Unverified Voracity Wishes For No More Lawyers

Cover. Hey... I know that guy.

Curse-fretters fret not, as Hart is one of five tailbacks marked for death on regionalized preview coveres. He only picked up a 20% dose.

Seriously? Can we go like a week without something stupid happening? This time it's FnDC:

Two University of Michigan football players are accused of attacking a man at Touchdown Cafe in Ann Arbor last March, causing injuries so severe the victim required facial surgery.

Quintin Patilla, 19, was bound over on a misdemeanor aggravated assault charge at the conclusion of his preliminary hearing in Washtenaw County District Court on Wednesday, said Ann Arbor Police Detective Amy Ellinger.

His teammate, Robert Thornbladh, 20, faces a felony charge of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm, along with misdemeanor assault charges. He is scheduled to appear in court for a pre-trial hearing later this month.

Thornbladh is a walkon and highly likely to be a former walkon; also we now know why Patilla was off the roster at the start of fall camp. A felony charge was filed against Patilla and dismissed for a lack of evidence; there's apparently a videotape of the incident which Thornbladh's lawyer hopes will exonerate him of the felony charge.

Carlos Brown: less broken. Brown's coach posts as "Dawgs824" on Rivals from time to time. This is his take on his former player's injury:

Just talked to his mom...

Reply

---

She said they bolted the bone back in place (between the index finger and wrist) and it shouldn't take long to heal. He will only miss the rest of this week in practice. He will practice next week. They think he should be ready game one. As I'm sure you know, those small bones in the hand heal up pretty quick. Any other position would be fine, but he has been getting a lot of work in the return game so hopefully it will heal up quick.

I doubt they risk anything against Appalachian State, but he should be ready to go for Oregon/ND/etc. This does mean that someone else is probably going to start the year as the returner.

Buckeyes more broken? Buckeye Commentary returns from a near-death experience to report on a slew of injuries both minor and undefined:

We are a solid two weeks into fall practice and the injury bug is starting to surface. By now, you all probably know about Ray Small twisting his ankle. On top of that Curtis Terry was carted off the field the other day (HT: BuckeyePlanet), the day after The Dispatch ran a nice piece declaring him injury-free. Jinx! Elsewhere, so many folks are talking about injuries to OL Kyle Mitchum and Jon Skinner that I'm not even going to find links. I believe it to be true. Even the franchise, Beanie Wells, came down with a stinger during a recent Hoot 'n Holler drill.

Unlikely any of these last until November. BC also accuses Mike Hart of being "good but overrated" in response to a campaign by moi that attempts to label James Laurinaitis the same. Points:

• Hart is not widely acclaimed the best player at his position in the country, nor did he pick up a shiny award for being the best linebacker in all the land when he wasn't even the second best linebacker in the conference.
• Hart's 4.9 YPC was depressed by Michigan's extreme run bias last year.

This is my boomstick. Basketball on the Big Ten Network:

If you want to see 61 percent of the Big Ten’s men’s basketball conference games, you’re going to need the Big Ten Network to do it.

According to the schedule released Tuesday by the Big Ten office, 64 of the league’s 99 conference games will be on the Big Ten Network.

Also contractually obligated to be televised: all home nonconference games not picked up by other networks. Illinois will have half its games on the BTN; Indiana 10-13 plus nonconference; Purdue similar; Michigan State similar. Buy into your local Torch & Pitchfork Co. now before the winter stock spike.

Oh, man, don't say that. Michigan's #5 in ESPN's opening Power 16. The analysis is probably not interesting to anyone dedicated enough to read this blog, but this quote is awesome:

"[Hart] put his life and his career in my hands," Long says. "It's an honor to know that he has that much confidence in me."

                                     BRANDT
                      Here's the money, and the phone.
                      Please, Dude, follow whatever
                      instructions they give.

                                  DUDE
                      Uh-huh.

                                  BRANDT
                      Her life is in your hands.

                                  DUDE
                      Oh, man, don't say that..

                                  BRANDT
                      Mr. Lebowski asked me to repeat that:
                      Her life is in your hands.

                                  DUDE
                      Shit.

                                  BRANDT
                      Her life is in your hands, Dude.  

I hate the Detroit News' web designer. So Eric Lacey has a blog and posts interesting things on it. Like this about a potential walkon who is looking at a MAC offer or two or an opportunity in Ann Arbor:

Person apparently wowed Beilein at the coach's team camp in Ann Arbor and thinks very highly of the program's new leader

"I knew about coach Beilein for a while and liked what I was hearing," Person said. "Then I just fell in love with him even more at the team camp."

If Person comes to UM, he says he would most likely come on an academic scholarship and then work his way toward getting a regular basketball scholarship.

What makes this situation interesting - if he decides to go to the school - is that he could get up 75 percent of his college tuition payed for at a state public institution through the Kalamazoo Promise plan that's received plenty of media attention within the past year or so.

There's more, but I can't link to it because the Detroit News' "Big Ten" blog has no permalinks. Nor does it have an RSS feed, so the only time I stop by is when someone links to it on a message board. It's incredible that a major metro newspaper can't install Wordpress on their site -- a change that would take a web developer approximately a day -- and has to make due with HTML better suited for "I Love the 90s, Netscape Mosaic Edition". Grumble grumble. Anyway, Lacey also mentions another young black man used up and discarded by the Michigan football program in a post on this coming "All-American Football League"":

Horn told me Tuesday that [Carl] Tabb is currently in medical school.

The horror.

Incidentally, The AAFL has signed a deal to have a team at Ford Field; Lacey's blog notes that Tabb and Tai Streets(!) are potential players for the team.

Etc.: Rocky Top Talk has an interesting post on the differences between the 4-3 and the 3-4.