Urban Meyer goes off on reporter
Urban Meyer just tongue-whipped this reporter:
Here’s the back story (from Rivals.Yahoo.com):
“You’ll be out of practice—you understand that?—if you do that again,” Meyer told the reporter. “I told you five years ago: Don’t mess with our players. Don’t do it. You did it. You do it one more time and the Orlando Sentinel’s not welcome here ever again. Is that clear? It’s yes or no.”
Meyer was reacting to a story posted on the Sentinel’s Web site following Monday’s practice. Thompson was asked what the biggest difference was between Tebow and Brantley.
“You never know with Tim,” Thompson said. “He can bolt. You’ll think he’s running, but then he’ll just come up and pass it to you. You just have to be ready at all times. With Brantley, everything’s with rhythm, time. Like, you know what I mean, a real quarterback.”
Thompson was embarrassed by the remark and the attention it got, mostly because he likes Tebow and never wanted to say anything negative about him.
You can read Fowler’s originally story here.
Meyer is out of line here. The reporter was just doing his job, which was quoting a player (not misquoting, mind you) verbatim. While Fowler wasn’t being protective of Thompson in his piece (not that he has to), he did go on to write that Thompson was “either intentional or he meant to say Brantley’s a more conventional style of quarterback.” When I read the quote, I took it as Thompson was saying that Brantley is a more conventional quarterback and didn’t mean any harm to Tebow. If other media outlets twisted Thompson’s words around and made it sound like he was ripping Tebow, then they’re the ones Meyer should be mad at.
There are some guys that would have been rational about the situation and put the fire out with water. Meyer tried to put it out with a gallon of gasoline and a sledgehammer. He could have made a public statement in defense of Thompson and moved on, but instead he had to be Tommy Tough Tits and rip a reporter to make a point. He handled the situation poorly and here’s hoping he’s ripped because of it.
Follow the Scores Report editors on Twitter @clevelandteams and @bullzeyedotcom.
Posted in: College Football, Video
Tags: Deonte Thompson, Florida Gators, Jeremy Fowler, John Brantley, Urban Meyer
Meyer is out of line here. The article’s title — “Florida Gators WR Deonte Thompson sounds happy to usher in post-Tebow era” — exactly reflects what the kid said. He could have said “Thompson is happy” but instead used “sounds happy” to allow some wiggle room for the WR. And the line you quoted allows for the possibility that the WR meant to say that Brantley is a more conventional QB.
Meyer is just pissed off and he took it out on a guy that was only doing his job, and doing it well. He brings up the kid’s past like that has anything to do with it.
If I had been a reporter and he’s saying stuff like “do it one more time and you’re out,” I would have asked him “do what one more time? Quote a guy?”
The only mistake that Fowler made was to not follow up on the “real quarterback” statement. He could have asked Thompson to clarify. But it sounds like there were a few reporters around so he may not have been able to get his question in.