And Now the Rest of the Story... Ed Cunningham

[HawkGold]

When there are strong reactions, there is usually "a rest of the story" taken from Paul Harvey. On the other thread, I posted the game highlights which included Ed's comments about Iowa and KF during the Florida game. My take was that CJ was OK playing up until about 10 minutes left or so. Cunningham began commenting on why CJ should be taken out. I saw no problem with Ed mentioning the situation, but he kept at it and when CJ throws the interception the criticism increased. Though he held his tone, Ed was obviously upset by the situation. That is until he took a swipe at Iowa's offense that was calm but was clearly an insult. Later the other guy mentions CJ should be relieved as a competitive matter. Ed then took strong (for him) issue with that saying it was a health thing.

In this article: https://www.sbnation.com/college-fo...casting-abc-espn-brain-trauma-injury-concerns

In the article, Ed mentions he had several teammates commit suicide over the years from CTE. I didn't know he was the teammate of Dave Duerson who committed suicide. In watching the Florida highlights, it was noticeable that CJ was consistently getting popped up high while falling over backwards after a release on a pass. In fairness on several hand offs and passes, I thought Florida was gracious with CJ and could have really popped him and didn't.

Truly the guy is having a midlife moment where he's questioning the game he had devoted his life to. In some ways I give him credit for at least mentally walking through that. Some of us hear also have questions about supporting a sport that leads to these types of problems. Ironically the article uses a picture of Ed at the Iowa Rose Bowl game. It's not hard to understand now why he did what he did at the Outback.

The bigger question for Hawkeye fans in my opinion is this: Why did KF react outside of his normal self at this point in a new season and outside of his normal character?

There is usually a rhyme and a reason....

 

[deanvogs]

When there are strong reactions, there is usually "a rest of the story" taken from Paul Harvey. On the other thread, I posted the game highlights which included Ed's comments about Iowa and KF during the Florida game. My take was that CJ was OK playing up until about 10 minutes left or so. Cunningham began commenting on why CJ should be taken out. I saw no problem with Ed mentioning the situation, but he kept at it and when CJ throws the interception the criticism increased. Though he held his tone, Ed was obviously upset by the situation. That is until he took a swipe at Iowa's offense that was calm but was clearly an insult. Later the other guy mentions CJ should be relieved as a competitive matter. Ed then took strong (for him) issue with that saying it was a health thing.

In this article: https://www.sbnation.com/college-fo...casting-abc-espn-brain-trauma-injury-concerns

In the article, Ed mentions he had several teammates commit suicide over the years from CTE. I didn't know he was the teammate of Dave Duerson who committed suicide. In watching the Florida highlights, it was noticeable that CJ was consistently getting popped up high while falling over backwards after a release on a pass. In fairness on several hand offs and passes, I thought Florida was gracious with CJ and could have really popped him and didn't.

Truly the guy is having a midlife moment where he's questioning the game he had devoted his life to. In some ways I give him credit for at least mentally walking through that. Some of us hear also have questions about supporting a sport that leads to these types of problems. Ironically the article uses a picture of Ed at the Iowa Rose Bowl game. It's not hard to understand now why he did what he did at the Outback.

The bigger question for Hawkeye fans in my opinion is this: Why did KF react outside of his normal self at this point in a new season and outside of his normal character?

There is usually a rhyme and a reason....

The better question is why do you expect KF to take what Cunningham said lying down? I don't let crap about me on here go uncheck and neither do you. I have seen you bristle when questioned, and we all know that I certainly do that same. We are freaking anonymous message board posters, and we take offense at things, and feel the need to reply. Just imagine if you were being accused of something that you find ludicrous, completely unfair, and offensive. Would you just let your reputation get drug through the mud without a response? I doubt very much that you let this go either, and KF shouldn't have either. His response was measured and reasonable really.

 

[HawkGold]

The better question is why do you expect KF to take what Cunningham said lying down? I don't let crap about me on here go uncheck and neither do you. I have seen you bristle when questioned, and we all know that I certainly do that same. We are freaking anonymous message board posters, and we take offense at things, and feel the need to reply. Just imagine if you were being accused of something that you find ludicrous, completely unfair, and offensive. Would you just let your reputation get drug through the mud without a response? I doubt very much that you let this go either, and as a matter of fact no way you take the high road and just release a response.

I have no problem with the response KF did. It seemed totally out of character for him and the timing is interesting. I do think Ed was within his rights to question KF. I think he went overboard. The article pretty much explains why, especially if he was planning to walk away.

As I mentioned before, I'm a published history author. Part of my success is that I dig into the bigger questions as a habit. The "Why" of what is before us.

It's a bit like Why Did the Japanese surrender when they did. Most Americans believe it was the bomb. The real reason is that Stalin had just invaded Sakhalin Island months ahead of when the Japanese expected. We had already destroyed 37 of the 40 biggest Japanese cities. There wasn't much left to destroy. The leaders wanted to surrender to the Americans, not the Soviets having already seen how the Soviets were treating captured German leaders. Recently we've been inundated with the movie Dunkirk. Nice movie and mostly factual, but the Germans pretty much did let the British go, at least at first. When General McAuliff said "Nuts" in Bastogne, he wasn't being defiant. It was his reaction to being is a desperate situation that was likely to end badly. He actually said "Aw Nuts..." when told of the ultimatum. "What are we going to do" His junior officer said, tell them that..."Nuts".

I'm not criticizing KF. It seems out of character and I wonder why. Seriously, at this point it was a non issue until he responded.

You asked me a fair question.

 

[SteveGarvey1]

I did not know that about the "nuts" comment. Interesting.

In retrospect, I don't blame Cunningham for what he said or KF for defending himself because there is some gray area in there. For Cunningham to state KF's decision to all CJ to stay in the game caused him to step away from football was uncalled for. As I said in a previous post, it's more the culture of the game's toughness culture's fault than any one coach.

 

[DMLadyhawk]

There is a link in another post to Rich Eisen's interview with Kirk this week where he answers a question about Cunningham's comments at length. If you have not had a chance to watch/listen to that interview I recommend it. Kirk talks specifically about the toughness of CJ throughout his career and that football is tough on your body.

 

[DMLadyhawk]

In case, here's the link.http://www.richeisenshow.com/2017/0...ll-kirk-ferentz-dials-in-to-the-re-show-9717/ I think Rich Eisen does a great interview

 

[HawkGold]

I did not know that about the "nuts" comment. Interesting.

In retrospect, I don't blame Cunningham for what he said or KF for defending himself because there is some gray area in there. For Cunningham to state KF's decision to all CJ to stay in the game caused him to step away from football was uncalled for. As I said in a previous post, it's more the culture of the game's toughness culture's fault than any one coach.

History is full of interesting stories beyond the standard view. Speaking at Bastogne, little known fact is that the Germans overran a US Battalion on the south perimeter and had tanks on the edge of Bastogne. The German Divisional Commander had just had his mobile command center destroyed by a random artillery shot killing 12 of the 13 in the center (he was the survivor) and didn't get that report. Shortly after, his superior, frustrated at the lack of progress and quite full of himself ordered the attack stopped so he could come and lead the glorious victory on the west side of the perimeter the next day. The over ran that perimeter too, prompting the US battalion commander there to say, "Live or Die Boys, This is it. No retreat" and they held destroying something like 12 tanks. His quote, though little known is much more heroic.