In Defense of Rob

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okeefe4prez

okeefe4prez

Well-Known Member
Rob is taking shit from certain corners of the internet for running DJK's story. He didn't editorialize, he just posted it. He gave Iowa a chance to comment, which naturally they declined.

Rob put his ass on the line to ask Ferentz about DJK's allegations years ago. The Captain was pissed. Furious. Rob heard a rumor and wanted to get the story. That is good journalism.

I don't think you guys understand how big of a risk a move like that is for someone like Rob. College football programs in small college towns are run like fiefdoms. You can be critical, to a point. You can ask tough questions, to a point. It's a small world. You piss the king of the fiefdom off and suddenly you'll find out that you got iced out of some juicy coverage. That shit goes on all over the place. It's a passive aggressive "F you" to anyone who dares not toe the party line.

Rob - thanks for your service to Hawkeye fans. Some of us understand the world in which you operate and the lines you have to operate within and appreciate it.
 
It took balls I’ll definitely say that.

But...DJK has contradicted himself at every fork in the road that suited his own interests. Deleted contradictory tweets, tweeted things that say the opposite of what he’s now claiming, said he didn’t like KF, then he did, now he’s an asshole again...

He said at first back in the day how Ferentz made him put a garbage can on his head and said what a douche bag KF was, and how it was demeaning. But NOW it’s all of a sudden Doyle who made him do it and Doyle who was the asshole...Do you expect us to believe that at such a critical moment of abuse you forgot who made you run around with a garbage can on your head? Are you lying now or were you lying then? That should have been brought up as part of the story imo. Ferentz and Doyle are no saints, not by any stretch...but DJK has again changed his story at a time when it's most opportune to his narrative.

That contradiction is a plain fact (among many others). It’s in the tweets and in printed interviews. He blamed two different people for one abuse incident at two different times.

Where I’m going with this is that if one is going to run a story (yes I know it was just a statement) you have to bring everything up. His statement needs to be followed by all the obvious inconsistencies and contradictions and deleted tweets. It needs to emphasize that DJK’s story about KF telling his dad that he’s coming for Derrell and that he should be scared hasn’t been corroborated by anyone. It’s hearsay. Again, I know that it was simply a statement that was made and repeated verbatim, but with DJK the context and his own public behavior in the past is absolutely relevant and needs to come with a disclaimer. Just like some witnesses are more credible in court than others. If a story doesn’t go out of its way to establish balance, it’s not a story, it’s an op ed/blog post. Maybe Rob’s conviction is strong enough to override that, I don’t know. If it is he’s got more balls than me to start getting into the career jeopardization territory, especially when people are telling his employer in droves that they won’t patronize his/her/their for-profit business (HN) anymore. I applaud that bravery regardless of which side I believe because I don’t have that bravery myself.

I also know that Rob is under a lot of fire from the public and that can’t be easy. He obviously overwhelmingly sides with the players, and in some ways that’s good because he’s helped get some of the players’ communication out there in front of people. But you can’t have it both ways. It can’t be activism and reporting in the same breath, you have to choose one or the other.

Myself, I think KF was more than likely a vindictive asshole to DJK and DJK was a vindictive asshole to KF. I also think that neither of their stories/narratives that each is putting out there can be believed entirely. They’re both douche bags. Sad all the way around.
 
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Fryowa said:
(Rob) obviously overwhelmingly sides with the players, and in some ways that’s good because he’s helped get some of the players’ communication out there in front of people. But you can’t have it both ways. It can’t be activism and reporting in the same breath, you have to choose one or the other.
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By opening a line of communication with the players Rob may have opened the vent on the boiler that is letting off steam before it exploded. Hopefully this will force a hard look at the program and, if warranted, a series of corrective actions. KF is coming across as Tom Landry-esque: rigid, over-bearing, unable to adapt to change, unable or unwilling to effectively deal with undercurrents and player unhappiness in his program.

That’s good journalism. Thank you for pursuing this Rob.
 
