Andre McDonald

[MNfootballfan]

I am with Doogie on this one. The timing is odd. If you joined a team, why would you quit right before the playoff run? I understand the football training, but he should have thought that through before now.

 

[Breakin' The Plane]

You investigate a blog entry or article you submit. It's a freakin' tweet, not a front page article on the STrib. If you don't like how he tweets, then don't follow.

Twitter is more used for quick hitting, ear to the ground info/speculation when it comes to 'journalism'. The blogs/rags are where we can rip the authors about mis-information, not for what they tweet/re-tweet.

Twitter is also used to announce that you're taking your talents to Iowa, hence riling up a bunch of Hawk fans thinking that they stole one from MN.

 

[Art Vandelay]

I hope there isn't a pattern developing here. I hate to see it 3 years from now when the Gophs are playing in a New Year's Day Bowl game and McDonald leaves the team in mid-December to prepare for the NFL combine......

 

[supadupafly]

these really are the worst kinds of threads. nothing but a bunch of hide behind their moniker journalists, and wanna-be journalists, who sit here and trade in unsubstantiated speculation and rumor mongering. GET A LIFE!

hopefully, all is good with andre. and i am just going to leave it at that.

 

[calminnfan]

I don't think there is anything to 'investigate'. It is different for HS kids, I think it's off limits to report on this kind of stuff at a detailed level, IMO (hence why Doogie isn't going there). Now a pro, sure, find out why and write an article, but HS kids I feel like deserve a different level of privacy/confidentiality.

Agree...though curiosity is torture, these are high school kids trying to find their way in life...unless it is something of a criminal or somewhat extreme ethical nature and the U coaches are all right with it...no sense publishing it and giving everyone the opportunity to plaster it with the spitballs of their opinions...

If McDonald is wanting to focus on football, maybe he is simply being honest. Who knows, maybe he is concerned about the possibility of injury.

 

[supadupafly]

gopher hole mods: i know the OP was chris monter and i am sure his intent was nothing more than sharing some info he learned of, but can we just be wise and delete this unfortunate thread altogether? unless someone has actual facts they can share, it is really unfair to andre mcdonald, coach kill and the program when these kinds of threads start to take on an unfortunate life of their own. nothing buts lots of libel here.

imo, would be wise to just kill this thread now/today and be done with it.

 

[Dr.Don]

gopher hole mods: i know the OP was chris monter and i am sure his intent was nothing more than sharing some info he learned of, but can we just be wise and delete this unfortunate thread altogether? unless someone has actual facts they can share, it is really unfair to andre mcdonald, coach kill and the program when these kinds of threads start to take on an unfortunate life of their own. nothing buts lots of libel here.

imo, would be wise to just kill this thread now/today and be done with it.

What? And miss out on all of the gossip from the speculation of the pups on GopherHole???

 

[magpie]

My guess is if he truly is more committed towards football and he's leaving his bball team with this timing, then his shoulder is likely not 100% and he wants it healed by football season so he can potentially play/start this year.

 

[46Gophers]

My guess is if he truly is more committed towards football and he's leaving his bball team with this timing, then his shoulder is likely not 100% and he wants it healed by football season so he can potentially play/start this year.

Wow, how dare you speculate that it is something as logical and noncontroversial as that! It's got to be more controversial, there's got to be a scandal, there's got to be a juicy story. Why, when there is an unknown, do folks want to always jump to the worst case scenario? I like your guess magpie and was thinking the same thing.

 

[920/414 Gopher]

Wow, how dare you speculate that it is something as logical and noncontroversial as that! It's got to be more controversial, there's got to be a scandal, there's got to be a juicy story. Why, when there is an unknown, do folks want to always jump to the worst case scenario? I like your guess magpie and was thinking the same thing.

I like magpie's guess as well. But to answer your question, when there is an unknown, people tend to assume that unknown is something negative. No one here can argue that the timing of this development isn't peculiar. Put simply, if McDonald really just wants his shoulder healed for the fall, why not just come out and say that? I guess that news could still come out at some point, and of course McDonald doesn't owe us an explanation, but folks are going to speculate...it's part of college sports. Why are so many people so offended by this type of discussion all of a sudden?

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

I like magpie's guess as well. But to answer your question, when there is an unknown, people tend to assume that unknown is something negative. No one here can argue that the timing of this development isn't peculiar. Put simply, if McDonald really just wants his shoulder healed for the fall, why not just come out and say that? I guess that news could still come out at some point, and of course McDonald doesn't owe us an explanation, but folks are going to speculate...it's part of college sports. Why are so many people so offended by this type of discussion all of a sudden?

For me, I am not offended that this kind of conversation happens on this kind of forum. However, when someone who is considered a journalist simply puts something at the end of his information that serves no purpose but to generate gossip, I am going to think that is lazy and irresponsible.

He is free to do it, I am not offended by it, I am merely stating my opinion that it discredits him as a journalist. So be it, I doubt Doogie really worries about whether or not some random message board posters like his work.

