So that’s why People are so worked up. They see this as an enormous in game, play to play advantage that Michigan has had.
I was going to respond this morning, but the kiddos had me running circles. MB's posts are exactly what irk the hell out of me. It's juvenile and it's not how this board was for many years. When OSU was constantly in the spotlight, posters here didn't run around and call each other's programs cheaters and scumbags. Apparently gone are the days that Gator and Badge were the guiding light to just great atmosphere here where disagreements still centered on respect. This board has changed as much as the game of college football. It's sad. We should just close up shop and go to twitter as it's similar interactions.
What i was going to type up this morning was this. I fully believe that Michigan was doing this. How it started I have no idea. Everyone calling Michigan cheaters and saying they're the worst of the worst is where I simply laugh and why i go to hypocrisy statements. If you're saying they're cheaters, you're stating no one else is doing this and they're the only ones outside the lines. Many former players have come out and said sign stealing has been a thing for a long time.
In life, people look for gray areas to find and advantage for great success. Lawyers look for arguments based on interpretation of the law. CPA's do the same. Many many businesses spend a fortune on lawyers to argue their interpretation of the gray area. Does that make the world a bunch of cheaters or people trying to find every angle for an advantage.
That being said. Are there people that blatantly cheat, commit fraud and break the law? Yeah, there is and they deserve the punishment they eventually get, if they ever do. They deserve people calling them out. My point in this entire situation is that we don't know the exact details and interpretation of the rule. Maybe Michigan including Harbaugh looked at the rule and it states they couldn't have staff on site to scout opponents, but it's vague about people not employed by the university doing it. Does that make it right? ehh.. that's where you can have an argument on both sides, but if it's a gray area that doesn't have clarity on the rules, it's not cheating either.
If ultimately that's the stance, that it's blatantly cheating. Then you better go back and acknowledge that Ohio State cheated in the past. Even though it was common for players to be getting paid, to be taking jobs on payroll that weren't real jobs.. it was a competitive advantage getting them ahead and in your eyes, who cares if it's common practice, it's cheating.
Any reasonable person can acknowledge it looks like they had a system in place. They can acknowledge it looks like they problem took advantage of a rule that's old, dated, not relevant and took an angle on that rule that might have crossed the line, but we don't really know yet. Unreasonable people are calling them all cheaters, scum and acting like they know every detail and the only reason their team every lost is because their team was perfectly honest and honorable and that's garbage. Every team is looking for an angle which is why guys like Urban Meyer employ people to study one team and one team only. I'm sure honest Urban's guy never looked at trying to snag signal calling from a year of video studying.. Must be a cheater.
Lastly, i feel bad for the players. Players at that level are looking for guidance on the field an off through coaching staff. Now all these guys are immediately labeled as cheaters as they are giving every effort to be the best at what they do. Imagine being a professional that owns a business, you have attorneys that have a job to guide you in legal decisions. There's a gray area that your attorney tells you is the way to get ahead of your competition because the law is vague and there's an argument to be made to go that route and it's not black in white. You listen and go that route. Your competition calls you out, hangs you out to dry publicly without all the facts and details and every person you care about labels you and your business cheaters and terrible humans.
If after the fact, it's clear they knowingly crossed the line and the NCAA rule is clear as day, then everything slamming them is deserved. We aren't there yet.. but again, some people like to run out the fastest with handcuffs because losing has been too uncomfortable. That's my book on it.. now enjoy piling the twitter posts while I hang out to the memories of what this board once was.