The former players deserved to be heard and Rob gave them a voice. Doing the right thing is never easy, but it needed to be done to right the ship and bring perspective to the state of the program. Rob did something that very few of us could/would have done in his position. He listened when everyone else had something to say and gave the players a voice and opportunity to be heard by the masses. Thanks Rob for putting yourself out there and doing your job.
 
Jesus, you guys are hilarious. Note that Rob hasn't posted anything that is contradictory. You know, like public announcements from players that gave glowing praise to Doyle, or the Ferentzes.

He has no problem with Dillon Doyle being thrown under the bus by teammates. Go take a look at Dillon's Twitter. Very few teammates commenting or supporting.

Rob wanted to promote an agenda. He got called on it by the site owners. He didn't do anything "noble" or "brave", he intended to give credibility to DJK--admitting that credibility was questionable after the fact.

They made a movie about this kind of crap called, "Absence of Malice". Although, in this case, I think malice was there from the beginning. And he doesn't care who gets hurt.
 
Agree. If youre story is centered around someone who has had a list contradictions, its irresponsible to not confront that or follow up with other sources. But of course doing so would hurt the chances that the story would take off or actually disuade from releasing.

Theyre are likely some valid injust
Things that may have happened to djk, but no one can trust his word alone if his story flips as much as it did.

It seems this story is an example of the writer being an opportunist. Taking advantage of the movement to get the most clickable story - while not providing follow up on validity of story.

In some ways you could compare that to looters in Minneapolis. Thats not a nice thing to say? Well neither was the narrative of the story.

And i am someone that supports kneeling at the flag, these protest, and mostly what other players have been tweeting. What happened to DJK was sad, but we simply cant trust his word alone anymore.

Blaming Kirk Ferentz for a police raid? Yeah, wow thats juicy. Maybe its not impossible but show us this accusation has legs or leave that to djk to find a platform to share.
 
Rob broke forum rules. Plain and simple. He said this not the place for discussing social issues. He allowed discussion about Covid-19. Well he finally shut that down. But when the allegations came out against Coach Doyle came out, there’s Rob right out there in front, commenting and posting all the tweets about the Iowa program. What happened to the rules Rob? Apparently it’s okay to have your cake and eat it too as long as you are the moderator. I now look at James Daniels as the black equivalent of Lee Harvey Oswald. Are you the guy on the grassy knoll?
 
ModebaSan said:
I now look at James Daniels as the black equivalent of Lee Harvey Oswald. Are you the guy on the grassy knoll?
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I thought you had checked out on the Hawkeyes?

Aren’t you supposed to be over on your new home team Badger or Husker site?

A guy getting catfished for money by a dude in the Philippines posing as his mail order fiancé (because, to quote your own words, ‘American women are garbage’), probably shouldn’t be giving us speeches and sermons about what’s wrong with America.
 
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hawkeyebob62 said:
He has no problem with Dillon Doyle being thrown under the bus by teammates. Go take a look at Dillon's Twitter. Very few teammates commenting or supporting..
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Are you fuckin loony or what??

There are loads of current teammates, former Hawkeyes, and current NFL players wishing him well and telling him they feel terrible for him. And hundreds of fans as well.

So....you accuse Rob of writing slanted stories or not telling the full story. But here's another gem by you that's completely false below. You're on this weird kick about Dillon Doyle getting fucked over, and thrown under the bus, and how no one's supporting him, but you don't give anything to back it up. Could some rando make a dumb comment telling him good riddance or something? Sure. Just like any other person going through something like this.

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But tell us...where are all these people on Twitter calling him a quitter and being hard on him? Where do you see that teammates aren't supporting him? Who's the one really skewing stories to fit his "Defend Kirk At All Costs" narrative?

*hint...it's you.
 
Rob has been reporting on the success and positive stories of Iowa football for 2 decades... it's ok if he takes a break from that and gives another view in my book. I don't find DJK very reputable and either do a lot of his team mates, but I'm still listening because over 50 other players have complained about some sort of mistreatment during the KF tenure. How can people not be at least sympathetic, curious and wanting to know more about what this program has hid behind a curtain since it got here.
 
