A Reminder Of Who You're Dealing With

I spend a lot of time on Twitter. Boilerdowd has commented about how it's my release, my catharsis, and so forth, and I think he's right. I like to vent both positive and negative thoughts. I often aim to entertain, inform or amuse. Sometimes I just share brain synapses.

One of the things I am constantly reminded of on Twitter is that Twitter is just like the rest of society, only magnified. If you're a jerk in general, you'll be instantly identified as an a-hole on Twitter. If you're funny, that will shine through. If you're painfully unfunny and uncreative, social media will expose you. It's actually a great tool to sift through who you want to listen to.

Something that is exemplified on Twitter is our society's knee-jerkyness around being "offended." Everybody is put off my something every damn day. For some reason, we've become conditioned to immediately look for the offensive content in every statement, article, interaction, etc. I don't really know why this is -- we used to call this being overly PC, but that term seems to have gone away. (Politically correct, not personal computer.) Instead, it's just become accepted that the goal of everyone is to figure out how the most recent article on each and every site is offensive and to whom.

This has led to a defensive culture, where the more milquetoast you are, the more airplay you get on ESPN. That's why they love Mike and Mike. And this is why Jim Boeheim gets so mad at Andy Katz (who is awful, by the way) for something trivial and the video gets The Big Lead thousands of page views. Everyone is offended by something. We're all teenage girls, giving someone or other the silent treatment or telling them off and "putting them in their place." It's exhausting.

A few weeks ago, for example, during the Manti T'eo mess, I suggested on Twitter that maybe he knew he was talking to a boy and kind of liked it -- had anyone thought of that, I mused. Almost immediately, someone who hated Purdue and felt like trolling a Purdue twitter feed accused us (me) of being igorant, hateful, anti-gay and that those in Indiana are narrow-minded I had made no such statement or even vague implications of that -- only an ignorant fool would interpret it as such.A lot of people would say I should just ignore that crap, but I do not allow people to make up their own narrative about me, at least not without a fight.

My point in all this is that hopefully you like the way we deliver opinions. We generally give you the unvarnished viewpoint. We don't sugar coat things, we don't worry who we might offend -- we simply say what many of you are thinking. That's one of the best compliments we ever got and it lives on in our sidebar. I think that's why some of you feel a connection with us -- because we say what everyone pretty much knows is true, even if you can't "prove" it. Which is the beauty of opinion -- we don't have to prove our opinion is true. And it makes it even more fun when some bozo attacks us asking us to PROVE something we say we think is true....is actually true. And we don't need to.

The most recent example was the interaction we had with a knuckle-dragger MSU fan who claims to be a lawyer but evidently spends most of his time on Twitter taking pictures of himself in his Sparty hat. We commented on the fact that two accused sexual assaulters remain on the MSU and never even saw an ounce of punishment from Saint Tom. We didn't say they should be in jail (even though they probably should); all we said was that people who cheer for MSU also cheer for significantly questionable individuals. This guy took issue with that and almost immediately was calling us names and comparing it to the "Duke lacrosse" case. I'm sure the Dookies were completely innocent young lads, too.

The mentality that's out there that the court of public opinion is the same as real court is a misguided one. The expression "where there's smoke there's fire" is an expression for a reason. We're not condemning guys or demanding they be put in jail or even using their real names most of the time. But sometimes we say that MSU has guys who the MSU police felt should be charged (which is a fact) or we say that Duke basketball probably cheats (since nearly every disciple of Coach K has been busted for cheating). Are we detectives? Of course not. But we are allowed to spout our opinions, and we do.

We're never going to give you bland, unopinionated opinion columns. It's not what we do. And on twitter, you're getting us even less filtered, since it's even easier to just fire off a tweet (sometimes we actually do review each other's posts and say, ummmm, might want to tone that down a bit).

My rambling point in all of this? If you're new to the site and don't like opinionated guys who, frankly, don't care what others think and won't be impacted by foot-stamping and screams about the "fairness" of our comments, then you probably won't ever be comfortable here hanging around us. Furthermore, as I pointed to earlier, there are plenty of other sites, that are as close as a few keystrokes, that will scratch your itch for boring crap.

But if you're a regular (and we thank those of you who regularly read, email, comment and interact) or find yourself enjoying us stirring the pot a bit, then welcome. Pull up a barstool and enjoy yourself. You're always welcome here.

Dummies and Sports

It's long been said and joked about that quite often, athletes and those involved in sports are not the sharpest tools in the shed. Yet despite this, we clamor for what they have to say, we expect them to artfully put into words their feelings upon winning or losing something that produces feelings the most artistic linguist would have trouble articulating.

The era of social media, ESPN and 24 hour sports talk radio in nearly all markets has only further exacerbated this hunger for content and quotes. Yet athletes, by and large, continue to be represented most often not by the very smart ones among them -- but by the dummies. Or, the myths about these athletes are perpetrated by the Stuart Scott/Rick Reilly sycophants of the media world or by gullible fans, people who are sadly desperate for something in their life to latch on to in order to feel connected.

The media babbling over the past week has focused on three big stories....

1) Lance Armstrong's "Admission" of Guilt -- If you still thought Lance was innocent, you simply didn't want to believe the truth. Yet there were legions of Lance loyalists who likely to this day still think he's being forced into this. He didn't. You're being a dummy. This is just one more exhibit as to why you should not look up to sports figures as life heroes -- you know nothing about them. None of us knew who Lance really was (or is) just as nobody knew who Joe Paterno was or Derek Jeter or Peyton Manning is. You know what they allow you to see. Nothing more. Don't be a dummy.

