John Shipley: Who’s to blame for Gophers mess? Apparently, anyone but the players

[BleedGopher]

per Shipley:

Gophers football players took to social media Tuesday to criticize the decision to fire their coach.

“I’m so confused,” tweeted sophomore quarterback Demry Croft. Declared freshman linebacker Carter Coughlin, “How can someone make such an idiotic decision?”

Idiotic decisions have, indeed, been rampant throughout the football program. This wasn’t one of them.

Let’s start with Sept. 2, when a handful of Gophers football players decided have group sex with an inebriated classmate, one after the other, sometimes together. Another handful watched. None of them tried to stop it, even when it became apparent to some that the young woman was not a willing participant.

One wonders how someone can make such an idiotic decision.

More than three months later, 10 players were suspended for roles in that incident; the rest of the team responded by boycotting “all football activity,” a protest that lasted less than 48 hours, or long enough for disturbing details of the school’s investigation into their teammates’ behavior to appear online.

“Fired after a 9-4 season?!? Tf,” tweeted junior running back Kobe McCrary, one of the 10 suspended players waiting to address their discipline in school hearings.

So, who do we blame for the Gophers football mess? Coyle? Kaler? Claeys? Sure. Anyone, apparently, but the players.

Here’s hoping that one of them, at least privately, has the good sense to reach out to Claeys and say, “Sorry, Coach, we let you down.”

http://www.twincities.com/2017/01/0...phers-mess-apparently-anyone-but-the-players/

Go Gophers!!

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Ultimately, this is true. Regardless of what we think about Coyle, Claeys, etc. At the end of the day, a handful of players cost a lot of good people their jobs. I hope that the players responsible have the guts to own it.

 

[Some guy]

Ultimately, this is true. A handful of players cost a lot of good people their jobs.

The whole team being loyal to their dumb teammates did

 

[stocker08]

Ever hear the phrase "two wrongs don't make a right". Apparently John Shipley hasn't. Another shill that deserves zero respect.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

The whole team being loyal to their dumb teammates did

Maybe. That whole boycott still confuses me. Not sure what the players were thinking or what they did/didn't know.

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

The whole team being loyal to their dumb teammates did

Meh. That's a gross oversimplification of it. The team sure didn't boycott in September. Maybe, just maybe, it was HOW the investigation went down?

 

[Plausible Deniability]

Just think of how much better this situation would have turned out if the players had their own UNION! Yeah!!!

 

[LesBolstad]

Meh. That's a gross oversimplification of it. The team sure didn't boycott in September. Maybe, just maybe, it was HOW the investigation went down?

Nah. Players kneejerk reaction before reading the gross report did the coaches in.

 

[Jaykay]

Very true, this is all on the players and they're freely passing the blame around.

 

[Some guy]

Meh. That's a gross oversimplification of it. The team sure didn't boycott in September. Maybe, just maybe, it was HOW the investigation went down?

Now you are oversimplying. Because if it was about how the investigation went down how come they backed down when essentially nothing changed?

 

[Mick Turition]

It's just too bad Coyle didn't start his job as AD until this November.................uhhh, wait a minute

 

[scools12]

Players made a choice to stage a boycott and put their coach in an impossible situation. In the end it backfired on them.

 

[ProfessorBum]

Maybe. That whole boycott still confuses me. Not sure what the players were thinking or what they did/didn't know.

What blows me away is that Claeys even told them when they were thinking about the boycott that it could cost him his job. They did it anyway. And now they cry a river. Good riddance Mitch.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

Clearly, a handful of players - and the entire team in the boycott - got their coaches fired. As bad as Coyle and Kaler, are, without those actions, none of this would have happened.

 

[Deleted_User]

Ever hear the phrase "two wrongs don't make a right". Apparently John Shipley hasn't. Another shill that deserves zero respect.

Are you going to slam everybody that differs from your opinion tonight? That is mature!