InGoodCo said:
How can people not be at least sympathetic, curious and wanting to know more about what this program has hid behind a curtain since it got here.
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If anything I think the DJK thing has hurt more than helped the players' cause. He's such an unreliable and shifty character that it's taken the focus from finding out what's going on to arguing whether he's taking advantage of the situation.

The conspiracy thing and the unsubstantiated "We're gonna get you" threat were over the top and I think if his numerous past flip flops and inconsistencies were put out there at the same time people would have taken it for what it is. That's not a defense of Ferentz by me, it's me saying this whole thing doesn't help the cause of players that I think have legitimate, 100% problems with how they are and have been treated.

Like I mentioned before, we all probably know that both DJK and Ferentz are vindictive when they don't get their way.
 
Fryowa said:
If anything I think the DJK thing has hurt more than helped the players' cause. He's such an unreliable and shifty character that it's taken the focus from finding out what's going on to arguing whether he's taking advantage of the situation.

The conspiracy thing and the unsubstantiated "We're gonna get you" threat were over the top and I think if his numerous past flip flops and inconsistencies were put out there at the same time people would have taken it for what it is. That's not a defense of Ferentz by me, it's me saying this whole thing doesn't help the cause of players that I think have legitimate, 100% problems with how they are and have been treated.

Like I mentioned before, we all probably know that both DJK and Ferentz are vindictive when they don't get their way.
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I think he is unreliable and a shifty character, that still doesn't mean he wasn't mistreated while at Iowa by the staff. Does that make sense? I feel like both statements can be true. I also feel like he's proven over and over that he's not a high character guy....yet, that still doesn't mean I don't believe his story about being forced to wear a trash can, mostly because I've heard several Iowa players tell that story like it was a joke.
 
InGoodCo said:
I think he is unreliable and a shifty character, that still doesn't mean he wasn't mistreated while at Iowa by the staff. Does that make sense? I feel like both statements can be true. I also feel like he's proven over and over that he's not a high character guy....yet, that still doesn't mean I don't believe his story about being forced to wear a trash can, mostly because I've heard several Iowa players tell that story like it was a joke.
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100% makes sense. The way I look at the KF/DJK matter is it was a deal of two 50 lb egos trying to fit in a building that would only hold 99 lbs. DJK has even tweeted before that he didn't think Kirk was racist. They just hated each other and acted like a couple of two year olds on both sides.
 
Fryowa said:
I thought you had checked out on the Hawkeyes?

Aren’t you supposed to be over on your new home team Badger or Husker site?

A guy getting catfished for money by a dude in the Philippines posing as your mail order fiancé (because, to quote your own words, ‘American women are garbage’), probably shouldn’t be giving us speeches and sermons about what’s wrong with America.
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I gotta admit, cruel as you are to this dude, it gets me rolling every damn time. Then again, I haven't had the benefit of a non-American "wife", so maybe the joke's on us!
 
Fryowa said:
100% makes sense. The way I look at the KF/DJK matter is it was a deal of two 50 lb egos trying to fit in a building that would only hold 99 lbs. DJK has even tweeted before that he didn't think Kirk was racist. They just hated each other and acted like a couple of two year olds on both sides.
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See, but I find that more forgivable from a 21 year old misguided young man who had troubles and I find it kind of F'd up behavior from the head coach at Iowa.
 
ModebaSan said:
Rob broke forum rules. Plain and simple. He said this not the place for discussing social issues. He allowed discussion about Covid-19. Well he finally shut that down. But when the allegations came out against Coach Doyle came out, there’s Rob right out there in front, commenting and posting all the tweets about the Iowa program. What happened to the rules Rob? Apparently it’s okay to have your cake and eat it too as long as you are the moderator. I now look at James Daniels as the black equivalent of Lee Harvey Oswald. Are you the guy on the grassy knoll?
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When social issues intersect directly with the program it becomes relevant to the board and what he does for a living... And then again yeah it's his board he can open it up and shut it down at his discression. Kinda like how KF and Doyle can treat kids differently within the program based on race allegedly..,,,
 
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