No comment at all on Fitz's teams' graduation rate? Or do you concede that point?
Yes NU graduates a huge share of their student athletes. He is not a bad guy. This is not an attack on him, just an attack on the Teddy Greenstein narrative that he is above the fray and somehow above the nastiness of major college football. He is not.
I believe the Dodd list serves as a great example of what is happening now. For decades, Joe Paterno was celebrated as doing things a different way. Sweater vest Jim Tressel the same. Win games but doing so with expectations that were fundamentally different than their peers. Now these guys ended up having dramatic events that finally reversed that narrative. I obviously don’t foresee anything like that happening here. But the lesson of not buying the hype of “this guy does things different” is still there.
there is the persona and then there is reality. I don’t think the narrative on fitz is polar opposite of his personality, just exaggerated. He is a decent person who does a nice job at NU. If he was truly as different and principled as Shannon Ryan and teddy G want you to believe, then he would have told Flynn nagel not to visit until he de commited. He did not. That does not make him a bad guy. That makes him a normal college coach doing what anyone would expect him to. He showed that his principled stands don’t always apply when you can do something that is beneficial to you that can help your program and your kids.
again. Not a bad thing. It is what he should be doing. But the minute you abandon principled ideals, it is hard to take any of the other “we’re different” bravado seriously.
just my two cents. Once again, not a bad guy. Just one willing to bend principle to further his program. Those who digest and regurgitate the media narrative of “he IS different” are entitled to their opinion. I choose to look at the totality of his acts that make him a darn decent person, but not operating on some fundamentally different playing field from 80 percent of his peers.
