GOL refuses to talk to the only major paper in Mouse Town...

[SANJAY]

Wait.  GOL, a man who admitted stating things about himself which were not true, would sue someone else because they stated stuff about him which was not true?  That would be hilarious.  ;D

Sorry, could not resist.

[___ Eats It]

There may be a lawsuit in the works.  If you listened to O'Leary during the media day when he told the Sentinel off, he said he was advised not to speak to them.  That probably means something is brewing.  If I see a defamation or libel suit against the Slantinel from UCF or GOL, I'll expect you to eat some crow.

I believe O'Leary's personal attorney advised him not to talk to the Orlando Sentinel (not UCF's attorney).  After all, UCF's Football Media Relations representative was trying to GET him to talk to the paper during the CUSA meetings, but he refused.  His personal attorney has probably advised O'Leary to stop talking to the Sentinel because he's said enough to incriminate himself personally, or at least imply liability.  Why would UCF's media crew try and get O'Leary to contradict UCF's own legal advice?  Doesn't add up... much like none of this adds up, if you ask me.

In the end, Plancher's family is getting paid out of this, regardless of whether O'Leary talks or doesn't talk.  UCF will pony up to make it all go away, and damages are limited by state law to $200K.  At this point, O'Leary knows that if he keeps his mouth shut, he'll avoid getting sued for more personally.

You'll forgive those of us who doubt O'Leary's motives on this little crusade of his, given his penchant for tall tales in the past.

[SANJAY]

Sovereign immunity limits damages to 200K, but the state legislature could pass a claims bill once a judgment is obtained to fund a larger judgment.  However, I don't know whether the acts of a football coach are sovereign immune since at least some of most state coaches salaries are from the universities and the rest from booster clubs.

[South_FLbulls398]

don't drag us down to your level we didn't have 4 players go up to the newspaper and tell them our coach, who is a known liar, was full of sh!t. the orlando sentinel was more than generous with their coverage during your cusa run, talk of fabricating a story sounds like fans desperate to shift blame away from their program. face it ucf has bungled this whole mess since the beginning o'leary not talking to the only media outlet that remotely cares about ucf solves absolutely nothing and invites a whole batch of new negative publicity, and it's only going to get worse once the victim's family rightfully files a lawsuit. ucf fans who think every thing is fine and well are in complete denial.

This took more effort to read than it should have.  I should not have to mentally edit posts for punctuation purposes.

The OS last year used UCF's success as a way to try and build up their name.  With newspapers becoming a tough industry to excel in, the OS needs all the press it could get.  Last year, UCF was a feel good story with Kevin Smith.  The OS put them in the position of being the home paper for this historical player.  To keep that image, they hammed up the program.  The media world would have shunned the OS if they were negatively bashing Smith when even ESPN was trying to join the Smith wagon.

It's no secret that sports editor Lynn Hoppes is not a fan of UCF.  When Plancher died, all eyes were on UCF again and the OS used it as an opportunity to be the little emo kid saying, "Look at me!  Look at me!"  To do so, they dug up more controversy than there really was.  They painted O'Leary as a murderer and that UCF was hiding something for malicious reasons.  Both turned out to be false:  O'Leary is no killer and UCF was legally obligated due to HIPPA laws to keep any possible connection to the death confidential until after autopsy reports were released.  The UCF top brass, who were not present at the practice, fumbled a little at first with some incorrect information, but admitted to it and set the record straight.  The rest was the OS trying to continue a story that was able to bring them to the center of attention.

okay, so where is your proof that the orlando sentinel has been out to get ucf? sounds like a whole lot of wishful thinking and conjecture from a bitter ucf fan. and i'm sorry "historical players" don't get drafted in the third round so quit trying to make him out to be tony dorsett. if the orlando sentinel really wanted to insult ucf they would've put a link to the youtube video where kevin smith was as high as a kite. a player died and your school was caught for having initial inaccuracies in their story causing o'leary to start backtracking. now it comes out that ucf knew he had sickle cell trait, yet despite having guidelines designed to protect players that have the condition, the medical staff did not stop plancher from practicing (and the coaching staff acted unsympathetically) while the player was exhibiting obvious warning signs detailed by your own players. unfortunately intervention may have saved his life and somewhere in the chain of command something broke down, i don't blame the orlando sentinel for trying to investigate it considering a kid's life was at stake and it has nothing to do with a personal vendetta against the school.

I better go tell guys like Terrell Davis and Jerry Rice that "historical" players don't get drafted in lower rounds.  Tom Brady?  Obviously a scrub.

There is a difference between "investigating" and sensationalizing.  What on Earth does an article on how GOL didn't like Steven Moffett have anything to do with Plancher?  The writer added EP at the very end to try and tie the stories together.  Or how about the OS article with EP's father, who didn't play a role in the funeral, claiming that the funeral was over 35k and UCF hadn't paid a cent?  Turned out the funeral cost less than half of that and UCF covered once receipts were received and reconciled.

Where is the proof?  There are at least 3 years worth of good articles out there outlining the proof.  As for links, go look them up in the OS archives.  I don't need to do your dirty work.

those 2 stories are hardly what i would call proof and i'm sure there are 10 times as many ucf fluff pieces in those 3 years than negative ones. face it there's no tangible evidence that the sentinel did anything intentionally underhanded and ucf fans are just shifting blame. o'leary pouting to the media, without giving specific reasons for why he is pouting, is also not doing your school any favors. and frankly i'd be pissed if i was a ucf fan there are certainly much better ways to deal with this situation all this does is make your program and coach look bad, and it's not like o'leary had a stellar repuation to begin with.

If you are so sure, prove it.  I lived in Orlando for 6 years.  There isn't nearly as much fluff stories as you think.

