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Monday, August 10, 2009

Assorted Links - 8/10/2009

1. Michigan cast off Justin Feagin was involved in some wild stuff. Mgoblog comments:

Freep FOIA findings:

Feagin told investigators that “when I first started going to (Burke’s) house he had three big jars of weed up in his room. … One day T.J. was talking to me about some illegal stuff. He was under a lot of pressure because of his financial problems.

“I told him that I knew someone who could get him some cocaine. A few days later he asked me if I had talked to the person yet. I called right then and set up a deal.”

Feagin arranged to send $600 to a friend in Florida, whom he identified only as “Tragic.” In exchange, “Tragic” would send an ounce of cocaine to Ann Arbor.

It goes on from there. No cocaine ever showed up, this Burke guy tried to scare/murder Feagin by filling a bottle with gasoline and setting it on fire outside his dorm room, etc, etc, etc. You know, typical college stuff. . . . TJ Burke does what he wants, which is apparently spend up to ten years in prison.

Feagin was a last-minute addition to Michigan's first class under Rodriguez when it became clear that Rodriguez wasn't likely to acquire a higher-rated quarterback recruit. He did not work out, obviously. The Freep article dryly notes that Feagin "struggled to learn the playbook" mere paragraphs after describing Feagin's extensive marijuana habit. . . .

But seriously: it's bad. It's also one guy that Michigan apparently didn't run as thorough of a background check on—or possibly any background check on—as they scrambled to reconfigure Rodriguez's first recruiting class. As long as the incident remains isolated, fine. . . .



2. Mark Sanchez might win the Jets' job, but is he crossing over from confident to arrogant?

3. The NY Times Fifth Down Blog remembers Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson (and includes your humble blogger in its roundup).

4. The pro-football reference blog with Part III of its quest to rank the greatest QBs of all time.

5. Steve Spurrier is very upset: "We've got a lot of guys, I don't even know if they like football." (Ht Blutarsky.)

6. Saurian Sagacity looks at statistical characteristics of BCS champions. This is good and fine, but as Dr Saturday pointed out, the BCS winner hasn't always been the "best" team over time, or even in a given year. This is not a BCS knock -- and on this score I don't think a playoff would reduce the randomness of who gets crowned champion -- but it's worth remembering.

6. The end of the postal service?

7. Callers, tossers, and the odds of the flip.

8. History of the Times New Roman typeface.

2 comments:

Dave said...

Good read on the Sanchez article. I don't think he's all that arrogant, I think he is dumb (at least when he talks) and enthusiastic, and saying something dumb enthusiastically can come across as arrogant. The part in the article with Bart Scott is one example, he says something rah-rah and Scott says the opposite that is well reasoned. The photo shoot he did a while back was not the smartest move and has no real effect but is another data point in dumb things Mark Sanchez has done or said. On draft weekend he stupidly said "sometimes when you get drafted you aren't happy about the team you go to" which is true but is not something you should say out loud, and it implies that you get drafted more than once (maybe Crabtree will have better luck next time). And then on talking about the differences between expectations at USC and the NFL, he said "at USC we expect to win at least 12 games but in the NFL if you go 8-4 you're probably winning your division" which is hilariously dumb because A) there are of course 4 more games to play in the NFL and B) after 12 games the Jets were... you guessed it... 8-4 and did not win their division. And look at the quotes he gives both in that article and if you see him on TV, he talks like he's a veteran and it's easy to see how that can rub teammates the wrong way. None of this will matter if he can play of course, but it's something I've noticed about him since Day 1 and has piqued my interest.

Mr.Murder said...

"5. Steve Spurrier is very upset: "We've got a lot of guys, I don't even know if they like football." (Ht Blutarsky.)"

Every dark cloud has a silver lining: they love GOLF! Spurrier might spill his drink reading that one....