NamelessHusker
Banned
This was originally posted on AOL's football BBS and forwarded over to me by email
On the mess that is Tom Lemming
The story has been going around today that ESPN the Magazine has "outed" former ESPN personality and recruiting guru Tom Lemming as a Notre Dame shill. The excerpt comes from an article on Rivals top 10 player and all-everything cornerback Myron Rolle, a highly regarded player who is also making a name as one of the most well spoken and articulate 5* recruits to ever come down the pike. And it reads as follows:
“Tom Lemming is a huge Notre Dame guy,” Myron says. “He kept saying to me, ‘You know they have a great coaching staff. You know Charlie Weis is Mr. NFL. You’re an academic guy. That place is for you.’ Then he killed Florida State. He said, ‘You’re stupid if you go there.’ Um, okay. Thanks.”
The article is raising eyebrows across the internet, which surprises me, because outing Tom Lemming as a Notre Dame shill is like outing me as a guy who likes cookies. Lorenzo Booker made exactly the same accusation (about Lemming, not me), but he didn't have a 4.0 GPA, and he was going to FSU and enough people were able to write it off as "typical loudmouth Seminole ... probably got pissed 'cause Lemming dropped him in the rankings."
No one is going to doubt Myron Rolle. This is as close as you'll get to finding the smoking gun, the long awaited proof of Tom Lemming's attempts to wield influence.
So where does this leave us?
On one hand, the NCAA has been known to shut down websites that it deems to be active recruiters [ Kentucky precedent ], and several commercial recruiting sites go so far as to delete posts by fans that are directed at recruits (fearing that the NCAA may find them to be "inadmissable contact" violations, as all contact between school and recruit is tightly governed by the NCAA).
If Tom Lemming picks up a phone and calls Myron Rolle to tell Rolle "ND is the place for you" how are his actions any different from that?
Easy: they are different because Lemming is a nationally known name, and that makes it 100x worse. Ignoring Brian Poe, self-style recruiting guru, must be a lot easier than ignoring Tom Lemming. Between the ESPN live chats, the ESPN signing day special and the nationally televised Army All-Star game, Tom Lemming had a lot of carrots he could dangle in front of recruits who chose to follow his advice. And with those carrots came the power to influence. Tom Lemming is not the only unprofessional professional (any subscriber to scout.com or rivals.com can quickly rattle off a short list of suspects), but a recruit risks nothing by ignoring or even angering Brian Poe.
There is something at stake with Tom Lemming. Maybe a couple kids did keep Notre Dame on their list because they didn't want to piss Tom Lemming off while he was still thinking about his All-Star game roster. Maybe a couple kept answering his phone calls and doing his interviews because they were hoping for some ESPN coverage or the live chat he'd mentioned once.
Wherever you draw the line, and however you draw it, there should be a burden of neutrality put on the Tom Lemming's of the world that is obviously not being put on them right now, and major outlets like ESPN should feel that responsibility, too. And where they don't feel the responsibility, the NCAA should feel that it has the authority to step in.
Once a "reporter" crosses that line and advocates one school over another, it should be verbotten for any program to have contact with him. None. No coaching clinics, no interviews with the coaches, no inside contacts, nothing. Let's see how long Tom Lemming lasts if he loses the ability to play both sides of the game.
Link here to Article source
Another Source
On the mess that is Tom Lemming
The story has been going around today that ESPN the Magazine has "outed" former ESPN personality and recruiting guru Tom Lemming as a Notre Dame shill. The excerpt comes from an article on Rivals top 10 player and all-everything cornerback Myron Rolle, a highly regarded player who is also making a name as one of the most well spoken and articulate 5* recruits to ever come down the pike. And it reads as follows:
“Tom Lemming is a huge Notre Dame guy,” Myron says. “He kept saying to me, ‘You know they have a great coaching staff. You know Charlie Weis is Mr. NFL. You’re an academic guy. That place is for you.’ Then he killed Florida State. He said, ‘You’re stupid if you go there.’ Um, okay. Thanks.”
The article is raising eyebrows across the internet, which surprises me, because outing Tom Lemming as a Notre Dame shill is like outing me as a guy who likes cookies. Lorenzo Booker made exactly the same accusation (about Lemming, not me), but he didn't have a 4.0 GPA, and he was going to FSU and enough people were able to write it off as "typical loudmouth Seminole ... probably got pissed 'cause Lemming dropped him in the rankings."
No one is going to doubt Myron Rolle. This is as close as you'll get to finding the smoking gun, the long awaited proof of Tom Lemming's attempts to wield influence.
So where does this leave us?
On one hand, the NCAA has been known to shut down websites that it deems to be active recruiters [ Kentucky precedent ], and several commercial recruiting sites go so far as to delete posts by fans that are directed at recruits (fearing that the NCAA may find them to be "inadmissable contact" violations, as all contact between school and recruit is tightly governed by the NCAA).
If Tom Lemming picks up a phone and calls Myron Rolle to tell Rolle "ND is the place for you" how are his actions any different from that?
Easy: they are different because Lemming is a nationally known name, and that makes it 100x worse. Ignoring Brian Poe, self-style recruiting guru, must be a lot easier than ignoring Tom Lemming. Between the ESPN live chats, the ESPN signing day special and the nationally televised Army All-Star game, Tom Lemming had a lot of carrots he could dangle in front of recruits who chose to follow his advice. And with those carrots came the power to influence. Tom Lemming is not the only unprofessional professional (any subscriber to scout.com or rivals.com can quickly rattle off a short list of suspects), but a recruit risks nothing by ignoring or even angering Brian Poe.
There is something at stake with Tom Lemming. Maybe a couple kids did keep Notre Dame on their list because they didn't want to piss Tom Lemming off while he was still thinking about his All-Star game roster. Maybe a couple kept answering his phone calls and doing his interviews because they were hoping for some ESPN coverage or the live chat he'd mentioned once.
Wherever you draw the line, and however you draw it, there should be a burden of neutrality put on the Tom Lemming's of the world that is obviously not being put on them right now, and major outlets like ESPN should feel that responsibility, too. And where they don't feel the responsibility, the NCAA should feel that it has the authority to step in.
Once a "reporter" crosses that line and advocates one school over another, it should be verbotten for any program to have contact with him. None. No coaching clinics, no interviews with the coaches, no inside contacts, nothing. Let's see how long Tom Lemming lasts if he loses the ability to play both sides of the game.
Link here to Article source
Another Source
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