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. Doogie has written some good pieces over the years but I also think he has fallen into the trap of being really lazy at times. Some of his articles are filled with inaccuracies that a simple google search could have fixed. IF he thought something was so strange about the Andre McDonald situation, he should have tried his best to find out if there was fire to that smoke.

 

[920/414 Gopher]

For me, I am not offended that this kind of conversation happens on this kind of forum. However, when someone who is considered a journalist simply puts something at the end of his information that serves no purpose but to generate gossip, I am going to think that is lazy and irresponsible.

He is free to do it, I am not offended by it, I am merely stating my opinion that it discredits him as a journalist. So be it, I doubt Doogie really worries about whether or not some random message board posters like his work.

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. Doogie has written some good pieces over the years but I also think he has fallen into the trap of being really lazy at times. Some of his articles are filled with inaccuracies that a simple google search could have fixed. IF he thought something was so strange about the Andre McDonald situation, he should have tried his best to find out if there was fire to that smoke.

Fair enough!

Also, for what it's worth, I wasn't necessarily directing my post towards you, Bob. I was just commenting on the general feel of the thread. I probably should have said "some people" instead of "so many people."

 

[WhyNotNow?]

The tweet is fine....lighten up

 

[Formo]

I don't follow his tweets, they were posted here because he's a supposed journalist. He's free to tweet whatever he'd like, but for me, if someone considers themselves a journalist and they put out tweets like that, I will question them as journalists. As far as it just being a tweet, it's just a tweet if it is done by someone who isn't a journalist, who isn't using their twitter to further their career in journalism. I would never have said it was irresponsible for some random person on this message board to say that. If you're a journalist and you're using your twitter account with references to your other journalism jobs, than I don't think you get a pass for acting like a gossip mongering message board poster.

First off, it wasn't a gossip mongering 'tweet'. Certainly not meant to take it as such. Secondly, what you object is exactly what twitter is for. It's not for a journalist to write out an article, its for quick hitting information. Certainly it would be nice if we got full articles with the frequency that we get tweets, but that's not the case.

I know you don't follow him or his tweets or whatever.. but when you see something quoted from Twitter, you have to remember the media in which it was posted, not the title of the poster. There's absolutely no reason that a journalist/blogger/etc. needs to tweet like he/she's writing an article/blog entry/etc.

 

[Formo]

The timing depends upon the situation.

I don't think it's that odd considering that Andre was injured one month ago and had missed something like 9 games. From what i've heard (I could be wrong on this), he was passed on the depth chart after his injury and he is going to be playing college football in a few months (I believe he shows up on campus in June).

I have no idea what happened but Doogie knew that McDonald was coming off an injury and he knows that Andre's future is dependent on football, I think to just spew out "odd timing" is a tad out of context. Now, I am not saying that something isn't weird, I have no idea. However, if I were a journalist before I would say something like "odd timing" or "sounds fishy" I would look around a little bit. If I felt the needed to expose some sort of Andre McDonald quits Hopkins basketball team coverup, I would look into it a little bit. He did neither, he rumor mongered without taking the time to find any info.

Sorry, I missed this post earlier.

Regardless of the circumstances that may be at play here, the timing is still odd. It obviously was his opinion that it was odd, so he stated as such.

For me, I am not offended that this kind of conversation happens on this kind of forum. However, when someone who is considered a journalist simply puts something at the end of his information that serves no purpose but to generate gossip, I am going to think that is lazy and irresponsible.

He is free to do it, I am not offended by it, I am merely stating my opinion that it discredits him as a journalist. So be it, I doubt Doogie really worries about whether or not some random message board posters like his work.

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. Doogie has written some good pieces over the years but I also think he has fallen into the trap of being really lazy at times. Some of his articles are filled with inaccuracies that a simple google search could have fixed. IF he thought something was so strange about the Andre McDonald situation, he should have tried his best to find out if there was fire to that smoke.

I think maybe he may be getting to much like his ESPN1500 pal Reusse, but I don't think this McDonald situation wasn't uncalled for. Maybe I just don't take what someone tweets, professional journalist or not, too seriously.

 

[calminnfan]

For me, I am not offended that this kind of conversation happens on this kind of forum. However, when someone who is considered a journalist simply puts something at the end of his information that serves no purpose but to generate gossip, I am going to think that is lazy and irresponsible.

He is free to do it, I am not offended by it, I am merely stating my opinion that it discredits him as a journalist. So be it, I doubt Doogie really worries about whether or not some random message board posters like his work.

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. Doogie has written some good pieces over the years but I also think he has fallen into the trap of being really lazy at times. Some of his articles are filled with inaccuracies that a simple google search could have fixed. IF he thought something was so strange about the Andre McDonald situation, he should have tried his best to find out if there was fire to that smoke.

I understand what you are saying, but I think Doogie simply gets relational more then lazy...like he is having a conversation with a friend more then professional reporting. In this case, when dealing with a HS players actions and motives, I agree it was not the best way to present it... but then again I think a lot of things concerning HS players end up in the news that I think should not be there.