This guy just inherited a team without a QB and the ink isn't dry yet. I thought Petrino did everything humanly possible to turn that piece of crap around yet the ship continued to spin out of control. The fish rots from the head and in this organization....The head isn't Petrino, its Blank..You've got players celebrating TDs with their 'free michael vick' t-shirts. This is a team that will need to be disbanded and put back together... Blank wasn't going to let Petrino do that. He wanted Petrino to hold that together till Vick came back...and if he's not waiting for Vick to get out of prison, then why launch Schaub?? Why not disband some of Michael's 'homies' that are on the team doing nothing more than collecting a check at this time? This is a terrible situation, with bad people all the way around. Why single out just one?<br/> <br/> You know, the guy who Parcells just told to kick rocks? I mean seriously, Parcells has taken many effed up situations with many nightmare owners.. He seems to like the challenge.... Even Bill told the Falcons 'no thanks.'<br/> <br/> You may not like Petrino. He may well be a bad person.. However, he is FAR from the worst person in this situation..<br/> <br/> From a network who defends and plays apologist for murderers, wife beaters, drug offenders and rapist.. they are going to play Holier than thou over a guy breaking a contract?? in the NFL??<br/> <br/> <br/> F*****************ck that..</t>
Let's remember all the college kids recruited by Petrino who he left in the lurch to take the miserable Falcons job. Now he's going to be telling kids to come to Arkansas because "I'll be here forever, or until something better for my family comes along." So how does he tell kids to play 4 quarters, play to the whistle, etc. when his credo is "when the going gets tough the tough get going (out of town?)
This discussion reminds me of what a co-worker told me many years ago, a lot of people think things are black or white where in reality the world is mostly grey! :lol: :lol: Both you guys have some valid points. Let's just see what Petrino does now that he's at Arkansas.
true to both of you <t>that still doesn't address the topic at hand....and that is ESPN doesn't report stories, they create them. They are selective at best (and that is being kind) at the stories they pursue.<br/> <br/> I thought this would help the ND guys who are constantly saying the same thing about ESPN's hypocrisy... But in this case, whereas in the past, people get tied up in the 'ND side' of the article...the ND guys are getting tied up in the 'Petrino is an assh*le' side of things while missing the bigger picture.<br/> <br/> Yes, the guy is an assh*le, swimming in a pond full of them.. The author would have been better served stating that, rather than trying to excuse all of his behavior. Yet many are still missing the other side.. The sheer hypocrisy that somehow the Falcons are the victims here, when they are not called to the carpet for taking the same actions.</t>
I see that this writer is miffed at the Heisman being highjacked by ESPN away from McFadden. Perhaps if he made that complaint last year when they were writing off hopefulls after the third week of the season he'd have had some credibility. There is way too much of a herd mentality in this country. It's compounded by the belief that just because someone is on camera that they are smarter or more knowledgeble than the rest of us.
Gip, you are exactly on point with how I feel about the over-exposed, under-intelligent, research-challenged media writers and talking heads of today.
I agree <t>in fact, I agree 100%.<br/> <br/> That doesn't mean that the idiots of TV do not have a larger impact than some 'free thinkers' may like to admit.<br/> <br/> I dont think the author's credibility is tossed on a matter of timing. Because he didn't write this last year in defense of Quinn he is now less credible for speaking out?</t>
Yes If you do not speak against injustice when it happens to your neighbor, do not expect to be heard when it happens to you.
So this year McFadden lost the Heisman and Petrino's catching flack. Did he change his opinion or did he just wake up to the fact that ESPN doesn't report the news, they influence and at times make it? You get the feeling that some day his favorite will lose and he'll discover that pro wrestling if fixed. They eventually catch on, even in Arkansas.
First of all, I agree that ESPN promotes their stories with an agenda in mind. I believe Tim Tebow deserved the Heisman this year but I don't think he would have won it had ESPN not campaigned for him to do so. I think the jabs that have been taken at Petrino have been out of line in some ways. My only problem is that he didn't have the balls to tell his own players he was leaving. Other than that, I think that the men in charge of the coaches brought this upon themselves. This move by Petrino is one for all of the ADs and GMs out there who have given up on good coaches way too soon and for no really good reason. DeAngelo Hall and Alge Crumpler were openly critical of Petrino from the beginning of the season. This team quit on Petrino before he quit on them, IMO. Like I said before, it was totally gutless to not stand before his players and tell them his intentions to leave and to play along for weeks with the owner thinking he was going to be there right on but I really think he acted in his best interest and in the best interest of his family. How much can you fault a guy for that?
aquila <t>i'm right there with you in this regard.<br/> <br/> the media had this sniffed out and put the guy in the position to either:<br/> <br/> a) say he is taking the arkansas job right before his game with the Falcons<br/> or<br/> b) do exactly what he did<br/> <br/> there was no 'high ground' here, no matter which he chose, he'd be the bad guy for quitting on a falcons team that quit on him without reason before this all started.<br/> <br/> again, that's not to say he isn't a douche bag.. but this is out of line.</t>
The reason that we have contracts is that they allow protection from people doing what's in their own best interest instead of what they promised to do. It's what our legal and commercial system is built upon. If Blank had thrown Petrino out the door, you know that Petrino would have demanded he be paid every penny that Blank was obligated by the contract to pay him. Oh and just watch the first time he loses a verbal commit or is asked for a waiver on a transfer. Want to bet HIS reaction?