I gotta tell ya, there sure ARE a lot of nasty "complexities" to this whole story--the beefs and "agendas" can add up to some messy splash-back...
This afternoon I heard these creeps on the local ESPN radio-outlet (they call themselves"Longhorn Radio", just so you get the REAL picture here), chortle away about this general subject as some "typical SEC business-as-usual", then moments later the one loudmouthed A-hole (I won't name ANY of them here--that is publicity they thrive on), an EXTREME Mack Brown-apologist (this jerk has a man-crush you wouldn't believe), slips into another attitude entirely as he brings in a phone hook-up with his perfect counterpart from Auburn, a guy who's JUST finished a white-wash interview with Cam Newton where he and 2 other hand-picked locals "interviewed Cam". He gets to spend a couple of minutes talking about "this fine young Christian man, whose only concern is that, in his words, 'the Lord continues to bless myself and our team'...and it is just ridiculous that the word of one man, who is himself under investigation, is allowed to cast a shadow over this good kid's success and magical season..." blah blah blah...then, the 'Horns-radio guy (obviously prearranged) sets him up with, "Didn't I hear something about Urban Meyer being involved in this whole business of blowing the whistle"--and that's the cue for their "guest" to pivot into what he REALLY wants to talk about: out of less than 15 minutes with this joker on the phone, at least 10 were spent tearing down Urban Meyer, blaming him and the Florida football program for this and just about every other problem connected with corruption and criminality in college football.
Now, I know what was going on here: one shill is scratching the other's back, and vice versa...Clown "A" gets to switch the focus ANYwhere but on Cam and Auburn, while Clown "L" tries to get the "bad spotlight" off of Mack and the 'Horns, the one coach/team combo who are bigger disappointments this season than the Gators are. And y'all KNOW I'm no Urban Meyer-apologist. But this REALLY P-ed me off.
I mean, first of all, these are the same guys who LOVE to point at Meyer and our "out-of-control program" every time there's any off-the-field problem with our players--can you imagine how they'd have hung him and us had he stayed and this kind of thing surfaced?!! But here they are, along with the Auburn guy conveniently leaving out all that happened with Cam at Fla., instead 'Horns-guy saying "You know he wasn't kicked off the team--him and Urban just didn't see eye to eye..." (no, I'm neither kidding nor making this up). Meanwhile, one minute Auburn-guy is crying about the unfairness of "one guy's" questionable word, the next HE'S dropping MUCH more tenuous innuendo regarding Coach Meyer's "involvement", based on some flimsy connection I still don't quite see the logic of after researching it further.
There was so much more about their claims and obvious agendas that riled me up--I won't go into it here, but it got me so hot that despite the fact I was at work (it HAD been on "in the background"), I called them up (you're SUPPOSED to be able to give your "take" on "the Drive-By") hoping to straighten out a couple of "misconceptions" (oh, I was ready), but I never got past the screener. He "accidentally" dropped me. Twice. After waiting on hold both times--and despite my best efforts to not give much away.
At a certain point of course I had to give up and move on, but there are things about this that continue to gnaw at me.
There are obviously some HUGE problems in the whole system, a system where everyone gets rich but the players, upon whose backs, through sweat, effort, risk, and sacrifice it all rests. The only thing that's changed over the years is how elaborate the whole charade has gotten, and no wonder: the dollar amounts at stake have gotten geometrically more enormous! But instead of the so-called "journalists" who dominate sports-reporting having ANYTHING to do with reporting on that mess or the inequities it leads to, the blatant unfairness and outright exploitation that continues to be self-sustaining, we get crap like the above, petty factional mud-slinging that even has ME now looking forward to being able to throw it back in "THEIR" faces if and when this turns out to be provable (I have little doubt it's "true", but...)--and, God help me, there's a petty part of my soul that's now hoping it's "when"...
By the way, there's an excellent article/overview of the "Problem" itself, a "big picture" piece available at: "rivals.yahoo.com" , dated 11/05, by Dan Wetzel, entitled "Newton Scandal shows game stays the same"
...It's as thorough and clear-eyed a run down as I've ever seen.