Why would UCF shift blame unless blame was put somewhere to begin with?  The OS pointed fingers at O'Leary before they even had a clue as to why EP died.  The OS turned out to be wrong in their assumptions and nothing intentional went down.

There may be a lawsuit in the works.  If you listened to O'Leary during the media day when he told the Sentinel off, he said he was advised not to speak to them.  That probably means something is brewing.  If I see a defamation or libel suit against the Slantinel from UCF or GOL, I'll expect you to eat some crow.

big deal i've lived in orlando as well and i follow ucf since we all play you, you get the same amount of fluff pieces that we get from the trib/st pete. all teams get negative articles once in a while and newspapers aren't supposed to be cheerleaders for the school.

and you are shifting blame, o'leary is the one that said the drills were non-taxing causing 4 of his own players to vehemently go to the papers, o'leary is the one who supposedly cursed out plancher as he was gasping for breath, and ucf's med staff was the one that didn't intervene when plancher was exhibiting obvious symptoms. no one is accusing ucf for doing anything deliberately, but you have to question the program's conflicting statements and whether ucf was negligent in providing plancher the best care possible knowing his medical history and current guidelines. if you can win a defamation suit i'll gladly eat crow, i fail to see a case but good luck anyways. your program will probably need the money for the impending lawsuit. personally i'd be pissed if i was you, it just means less media coverage during football season for a program that already has bare bones media coverage as it is. ucf and o'leary could have settled whatever beef they had with the sentinel in private not sure what good will come out of this for ucf by starting a very public feud with the sentinel.

[DawgPound]

UCF never wanted a feud.  They wanted this to go through its course and be on its way.  It is O'Leary vs the Sentinel at this point and UCF is collateral damage.  I never liked the Sentinel, but I know full well NO ONE will come out the winner.  There is much more than we all know about this story.  Give it time and it will come to the surface.

As for the conflicting stories, Keith Tribble already admitted to talking to the media too soon and as a result, did not have all the facts, so he relayed inaccurate information.  As for O'Leary, I honestly don't know what went on during that practice.  I do believe in being innocent until proven guilty, which is why I'm supporting GOL at this time.  Right now, the OS is looking for a fight.  Could they be on to something?  Maybe, but right now, it doesn't look like that.  If the OS does prove to be correct, I'll admit being incorrect and side with justice.

[___ Eats It]

I figured this would be a great place to start archiving the National disdain that O'Leary's personal boycott of the Orlando Sentinel is spawning.  I'll start...

http://dennis-dodd.blogs.sportsline.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6270202/9452417

O'Leary and the high horse he rode in on.

Posted on: July 21, 2008 9:31 am

Wow, does George O'Leary have a set.

As you'll see below the Central Florida coach is refusing to speak to the Orlando Sentinel for what he says are errors in its coverage of Ereck Plancher's death. By the way, O'Leary, in Mike Gundyesque fashion, has refused to name those "errors."

Of course, if there is anyone who knows about misinformation it should be O'Leary. Let's not the forget that the only reason he's at UCF is because of that little scandal at Notre Dame. O'Leary had years to own up to his little white lies and didn't. The Sentinel is begging him to tell it what it did wrong. Instead, O'Leary is pouting and acting like Harry High School. The coach has dragged this issue into the gutter by refusing to speak to Sentinel reporters at Conference USA media days. If they sit at a roundtable with other reporters, the interviews are over.

Classy, George. Punish everyone for the perceived slights of one.

Where is AD Keith Tribble to tell O'Leary to cut this crap out right now now?

Where is Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky to privately tell O'Leary to cooperate during one of the conference's signature events?

So now we're down to a pissing match. O'Leary has alienated the hometown newspaper. This might be different if the Sentinel had an agenda or had actually gotten stuff wrong, but the paper has professionally covered this story from the start.

UCF staffers are the ones that look bad. They have mismanaged the information to the public from the start. Coaches have a bad track record of trying to control the media. They look oafish and amateurish. They are out of their element.

The media, UCF and O'Leary won't have to wait much longer. This is small stuff compared to when the Plancher eventually files its lawsuit against everyone who even drove by the UCF campus the day their son died.

[___ Eats It]

http://www.salisburypost.com/Sports/0732-tom

Tom Jones - St. Petersburg Times

"So now University of Central Florida football coach George O'Leary is not even speaking if any reporter from the Orlando Sentinel is within earshot because he's upset with the paper's coverage over a UCF player's death last spring. Maybe the Sentinel should start its own policy and stop covering UCF football. If O'Leary doesn't want to talk, the Sentinel, the only paper that regularly covers the Knights, should ignore him and his program."

[___ Eats It]

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20080721/SPORTS/147782837/1055

Summit Daily News - Colorado

"According to details unearthed by the Orlando Sentinel, which interviewed players who witnessed Plancher’s death, coaches cursed at Plancher for falling down during sprints, shortly before he collapsed. Doubt George O’Leary  who, in a juvenile move, still won’t let his team talk to the Sentinel  is sleeping well these days. …"

[Triple B]

Actually, here would be better place to continue the  GOL/Media Steel Cage Match...

[___ Eats It]

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/colleges/state/story/608952.html

Miami Herald

COLD SHOULDER

UCF coach George O'Leary refused to take any questions from the Orlando Sentinel during his media session, still smarting from a story written in the days after wide receiver Ereck Plancher's death.

The standoff stems from an April 11 story in which four UCF players were quoted as saying Plancher's final conditioning workout was far more strenuous than officials first stated.

Plancher collapsed during the March 18 workout and died at a nearby hospital. An autopsy report released Thursday said he had sickle cell trait, a preexisting condition that can hamper the cells' ability to carry oxygen.