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Ruth Unplugged: 5 Things Every Recruit Should Know
After witnessing an absolute internet-mob incited riot last night when we reported that Brandon Beaver had committed, and the fact that I had to don a flack jacket after being publicly flogged by angry Softy/Dawgman.com minions, I gave much thought to writing this article today.
In covering UW recruiting, and recruiting in general, I have never said an unkind word about any school, coach or competitor when speaking to a recruit. That's just something that should never be done as it hurts your ability to be neutral.
For my readers, I'd love to report commits to Washington all day, everyday, but not every young man wants to go to Washington. It all started for me years ago, but I also had to take the arrows when I was the one chosen by Taylor Mays to report his commitment to USC, and when Brian Cook was the one chosen by Steve Schilling to report his commit to Michigan. We've had to do this. I remember reporting Carl Bonnell's commitment to WSU and he was calling me to give me the report because, well, he liked me.
My job is to cover the Huskies, yes -- but when it comes to recruiting, I put my neutral hat on just as all of us in this business do when speaking to recruits. I've worked with reporters who went to USC, WSU, Cal, UCLA, Oregon, all over the place. We all come from some background in liking the colleges we choose to cover. But we all have to forget all that when we talk to a recruit. To not do so would be unethical and could also be illegal, as in the case of experts like Crabtree, Burton, Lemming, and others who attended colleges that they now have to cover in recruiting.
So with that in mind, indulge me now as I write a list of things that I wish every recruit could know before they go into this process and have to deal with the flood of phone calls and contacts they get from reporters all over the country.
Dear Kids: Pay Attention
1. Stay off internet message boards. When you get to college, your coaches will probably tell you not to read that stuff. And if you do, and it upsets you, then you might not be cut out to play college ball. There won't always be good press, so you have to be tough and your coaches will teach you this in college. You have to understand that fans are emotional and very often these message boards exist to create ad revenue and clicks. Negativity, for some sick reason in this country, sells. So please, just don't go and check out what people are saying about you because you might not like what you see.
2. Don't engage any fans of any school on your facebook or twitter pages. Fans won't tell you this but they are actually breaking NCAA rules if they are boosters or season-ticket holders or even alumni and are trying to talk to you about going to their school. They also lie about other schools, their coaches, their players. They say whatever they think they have to say to try to convince you to be their friend and go to their school. If they befriend you, ignore them -- or look at who their mutual friends are. If it looks like a fan, ignore it. Same goes for twitter. Brandon Beaver should be a cautionary tale of how perfectly awful this can become if it becomes a stalking-fest for college fans being followers. They seem to not know any better, even though they are told, but you should know better because once you get to college your coach will probably tell you to stay away from that stuff as it can only get you into trouble.
3. Once you choose whatever school you are going to, don't talk smack the night before a game on your facebook or twitter page -- that guarantees a loss. And never EVER complain about playing time, your teammates, fans or coaches on your networking pages. That is in-house stuff!
4. If you don't want reports out that you may be doing something like...dropping a school, committing, decommitting, etc., then you need to try to make yourself available to at least one person in the media that you trust who covers each school that is on your list. If you are unreachable and they get an inside scoop they will report it but would prefer to hear it from you.
5. Lastly, don't lose your head and start making public pronouncements on your social networking pages that are disparaging to schools, coaches, other recruits, people in the media, the fans of that school, etc. What if you wind up that school at some point? What will you say if you have to one day look those same people in the eye on the practice field or in the stands? Don't burn bridges -- this is an important lesson both in life and in sports. It happened several years ago when a quarterback committed to a rival school of Washington's and he said insulting things about Husky fans. He wound up having to transfer to Washington and fans never truly did embrace him because of his earlier insults.
Now for you adults and younger fans
The bottom line is that, as much as I took some pretty horrible insults and slanderous remarks after I reported, along with Dawgman.com, that Brandon Beaver had committed to Washington, the person who was hurt the most was Brandon Beaver. Not because it "stole his thunder" on his signing day announcement, but because he has allowed himself to become the object of a terrible, terrible disease that is spreading in our society, where people can go on the net under the cloak of anonymity and behave like a mob of out-of-control wild pigs. The minute the news of his commitment went viral and Brandon wouldn't confirm it, fans piled on his twitter account and began to furiously message him. Ultimately, it is the fans who are to blame for this frenzy because they can't get enough from all the news sites that cover recruiting, they think they have to involve themselves too and then go about acting like children in a roller rink if they want a recruit at their school. Some of these types think they are helping their school, but they are hurting their school (potentially with the NCAA) and embarrassing themselves as a fanbase.
