I was more responding to the locker room knowing. The players knew that they were bad apples. The locker room has to control itself. If the "leaders" didn't take care of this then shame on them.
This Day Was Coming
- Thread starter zappaa
- Start date
One thing I never pegged Coach Flood for was stupid, he is not, clueless may be a better word, or turning a blind eye, which I find hard to believe.
There's just to many players involved, Boggs why are you hanging with TJ, your telling me NO players knew Johnson was involved in bad activity?
The young men in that locker room had to know, not all but many.
I don't normally agree with Zap but are we really to believe that news of assaults from the Spring never reached Flood in 4 months? Something stinks about this whole situation and is not NJ.Com. Whatever happens Flood cooked his own goose.
The police are likely to have questioned or interrogated witnesses to the riot and fight, victims (there are at least 10) and the perpetrators (6 or 7). All total I would estimate 20-30 people were questioned over the duration of the police investigation. Count on the victims and witnesses telling many others that RU football players were involved in these criminal activities. How could Flood not have known about this? In my opinion he had to know. He is not as smart as many of us gave him credit.
Of course he has to know.
Who is the executive of a team of 120+ people and is that tone deaf?
Nobody...that's who
I suspect that Flood knew that some of his players were involved in something back when it happened. @rucoe89's post is not an unlikely scenario. The players may have told him some of it, the cops some of it. But I don't think he had the full picture until today.
In the meantime, what's he supposed to do? If the players are telling him "we didn't do it" and the cops are not providing definitive answers either, then I don't see that he has much choice except to forge ahead the best he can without all the facts.
And although I accept that we're living in the brave new reality-TV, 24/7 media world where everybody thinks they have a right to know every intimate detail about everyone else, I'm resistant to that trend. If Flood did have some limited knowledge of the situation, I applaud him for keeping his mouth shut about the situation until such time as he had enough facts to start forming reasonable conclusions - which pretty obviously was sometime earlier today.
And let's not forget that some of the players involved may turn out to be innocent of the charges for which they were arrested. Not saying it's likely, but it's possible.
In the meantime, what's he supposed to do? If the players are telling him "we didn't do it" and the cops are not providing definitive answers either, then I don't see that he has much choice except to forge ahead the best he can without all the facts.
And although I accept that we're living in the brave new reality-TV, 24/7 media world where everybody thinks they have a right to know every intimate detail about everyone else, I'm resistant to that trend. If Flood did have some limited knowledge of the situation, I applaud him for keeping his mouth shut about the situation until such time as he had enough facts to start forming reasonable conclusions - which pretty obviously was sometime earlier today.
And let's not forget that some of the players involved may turn out to be innocent of the charges for which they were arrested. Not saying it's likely, but it's possible.
All I know is if you start playing that game of who knew what when your going to come up with a lot of assumptions and speculation. Now the administration has started another investigation into what were talking about. What they will find is a lot of assumptions and speculation. If they decide to act on these assumptions and speculations good luck ever finding another good coach. Word will get out and no coach will touch this place with a 10' pole. With this new investigation now I am worried.
Have to think that coaches don't know everything going on with their players and sometimes players keep what other players do from their coaches.
MLB years ago had some teams with coke problems and seems like the managers were the last to know.
Can't say Flood didn't have an idea, but won't imply he did.
MLB years ago had some teams with coke problems and seems like the managers were the last to know.
Can't say Flood didn't have an idea, but won't imply he did.
False statement, managers, coaches and players were completely aware.
You could get greenies from Billy Martin.
stupid? No. Ignorant? Perhaps
how in god's name with all the law enforcement around the program, campus police, Sheriff's dept, Local Cops, State Police...does not one word of this get back to him? Nobody has his back over months to get him a (secret) heads-up? Frankly I find that really difficult to believe.
how in god's name with all the law enforcement around the program, campus police, Sheriff's dept, Local Cops, State Police...does not one word of this get back to him? Nobody has his back over months to get him a (secret) heads-up? Frankly I find that really difficult to believe.
My mistake I was under the impression Chuck Tanner in his Pirate managerial days didn't know about the Pirate's coke problem.
Never thought about greenies and Martin.
I always felt every team turned a blind eye to that .
If you say Tanner knew, I can't and won't say your wrong
What he said and what I know he knew about his players are two different things, I sat in he office with half a dozen players and got a stern warning of watch your ***, they're watching you…that was 6 months before the sh*t hit the fan.
Looks like your saying he knew or had a suspicion of it going on, that good enough for me to say I stand corrected.
If you feel my bringing up Tanner was out of line, please accept my apology.
Thinking t over, might have been a bad example to and was in poor taste.
I'll argue for days, but I try to be respectful when doing so., sometimes I fail and this might be one of them.
So I'll say I'm sorry ( and truly mean it) if you feel I should not have used the example I did.
