M-Borg vs. THE Flavortown U Thread, Orig. by Buckeye Paul, absconded w/by talent.

[iam416]

[Rocky Bleier]

Seems like your mind is made up and has been for awhile. Congratulations.

Well, I know Urban lied to the media, but at this point I don't know why he lied. I know that his statement on Friday exonerated him (and his wife) from what was the issue - why wasn't abuse reported? I do not know if it's true that he reported it, or how it can be proved or disproved. It did, as I said, provide cover for him and the university to retain him. I believe that he will be retained whether he is telling the truth or not. If he is telling the truth, someone else will be fired. If he isn't telling the truth, he will not be fired because he is too valuable. So, I guess you could say that I've made up my mind that either Meyer is telling the truth that he reported or a story will be fabricated to keep him.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I think there's being too much read into the osu/meyer circumstance, talent's decision tree notwithstanding.

I simply can't get past the fact that in the 2015 the accusation that ZS committed a criminal act of DV was investigated by police and it was determined that no charges would be filed by the DA. Whether or not involved persons were pressured or exhibited bias in making that determinations is, at this point, immaterial. I't's something I might look into but right now it's irrelevant.

In 2015, there was no basis to allegations that, in fact, show ZS committed a criminal act of DV. Therefore, he was not fired in 2015. That seems imminently fair to ZS.

IMO, a good case can be made that in the relationship between ZS and CS that we have some information about it, not firing him and creating additional financial stress for both of them and getting them into appropriate counseling programs available to ZS as an osu employee was a very good idea. It was probably consistent with osu HR procedures.

talent, I can't imagine ufm arguing to over-ride HR procedures but I can imagine him arguing for that option if it was available and it probably was, i.e., fire for (dubious) cause or retain and counsel. This kind of thing is in every big organizations HR playbook to prevent challenges of termination on the basis that it might be unlawful. With ZS now in that pipeline, probably having complied with the process, he is then served a legally obtained restraining order, he's fired but not for DV but rather from a wholly justifiable reason: criminal tresspass.

[Rocky Bleier]

Okay, Here's the reason for my suspicion. If there were "circumstances" that went into the decision to retain Zach Smith, then why lie about your (Urban's) knowledge of a 2015 incident, saying it never happened, and saying the whole thing was made up? Why not come clean? And if he did report it as was later stated, why is it going to take 2 weeks to provide answers? If Urban reported up the chain, why was he placed on administrative leave?

Anyway, this time I really will wait for more to develop...

[iam416]

[WingsFan]

If UFM gets off so will the accomplice Ed Warriner

[drok]

I can totally believe any of those scenarios...but the media day conference still is curious. And so is the administrative leave. Maybe just a PR move for the press conference snafu. But still don't get why he answered the way he did at the press conference. It's weird.

Just need to wait and see.

[Rocky Bleier]

Jeff Buchanan - that does sound plausible. It all comes down to the police report. Someone made the decision not to fire Zach Smith, and the report had to have played a central role. I don't know why Urban Meyer would lie if everything was done above board, but it seems like a good example of Don Canham's "Never let a one day story become a three day story" rule.

[hack]

It'll be interesting to see if Webber really shows up to be an honorary captain. Harbaugh has the social capital to make that happen, but I'm fine with it NOT happening. Webber made his own bed and has to lie in it, and I don't mind if he's the poster-child for why you want to behave according to a higher standard in Ann Arbor. It also could serve as a reminder to people in charge now how fraught things are, and that they should believe their own bullshit. OSU's fanbase won't be there to rescue us with their enforced-accountability measures.

[WingsFan]

[AlabamAlum]

I never thought I would live in a world where BigTenners would listen to and quote Finebaum.

He made his career in Alabama, and was a decent writer a looooong time ago, but about 30 years ago got into sportstalk radio here in Bham. Local station called WJOX. This is the time when Howard Stern was huge. Paul decided to take his cue from him and become a sportstalk shock jock and would take positions to get notoriety. It was wildly successful. He sold joke books that were the worst sports sass joke books you could ever have the misfortune of reading. Think dad jokes except much worse. Somehow, he's parlayed that into an ESPN career.

[iam416]

[THE_WIZARD_]

Whodathunk Urbs was a LAIR?

shocking

[AlabamAlum]

And don't get me wrong. Finebaum is very clever. He decided being a sports columnist for the Bham News making $40K a year wasn't giving him the lifestyle he wanted so he devised this plan and it has worked. Think Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern. It's fairly ingenious.

[AlabamAlum]

He's married to a physician who is a friend of mine. Very sweet lady. Friend may be too stong. An acquaintance. Anyway. Outside of his public persona he's just an average nice guy.