Where’s the Beef for Allegations?

That’s the question SB Nation blog Maize n Brew asks itself after reconsidering the allegations the Detroit Free Press made this past weekend. Sifting through the original “Practicegate” piece - and really, nothing screams fake controversy more than adding “-gate” as a suffix - Maize n Brew finds a few problems:

But this is all smoke and no fire. There is no examination of what the alleged broken rules actually say. No examination of previous violations to give us an idea of what constitutes breaking the rules. There’s nothing to support the contention that Rodriguez and his staff have been intentionally and knowingly been doubling or tripling the mandatory workout allowances since he was a coach at West Virginia. You’d think an opponent might have pointed that out before Rosenberg “stumbled” across it. But that’s just window dressing.What troubles me the most is that the article routinely takes the quotes of Michigan players out of context to support its flimsy contention. The fact that the quotes of Brandin Hawthorne and Je’Ron Stokes were taken out of context and manipulated to imply that they supported Rosenberg’s contention is inexcusable. Manipulating the words of two 18 year-old kids who were not asked about voluntary or involuntary workouts, but were excitedly answering questions about their transition to the college level, is beyond reprehensible. The article takes quotes from Terrence Taylor in 2008 who was bragging about the work the team had put in preparing for a game, and twists them to imply the team broke rules. There isn’t a single named quote in the article that isn’t taken out of context. Frankly, this article was as dishonest a piece as I’ve read in a long, long time.