I am actually suspecting that the police purposely kept RU in the dark to continue its investigation uninterrupted.
Zap- I'm not so sure about that. The fact that the Middlesex Prosecutors Office grandstanded by making the arrest with a legion of police officers at practice makes me think they did not give anyone at RU a heads up. As a former federal prosecutor, I think they were looking for maximum press, which is unfortunate.
All I have is an opinion based on every team I ever played on, if he had no knowledge of an assault and multiple robberies I'd be shocked.
Players talk to much and that has nothing to do with the authorities.
Did Belichick kinda know his TE was killing people? Was there chatter about it in the locker room?
I think flood stays. The okay in the field will be BAD . Focus and pride are GONE!
In my opinion it is hard for anybody to give Flood an advanced heads up, when the cops did not know who did what until somebody who got arrested on Aug 25th & decided to play "lets make a deal"!
How did Flood know ? The incidents happened in April and arrests made recently. If it took the police 5 months how could Flood know? Is he "LT "Frekkin" Colombo ?
If he knew would he have prepped Boggs as the starting CB !!!! Stephens as a Starter ?
Any talk about the DB Coach and what, if any, knowledge / intuition he may have? As a DB Coach, I would think he's somewhat close to these kids and one would have to reasonably think he would be aware of these kids' character or more strongly lack of it....
Ignore your critics zap. You have something here. My latest thoughts are as to why the team captains were unaware.... if they were unaware. And if they had knowledge, did they go to Flood.. did they go to anyone? So many questions.
Flood is a players' coach.. they say. I wonder how many times he ignored smaller petty infractions instead of being strict. I wonder if it all lead to this... whether some of these guy should have been gone before this happened. I also wonder who the instigator was.. who organized this all.. was it a friend from back home.. fellow students.. did football players lead the way on these crimes or follow others?
Are you saying you think Flood had ZERO knowledge a fight took place and some of his players might have been in some trouble?
I don't think he was completely shocked and aghast when those cop cars showed up.
Playing on a varsity team at RU, I knew of a few guys who actually got arrested and the coaches didn't find out until a couple of days after. To think Flood knew of a confidential investigation, all while giving some of those under suspicion first team reps and starter roles the week of the first game, is naïve, to say the least.
I agree. There is simply no way that if he had an inkling that they were in the trouble they were in, he would have named them starters the week of they were arrested. No way.
I have met Flood, I have heard him speak enough. He isn't a stupid guy, and anyone who would do that would be the stupidest coach to ever coach the game of football or any other sport at any level.
Really, it is laughable on its face to even consider such a scenario.
I have met Flood, I have heard him speak enough. He isn't a stupid guy, and anyone who would do that would be the stupidest coach to ever coach the game of football or any other sport at any level.
Really, it is laughable on its face to even consider such a scenario.
zap....do you really think Flood knew something was amiss but still went ahead with Boggs and Stephens as starters? I just can't reconcile those two factors. He would have had Hampton, Wharton, Adams and James getting major practice reps
Flood may not have known definitively if these guys were going to be charged but he had to know they were being investigated. The investigation went on for 4 months, among the people the police talked to had to be the players themselves. I agree that other players knew what was going on even if they didn't, the five involved knew. You would think they would contact the three most important people in their lives at this moment, their families, their lawyers and their head coach.
Flood is always portrayed as a father figure type coach, it's hard to believe that no one went to him and said 'hey you might have players in trouble'. Either they did and he ignored it or they didn't which shows a lack of control of the program. Either way this doesn't bode well for a coach already going through his own turmoil. It's insane that the AD shows up at practice with the police. Sure, the police could've randomly called and said we're arresting these guys today, but somebody had to know the heat was on and the fact that Flood wasn't one of them says alot, or he did know which says even more.
Flood is always portrayed as a father figure type coach, it's hard to believe that no one went to him and said 'hey you might have players in trouble'. Either they did and he ignored it or they didn't which shows a lack of control of the program. Either way this doesn't bode well for a coach already going through his own turmoil. It's insane that the AD shows up at practice with the police. Sure, the police could've randomly called and said we're arresting these guys today, but somebody had to know the heat was on and the fact that Flood wasn't one of them says alot, or he did know which says even more.
A football people getting into a fight DOES NOT go tell his head coach, friends or families. He keeps it a secret. What kind of 19 year old calls a lawyer if they have a fight? What 19 year old player has a lawyer? You think he has one on retainer?
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One that has been investigated for 4 months. Like I said even if no one else knew, they knew and they had to talk to somebody. You're making the same mistake Flood did by turning a blind eye.
okay...Detectives went to the Hale Center over a 4 month period, flashed their badges and told everyone....we are looking for Boggs, Barnwell, Gross, Peel and Stephens....lol. Flood was there, scratched his head and said, "hmmm,, that's strange, I wonder why those detectives are here".