 

[CoMn]

Great article..thanks for posting the link Bleed. The whole thing is sad but these players feel so entitled....now the whole team has a consequence for their behavior and they are crying on twitter. When is someone in the football program going to make this a teachable moment? Didn't anyone ban them from twitter? My gosh what a continued display of no control whatsoever.

When Pitino was faced with a couple similar problems, he didn't support his players, he brought in outsiders and developed a program teaching players how to treat women. He pushed a great player off the team. And he banned them from twitter. Now he is winning and let's hope the efforts he has made with teaching players how to treat women will work. He saw a lack of discipline and he addressed it. And guess who isn't on the hot seat anymore?

 

[Ewert86PC]

Clearly, a handful of players - and the entire team in the boycott - got their coaches fired. As bad as Coyle and Kaler, are, without those actions, none of this would have happened.

How many think that the players will truly change their behaviors because they got their coaches fired?

Sent from my SM-T550 using Tapatalk

 

[kellyleeks]

Great article..thanks for posting the link Bleed. The whole thing is sad but these players feel so entitled....now the whole team has a consequence for their behavior and they are crying on twitter. When is someone in the football program going to make this a teachable moment? Didn't anyone ban them from twitter? My gosh what a continued display of no control whatsoever.

When Pitino was faced with a couple similar problems, he didn't support his players, he brought in outsiders and developed a program teaching players how to treat women. He pushed a great player off the team. And he banned them from twitter. Now he is winning and let's hope the efforts he has made with teaching players how to treat women will work. He saw a lack of discipline and he addressed it. And guess who isn't on the hot seat anymore?

Good thing that he brought outsiders in to teach the players how to treat women right. I'm sure that he didn't learn it from his father.

 

[Catechol]

Great article..thanks for posting the link Bleed. The whole thing is sad but these players feel so entitled....now the whole team has a consequence for their behavior and they are crying on twitter. When is someone in the football program going to make this a teachable moment? Didn't anyone ban them from twitter? My gosh what a continued display of no control whatsoever.

It is not hard to see how both Claeys and the players made the situation worse.

It wasn't the players' boycott, it was that they threw down an ultimatum that they would take no less than reversing EVERY suspension without acknowledging that yes, there were clearly breaches of University code even if it is not called "rape."

Very poorly worded and insensitive, no matter how well intentioned, someone should have counseled them on this (i.e. Claeys and Hutton).

The fact that the suspended players were part of the group press statement looked bad - like "the team" was more important than respectable conduct.

They held hostage the Holiday Bowl and its B1G contract. Like it or not, it is partly about money and every school benefits from it.

Then Claeys' tweet. That was a killer. You can use the excuse that you only have so many characters but if that's what you come up with, you better say nothing at all. Saying he has "never been more proud" of the kids? Really? Not for their APR, community service, etc.? This is what he's most proud of? They're "making the world a better place?"

The players whine about not being informed but it's ironic because this is in part to protect the privacy of the accused players. Just because they're teammates they do not have any specific right to know all the details of why they were suspended - that's ridiculous. What if some of the the accused players didn't want these details known?

The team sealed the fate of Claeys and the suspended players when they chose to die on that hill. Giving an ultimatum IMO actually prevented the administration from anything meaningful because it's like negotiating with terrorists - they absolutely were not going to set the precedent that the big revenue sport team can hold a bowl game hostage and then get the U to reverse punishments.

 

[CoMn]

Kelly, yeah probably not...but when Pitino was faced with a great likelihood of getting canned, he figured it was in his interest to do something about it...no matter how he feels about women personally. Claeys just didn't get it....had he instituted the same reforms as a response to Sept. 2nd, we wouldn't be where we are today.

 

[PMWinSTP]

Nah. Players kneejerk reaction before reading the gross report did the coaches in.

Nah...but this certainly is an oversimplification.

 

[Wally]

Just think of how much better this situation would have turned out if the players had their own UNION! Yeah!!!

Exactly

 

[Maroon92]

I wish at least one player would have come out and how disappointed they were the decisions of their suspended players. Ok to stick together in some instances but this one some players could have distanced themselves from their teammates behaviors