Mailbag question: When will the Free Press stuff stop

When do you think the Free Press crap will stop and why do people keep trying to blame former players or coaches like Desmond and Carr?

Will there be something else coming out soon? What does the Free Press have to gain by all of this?

Why don’t fans just ignore the coaches that have left the program after being fired or the players that left the program because of not fitting in anymore?

Will we continue to hear about this until Coach Rod wins and that all of this will always be Carr’s or somebody else’s fault?

Ben D.

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Thanks for the question.

Wins always matter, and winning will put an end to some of the crap.

The Detroit Free Press is all about headlines and shock value. Read it at your own peril because right now they are on our “Banned List” of newspapers. Last year the Ann Arbor News was on the list and look what happened to them.

The thing is the DFP has no options right now except to keep digging because most Michigan fans have made their decisions by either calling them out, canceling subscriptions, not clicking on the DFP web page and distancing themselves from anything that has to do with that newspaper. It has been stated (true or rumor) that some fans have actually created a list with advertiser’s names to the DFP and contacted the listed companies asking for them to discontinue their sponsorship.

We believe, like many, that the DFP is still digging and looking at other angles into the “practice scandal” with more former coaches, former strength and conditioning people, former players, former administrators, etc. Current personnel and players we know nothing about and it will be hard to tell what the DFP is finding out, good or bad, until the next volley is fired. In its death rattle, the DFP appears to have the attitude that my aircraft carrier is going down, but my last planes will be used to sink yours.

The digging will continue because the commitment for destruction is so deep and the ante is so high that there is no turning back. Remember this: throw enough dirt and some will stick, dig deep enough and you can get to China. There is dust and there is dirt. Nationwide, what has been found so far would be dust at some very big football power institutions, but at Michigan the dust will be magnified into dirt, at least temporarily.

We are not sure why people blame former players and coaches or speculate on what a former player wears on a college game day show as having some deep meaning. It is equally illogical to demand that a former head coach, never media friendly, to be a cheerleader and program spokesman for the Michigan team.

We are of the opinion that 3-9 left a bad taste in many mouths and that many or all of the changes Coach Rod made were almost instantly looked upon with disfavor. This perception was poisoned early on by the external and public mess Coach Rod transferred to Michigan from West Virginia. Coach Rod will have a giant bulls-eye on his back until the wins pile up and the rival games turn out better. Then the sweet taste will return.

It is the contemporary nature of the college football beast and big time college football coaches understand this new job parameter. Giant, some would say gaudy, amounts of money is spent on college football with stadiums, practice buildings, ticket prices, coaches salaries, etc. And the school, alumni, fans, and other donors making these contributions expect a winning product on the field, as well as a clean solid program off the field. We believe some, maybe most, of this “practice scandal” is nonsense and believe that most, if not all, college football programs do pretty much the same exact thing. That is why you saw current college coaches speaking up in defense of Coach Rod, including Coach Tressel, who tacitly stated that their programs do more or less the same.

The question brought up a very good point about some of the former assistants and who had a great relationship with the players on the team. It is no universal deep secret that some of these coach / coaches was not happy with their treatment during the head coach football search, along with being fired when Coach Rod came in.

Not knowing what is real substance, imagined or fabricated, it is funny how some people are throwing only certain names out onto the plate. The name pushing “of the guilty” (some elsewhere have said name names) and the protection/sacred cow stance, on behalf “of the innocent,” merely fuel speculation and lead to a scattered versus a cohesive framing of the question and discussion. Speculation is frequently synonymous with misinformation or disinformation.

We honestly do not know what is actually going on behind the scenes, just the many rumors that fly around possessing no real publicly offered, concrete information, just widening speculation. Some message boards lately have been quick to “name names” resulting in bus tires being very bloody, with the sole intent to take down those labeled and found guilty in absentia, sans trial, as program haters.

Quite frankly we would rather just talk about other things rather than this DFP crap. And so, stay tuned and read GBMW this week. There will be plenty of neat football related material, and that promise is not speculation.

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Written by CoachBt, Doc4blu, and ErocWolverine

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