Is Mike Rothstein a Moron?

Is Mike Rothstein of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette a total moron? Or is he just an anti-Notre Dame buffoon? Until recently I generally dismissed Mike as a harmless lightweight who could occasionally turn up a useful nugget of information since he is able to attend portions of Notre Dame football practices as well as press conferences. Even a blind squirrel will sometimes find a nut.

But I'm fed up with his act now. Lately he has taken to "blogging" about Charlie Weis' connection/involvement in the New England Patriots "spygate" scandal. The thing is, there is no Charlie Weis connection or involvement with that story. Mike is just making things up and publishing his random, baseless, speculations on the Journal Gazette's website - in a tone that hints of a hope that evidence implicating Coach Weis will turn up at some point in the future.

Today, Mike breathlessly (and carelessly) posted to his Irish Insights blog a piece headlined "Did ND (and others) Commit NCAA Violations?" The post was premised on a Yahoo story that described a common (and commonly known) practice of college coaches speaking at high school fundraisers. The premise of the Yahoo story was that this is (in the authors' view) an unwise practice and that the NCAA rules in this area are confusing or need clarification. Coach Weis was featured in the story, but numerous coaches from other school are mentioned. Also mentioned are Coaches Davie and Willingham when they were head coaches at Notre Dame. The story addresses both sides of the issue in some detail, and explains the 1991 NCAA ruling that the schools rely on in approving the practice. It's a sensationalist piece generally, but the Yahoo story is at least thorough and balanced. But Mike loves a good headline - "Did ND Commit NCAA Violations?"

About an hour after his original post, Mike posted to "Irish Insights" an "update." The "update" points out that the entire speaking event which was the subject of the possible ND violations had been reviewed and cleared not only by the Notre Dame compliance staff beforehand, but by the compliance staff of the Big East conference. Mike's clarification?

Notre Dame clearly believes they followed the rules and, to use a Charlie Weis term, did their due diligence in making sure Weis and the school were compliant. So if this shows anything, it displays that the NCAA needs to be more clear about this rule, since there seems to be confusion about it at multiple institutions.

In other words, despite what Yahoo or Mike Rothstein thinks, it's pretty clear that no violation occurred at all, and that if one did occur, it wasn't because Charlie Weis is a loose cannon careening around on the deck of the S.S. Notre Dame without regard for NCAA rules. The institution that is most confused here is the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. And of course, Mike's "update" isn't headlined "Notre Dame Cleared of NCAA Violation Charge." Rather, it is very boringly tagged "Update on ND/Yahoo! Story." Not quite as eye-catching.

Here is the comment I wrote to Mike to let him know what I think about his sloppy posting:

Mike,

Maybe you ought to do some research into this "due diligence" concept, and learn to do a little of it before plastering stories on the internet about Notre Dame NCAA violations that never happened.

It's not fair to headline a story about "ND NCAA Violations" and then retract it an hour later while grumbling about how confusing the rules are. There's no doubt the NCAA rules are a confusing mess - which is why you need to do some homework and make your phone calls before you write the story.

I hope others will let Mike, or his bosses, know how we feel about the deteriorating quality of the product at the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.