On the subject of message boards, I think the recent newspaper article about the Scout.com boards is pretty indicative of the issues that this internet-fan-feeding-frenzy has caused. I've heard it from kids such as Josh Garnett, Brett Bafaro, Steven Schilling, Walker Williams, Keivarae Russell, Taylor Mays, and many, many others over the years about the hostilities that are so prevelent on the network owned boards; both free and subscription (parents sign up and give the recruits their passwords!).
As a site owner, and someone who used to be with Rivals.com, I can honestly say that I know that what churns the cream for these sites, aside from direct sales, is ad revenues. Everytime a message board gets a click, money gets paid. The more posts, the more clicks, the more clicks, the more money. And as I said, we live in a society where reality TV has shown us that people love to watch a fight. It's the Jerry Springer/Maury stuff that has overtaken a once very civilized people and turned them into a cyber-thug generation where internet hatred can run so deep that people get physically hurt. There are young kids who have actually been driven to suicide because of harmful words said about them on the internet.
Lastnight I received threats, and a guy who creates pictures for the Dawgman site made a video of someone punching me in the face and knocking me over. I put that square on the shoulders of the Dawgman site and their staff because this was posted on their board and it was made by one of their own moderators. This is a vile, scary world we live in when otherwise perfectly normal people believe that, if they're behind a keyboard, they can so insensitively inflict harm and incite hatred towards another human being whom they don't even know.
Now as far as recruits reading the Scout.com message boards; namely the Dawgman boards, remember, the Husky flagship station, KJR has them on the air on Saturdays and they are frequent guests on Softy's show. Softy is continually pumping up their site and so recruits and players hear that name and think that's where to go, but when they go there, we've heard some surprise at how shocked they are at what they see. They will see Sarkisian being ripped about how he's recruiting, insults to any recruits who chose not to attend Washington, fans fighting with eachother and calling eachother names, and today, two staff members actually calling out Brandon Beaver and questioning his talent as a cornerback because they're mad at him about his twittering.
I don't say this to disparage the other site -- I say it because it has become so problematic now that it's even caught the attention of the local papers (who wrote the article about it) and it's no secret. And I say it because it is the truth.
It has to stop. Somewhere, somehow.
I don't "smear" or "slander", I tell the truth. That is my job. I cover the Huskies -- I grew up in a Husky household, and if I weren't a reporter I would be mad as hell that my school was being misrepresented in the sports media forums this way to prospective student athletes.
This is the face of Husky football for many young people and fans and players and their parents.
Even the Seattle Times monitors their boards for this type of stuff but there is absolutely no moderation with any consistency on the Dawgman boards. They are, in a word, embarrassing.
A good friend of my family's emailed me this afternoon with a whole laundry list of rumors he'd read about Realdawg.com and me and those boards, before being run off and insulted, himself. It was almost too laughable to actually be insulting -- some of the stories that were being made up by these supposed "fans" (most of which are actually staff members who make up fake posters to keep the boards moving in order to make more coin whilst also slandering their competitor). But I am a 50-year old lady who knows how to shake my head and laugh out loud when someone makes up some story about me that is so outlandish that it's almost comical. What about a young, 17 or 18 year old athlete? What about his girlfriend or his mother or sister or father?
There's a thing called manners in this world and the internet has caused many souls to fall into the manner-less category. We all get irritated, we all pop off, we all get defensive sometimes and say something stupid in defense-mode when we've been unfairly attacked. It's our inborn instinct.
But I'm an old lady now and my only wish for these young people is that they remember what their mothers taught them about manners, and that if they are recruits, they learn these ropes as they will help them once they get to college.
Remember people, these are kids. They are our future. People my age shudder a little bit when we see the destructive force this internet/thuggery has produced because these are the kids who will be taking care of us when we're in our 90s.
If things don't change, we are truly all doomed...
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