[Lanknows]

Michigan offered him and accepted him after two of those. I bet he plays football again.

[Lanknows]

I guess you are taking that rumor at face value. And Pipkins injury assessment at face value. I have my doubts. Like I said, it seems like an unusual coincidence for two guys to be in the situation of ‘take the medical or nothing’ in such a short timeframe. It’s not impossible that these situations played out the way the coaching staff is putting out there. It’s also possible they have an agenda and are leaking disinformation to save face for guys they don’t want anymore.

[Lanknows]

Pretty common in football too.

ESPN.com’s NFL staff has assembled an “All-ACL team” of active players who — for the most part — are excelling post-injury.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/page/hotread141119offense/acl-injuries-all-star-nfl-lineup-recovered-knee-reconstruction-surgery

[Lanknows]

You’re saying the player’s need should be taken into account? I thought this wasn’t a charity.

Both kids would benefit from good news.

I think the “he’ll have other opportunities” is a good point Hatch, clearly, would not have. But it’s not entirely to the point of what we want Michigan to be about.

I would agree that that rumor would be a significant factor in the conversion, if it’s true. That said – is it Michigan’s place to ask a kid to skip his senior year of high school.

Again, I think the right thing to do is to give the kid the choice to do things the way he wants to. Michigan football can dictate playing time of course, but once you make a scholarship offer and it is accepted, you should live by it unless something crazy happens (like Cissoko/Harrison level off-field stuff.)

[Lanknows]

oops that was supposed to be a reply to JC.

The way this is set up the reply button is at the top of the comment, so if you read through and click the nearest “reply” it goes to the wrong message.

[Lanknows]

In case it isn’t clear, I think Michigan should honor the scholarship and let Falcon do what he wants to do. If it’s later proven that he really can’t play football – OK. Medical him then, with his consent. The choice should be his.

People recover from ACL’s all the time, and here we are talking about a teenager.

Here's the list of NBA players that have torn their ACL (1970-Present) #ACLfraternity @RealJayWilliams @Baron_Davis pic.twitter.com/Uf3Sjs1lTS

— ACL Recovery Club (@ACLrecoveryCLUB) May 22, 2014

We’ve seen a bunch of guys pushed out of Michigan since January. Some of that is happily chalked up to a “new culture”, which OK, I get that you want competitive people and all that. I’m not totally comfortable with how things went with Kyle Bosch and probably some other kids, but I get it. This here is a high school student.

I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world. Michigan could have waited till February to screw him, they could have not offered the medical. Not doing the worst thing doesn’t mean you did the right thing.

[Lanknows]

Yep. And consider that a bball scholarship is about 6 and half times the relative impact to a football team. AND consider that Hatch’s injuries were way more severe and meant he had a 1 in 100 chance of ever contributing, whereas Falcon is pretty likely to see the field within the next 5 years.

Yep, Michigan sports aren’t a charity. They also aren’t a corporation. It doesn’t matter what organizational framework they have – it doesn’t stop them from doing the best that they can do FOR THE KID they offered a scholarship to.

The same people who praised Beilein are now refusing to criticize Harbaugh. You can’t do both. Either you’re going to be a ruthless “This is big boy business and they aren’t a charity.” dude or you’re going to believe that college athletics are something more human.

[Lanknows]

You are correct, I should technically have said “pulling a football scholarship”. It should be obvious from context that that is what I meant, since it was already discussed above.

He got a scholarship offer TO PLAY FOOTBALL AT MICHIGAN – that offer was pulled. It mitigates the damage significantly for Michigan to offer him a medical scholarship, but it’s a bit of a P.R. stunt because, as with Pipkins, they know he wants to play football. For Michigan it’s about the same thing. Right thing to do, but also the easy thing to do, and low liklihood of it playing out that way.

It’s a very nice way of waving goodbye.

How often did this kind of “not medically able to play football” thing come up before Harbaugh arrived? Maybe it’s just a coincidence that we have 2 in a few months. Maybe…

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