2) Manti T'eo's Fake Girlfriend Story -- Mantei has now admitted to Jeremy Schaap and Katie Couric that he did some lying in all of this. And no matter how much Domers want to disparage Deadspin, I am now of the belief that if Deadspin doesn't uncover this last week, it never comes to light at all. If you believe Manti was going to "come clean" about all of this mere days after Deadspin beat him to it, you're just as dumb as he purportedly was on Twitter.

And that's really the choice you're left with here. Either you think he's a lying liar who thought the rest of the world was dumb enough to buy his hoax....or you think he's so dumb himself (sorry Mr. Swarbrick: naive) that he was faked out by a fake twitter at least partially run by males for....years?

So which is it, Manti? Are you a duplicitous dope or just a complete dumbass?

3) Tim Brown and Jerry Rice Intimating that the Raiders Threw Super Bowl XXXVII -- This is so beyond preposterous, it's amazing it gets any traction. But it gets traction because of the guys saying it.

Before you say you could see Callahan wanting his former boss to win and hating the Raiders, just stow it. There is no way a man would get to the Super Bowl and then decide to throw it away. There is a very short list of coaches who have won the SB and once you do so, it's with you for life, like a Hall of Fame designation. If you really think this is possible that Callahan did this out of spite, then you've likely never played a competitive sport in your life.

As for the players, Tim Brown is a loon, as many WRs are prone to being. And Jerry Rice has always come across as a grade A dummy to me. He tries to sound thoughtful and insightful when he speaks, but he's only a step above Emmitt Smith because he can somewhat string together subjects and verbs. To levy this kind of an accusation on a coach ten years later and not think it's a big deal to, you know, maybe discuss it with that coach first, is simply reprehensible.

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What's my point in all this?

The sports landscape is littered with idiots, whether it's producing the nonsense, reporting it or lapping it up. Be naturally skeptical -- you may be told you're cynical, but you'll have less chance of looking like a doofus in the end.

Friday Gumbo

Everybody knows by now that Calvin Smith has transferred from New Mexico to Purdue. Smith's road to UNM is actually more circuitous than just Florida to Purdue via Albuquerque.

Smith verballed to Lane Kiffin and Tennessee during his Senior year in high school, decommitted when Kiffin decided to go to USC, then went to UNM. Before deciding on the Vols, he had offers from Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Mississippi, Purdue, Notre Dame, Arkansas and others.

Out of high school, we wanted to go some place where he'd get playing time and would make an impact right away. Before committing to UT, he talked about how he liked UND, Florida and FSU quite a bit. But, Florida got two DT commits and I don't know what happened to FSU, UND and others, but the offers were probably filled by other recruits. UNM's Mike Locksly was able to sell the idea of instant playing time to Smith, and UNM's coach lived up to his promise.

As a 6'4" 270 lb. true Freshman, Smith played in all 12 games and had 13 tackles, one a sack. Being a part of UNM's rotation right away surprised no one...signing at UNM surprised everyone...and he shocked a lot of people again by transferring to Purdue.

There's a lot of ways to look at this- You could be cautiously optimistic just because you don't really understand why he's at Purdue. A good answer might be that he'll have two fellow Hialeah teammates in God's country next season...more than anyone else. Or maybe, he's just a guy that likes to do things differently.

Twitter and the message boards has some dancing in the street just because this plays like bolstering next year's recruiting class...and he'll have a year to be around the team, practice and learn.

I lean toward being a bit more cynical just because this one doesn't make a ton of sense to me. He was never really high on Purdue coming out of high school...but unlike Marve, who went through visits again prior to his transfer, the Smith thing just kind of happened.

My opinion matters little at this point, because he's a Boiler now. So obviously, I hope he thrives at Purdue and am glad he's on campus. In high school, he was a prolific pass-rushing tackle- Think Mike Neal more than KK Short.

Boilers on BTN

Joe Tiller will be working for the BTN this fall and I'm looking forward to it. If you ever had the chance to hear the Ol' Purdue Coach talk outside of a press conference, you know how entertaining he could be. I'm pretty sure that his combo of knowledge of the game and storytelling ability will make him an enjoyable person to listen to on the network...Plus, it's never bad to have another Boiler there.

I had the chance to talk to Rosevelt Colvin last week and he told me that he will be on the BTN more than last fall as well...if you got a chance to see him in studio in 2010, you could see he was already better than some of the guys on the panels as he was comfortable in front of the camera and came off as smart without being smug. His increased role should be good for everybody involved.

Matty's Magic

Painter is in China coaching the US team in the World University Games. His squad won in an exhibition v. a professional Chinese team and begins official play tomorrow. His assistant coaches are two of the best in the college game; Cuonzo Martin and Brad Stevens.

Matty's coaching a few players he coached against in the last few years- MSU's Draymond Green, Bama's JaMychal Green and Mbakwe from Minny.

Wilson Goes Off

IU's Coach Wilson, who was one of the stars of the B1G media day a few weeks ago saw a different side of the media yesterday on Fox Sports Radio's Zakk & Jack Show.

I've heard Wilson has a pretty bad temper from IU students who have gotten the business end of the guy...but I really liked his appearance on this crappy show.

I don't listen to the show regularly...because it stinks. But I've listened enough to know that Trudeau comes off as a complete bag and Zakk seems to be a blowhard whose voice is pretty tough to stomach. Prior to putting Wilson on the air, they both were making fun of IU...which might be OK on a different day, but isn't very smart business right before you welcome their coach onto the show. You can hear it here.

Wilson probably could have showed a bit more discipline in the way he handled it, but he wasn't that out of line...the clowns who get paid to talk on the radio for a living were though.

A lot of Purdue fans were saying Wilson was out of line via Twitter and on the message boards, but let's be honest for a moment- if this happened to Hope, wouldn't you want him to defend himself and his program and be at least a little pissed? I would.