FanPost

On Robinson, Canesport, and the Scandal


Over the last few days, there have been a lot of opinions, words, and insults hurled around the internets among Canes fans. These reactions are completely understandable given the circumstances. While not necessary, I felt it was at least worthwhile to put a little something out there to express T7F's stance on the whole thing. I hope this will end up making sense to everyone, and won't upset anyone.

The bottom line is that at the heart of this whole thing, Miami screwed up. They allowed Shapiro to engage the football program in his reign of despicable terror, and saying that they didn't know what he was doing is not a valid defense. Ignorance is not innocence. They should have been tougher and more diligent, and they weren't. In regards to the latest report by Yahoo! and Charles Robinson, things get a bit murkier. I won't get into the specifics of my personal feeling regarding the report, because this is not the forum for them. Rather, I will point out to everyone that, poorly or not, Robinson is doing his job. He is paid by Yahoo! to be an investigative reporter, and he is pretty good at what he does. It is not Robinson's fault that Miami is in this mess. To blame him is basically saying that we wouldn't have gotten caught had he never looked into it, and that's not the correct attitude to have.

As far as Ferman and Canesport, the way they have handled this whole situation is a bit iffy. Hosting a CoveritLive chat is something that we have done on this site before, and it may not have been the best medium for what they were wanting to do. It allows complete moderation of any user submitted questions and comments, and also allows them to be edited. While this is a legitimate concern considering the subject matter, it also allows for speculation as to how much control Ferman and crew had over the direction of the chat. I am sure they used this method to specifically ensure the chat did not devolve into a bunch of angry fans spewing insults and hate towards Robinson, and that makes sense. But they also opened themselves to speculation that they edited questions, only allowed the easy ones through, and failed to press Robinson on a lot of the hardball questions fans what to ask.

When you think about it, Canesport/Rivals is a Yahoo! entity, so moderation of this type in order to protect one of their own is expected. Ferman and Canesport would potentially have a lot to lose if they were to play hardball with Robinson, which is another reason why I think this was mostly a hollow gesture. There's an inherent conflict of interest in a Yahoo! owned site hosting a chat with a Yahoo! employee with fans of the team he is investigating.

T7F leans on Rivals, Scout, and other available sources to help corroborate stories and provide details on things that Canes fans want to hear. While you as fans are free to spend your money where you want or not, it's a bit harder for us to make the same determination. We cannot participate in a boycott of Yahoo!, Canesport, or frankly any other Canes news source, because to do so would hurt our ability to bring the news to you. We try to be realistic about things, and we want to give you both sides of every coin while at the same time maintaining our Hurricane loyalties. This is the exact same thing that Canesport tried to do, it was just mishandled a bit.

We hope you understand our position, and will continue to make us your home for all things Hurricanes. If you are one of the fans who is now saving money by not subcribing to Rivals, you could always take that money, put it firmly in your pocket, and join SB Nation and The 7th Floor, because what we do is and will always be free!

As always, GO CANES!

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