re: So sick of the ESPN hypocrisy

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But Manti Te'o can lie and invent fake dead girlfriends for Heisman publicity, and ESPN will convince you that he is a victim and STILL should be drafted in the first round even though I can run a faster 40 time.

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exactly

Where was Schapp's passion when he interviewed Te'o? The way he attacked Rutgers' AD, you'd have thought the man killed his wife or something

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when did Manti Te'o verbally and physically abuse players under his control? I missed that Sports Center update.

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He abused the media into turning him into a fake Heisman candidate....and he abused Ronaiai's anus.....so you're point is what?

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Only two groups of people wanted Notre Dame fans in the NC game

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It doesn't matter much who wanted them there as much as they won every regular season game they played against a competent schedule.

It is weird you bring up an undefeated team's close wins while complaining about them getting into the BCS championship game, while at the same time being an LSU fan whose team lost to an 8-5 Kentucky and 8-5 Arkansas team and still played for the NC.

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According to Mike Coburn — a Scarlet Knights guard who was on the team during Rice’s first year — many of the players accepted the head coach’s behavior.

"Looking back at it now, it was extreme," Coburn said when reached by phone yesterday evening. "It wasn’t right what he was doing. But we understood it. He was trying his best. ... Did he go overboard? Yes, he went overboard. But you can’t get a good feel for what went down by seeing highlights on ESPN. No one was scared of coach Rice. We didn’t fear him. We just understood him."

Coburn said a lot of what was depicted on the tape was being taken out of context. He said he and other former players — including Jonathan Mitchell and Mike Kuhn — have returned to Rutgers numerous times since they graduated and were welcomed by Rice.

"No one can get a sense of what went down unless you were there," Coburn said. "And the only people that were there was the team. Do I think what he did was over the top and wrong? Probably. But as players, we weren’t scared. We knew and understood what was going on and mentally tough players could take it. ... I agree it was wrong, but why haven’t they showed the times when Mike Rice was high-fiving and chest-bumping? Why aren’t they showing things like that with the players?"

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Great information. I think most logical sports fans can realize this was taken completely out of context.

Not condoning his behavior but the backlash is unwarranted

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It is weird you bring up an undefeated team's close wins while complaining about them getting into the BCS championship game, while at the same time being an LSU fan whose team lost to an 8-5 Kentucky and 8-5 Arkansas team and still played for the NC.

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Name a team more deserving than LSU that year. You can't, so shut the frick up.

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Also, I don't like the way this story was leaked (to garner support for a lawsuit or because the school didn't cave to the blackmail of a disgruntled former employee) and I don't like how the lines blur at ESPN (and essentially all journalism these days) between reporting news and commentary/creating news.

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that's the problem. Schapp wasn't a reporter yesterday...be became a commentator when he started to rant and piss and moan about how Rice hadn't been fired yet.

I don't think anyone should be surprised though, it's ESPN. The same network who fricked up the Bernie Fine story, blew the Saints story and praised the Te'o side of the story

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According to Mike Coburn — a Scarlet Knights guard who was on the team during Rice’s first year — many of the players accepted the head coach’s behavior.

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Of course they accepted it. Players are conditioned to accept that abuse is okay, and that they have no recourse. It doesn't make it okay, in fact, it shows the rot at the core in the coaching profession. The way coaches treat kids pisses me off. And they do it because we condone it and kids are just kids, and lack the ability to stand up for themselves. Besides, athletes are especially deferential to authority.

I'm not a fan of ESPN, but this is one of the good things they've done. This story came out in December and died on the vine. Rutgers even let go of the whistleblower, showing precisely how much they cared about the abuse.

It's not discipline. It's being an a-hole.

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Name a team more deserving than LSU that year. You can't, so shut the frick up.

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I see your homerism caused you to miss the whole fricking point. Good job.

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Or Bobby Knight

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Yeah, that is the example you want to use.

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This story came out in December and died on the vine. Rutgers even let go of the whistleblower, showing precisely how much they cared about the abuse.

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The whistleblower was let go months before the video was even shown to the school. I have serious doubts about the "whistleblowers" motives and doubt whether his "whistleblowing" had anything to do with his non-retention.

ETA: Rumor is, he requested permission to do something, school said no and he did it anyway and that is why he wasn't retained. Not sure if true, but there is enough out there to not accept the story that his contract not being renewed had something to do with the abuse by the HC without more evidence of a link.