Well we all knew this was coming. The NCAA is going to meet later this week to examine the mountain of allegations against the most scandalous athletic program in college athletics. So to set the stage the Trogan PR machine called on its Southern California PR platform, aka the LA Times to serve up a puff piece of Mike Garrett, the sleazeball athletic director under fire. To get the job, the LA Times sent in David Wharton, whose track record includes writing a glowing piece dubbing Karl Dorrell as the "Thinker" from Westwood and a pulitzer piece on the appearance of Layla Kiffin (doing investigative google searches on her "long blond hair and bright smile'").
Wharton asks you to grab a tissue for Mikey at the get go:
The frown that Mike Garrett often wears in public, an expression made of blunt features set hard as stone, gives way to something unexpected. His eyes glisten with tears.
"I frankly don't know why I'm being so emotional," he says.
Feeling sick yet? It get's funnier. Poor poor Mikey. This piece is all set up like a goodbye column, as Wharton tries really hard to absolve this clown of any responsibility for the pile of scandals accumulated under his watch (emphasis added throughout):
Using McKay as a model, he surrounded himself with talent and gave staff freedom to meet his tough demands.
"Some people don't work in that kind of environment," says Daryl Gross, a former assistant who became the athletic director at Syracuse. "But if you're creative and you don't have to ask him for a lot of structure, you will flourish."
You guys get that? In other words don't blame Mikey for not exercising any kind of control over Chetey Petey and Timmeh Floyd who were given green light to get "creative" with their (allegedly) renegade programs. Oh that's not all the funny in this garbage piece from the Trogan Times. We got more after the jump.
David Wharton actually had the audacity to write this:Any athletic director is somewhat removed from his teams' daily operations, and the NCAA places ultimate responsibility on university presidents.
Uh really? An athletic director is not responsible for what is happening with his freaking athletic program. Could the Times expose itself as a bigger joke with lines like that? Oh yeah, it gets even better:
As for coaches, Garrett says he looks for intensity, leadership and vision. He remains hands-off, so long as they win.
A similar relationship has formed between him and his boss. Asked about Garrett's managerial style, Sample says, "To be honest with you, I see him more in terms of results."
In other words as long as the Trogans keep winning, it is all green light all the time over at South Central. Can it get any more clear and direct about how these guys operate? They are not even hiding it and they are celebrating it through the LA Times without worrying about the optics about how their program looks completely out of control in the sake of winning football games.
Oh the Trogans also made it clear that to them it is all about the money:
"Just unbelievable," the president says. "That's the thing we look at with all of our deans, people who have total responsibility for what is called a revenue center."
Who cares about the concept of student athletics right? And it ultimately is just about football:
"If you're a Trojan," says Buss, an alumnus, "you really like it when football wins."
Right. Who cares when you (allegedly) lie, (allegedly) cheat? As long as you "win" your football games that's the only thing matters for Southern Cal.
Guess none of this should be surprising to anyone over here. The Trogans will always cheat (allegedly) and it's media lap dogs in Los Angeles will always do everything in it's power to serve up the puff pieces not just making excuses for their (alleged) corruption but celebrate it, while giving a collective middle finger to the concept of "amateur" student athletics in the world of major revenue college sports. Simply disgusting.
GO BRUINS.