Extortion? Draw Your Own Conclusions

Simply put, there is another side to this story that has been almost entirely ignored. To many this makes the stories we do see appear to lack objectivity (notice I said APPEAR to lack). This is what the fans are lamenting… that we don’t hear any real speculation about the other possible outcome.

As an example of how basic facts can be read to tell an ENTIRELY different story than we have seen presented:

FACT 1: Lyles has said he expected a second payment this year.

FACT 2: Lyles refused ALL interview requests between March and Mid-June.

FACT 3: Lyles spoke to Gibson for 94 minutes on June 2.

FACT 4: Lyles began meeting with Yahoo in mid June.

FACT 5: Prior to the Yahoo article Lyles had said Oregon did everything right.

So, what changed? Well, it would seem that what changed is Oregon made it very clear to Lyles that his product would not be re-purchased… and then he started telling a different story…. Now, having read Whitlock’s article which said that Lyles has been looking for a way to cash in on this story for a long time, reasonable people might begin asking a simple question: Did Lyles promise Oregon his silence if he got paid for a second year? Did he threaten to “blow them up” in the press if Oregon didn’t pay him?

This is a reasonable question for investigative type reporters to chase down… I know I have talked to a couple of people who work in the Athletic Department and this is something that has been expressed to me as a real possibility… I do not know Gibson and have not talked to him, so I cannot say what actually happened on that 94 minute call… certainly he is not going to talk, but there are people with back-door access that reporters might be able to get to speak anonymously…

Does that speculation mean it IS what happened? No.

Here is another problem… about 3 days ago, we saw that LSU got the same pile of crap information that we got… and their video was garbage as well… Lyles told Robinson that the only reason our information was garbage is because we “rushed” him into getting us “anything” as soon as possible… so, why is LSU’s stuff so crappy? Apparently, this guys written material and video was garbage and everyone now knows it… this fact actually, partially, at least, paints a different picture for Oregon… maybe the really DID just make a horrible business decision (very likely) and that the intentions of the original deal were not as nefarious as people thought. There is no doubt that EVERY recruiting service provides something more than videos and demographic information… they provide a personal touch with each recruit. Regardless of the quality of Lyles’ written materials and videos, he was very close to a LOT of great players… he had value as a recruiting service… it just wasn’t value that translated well to bylaw 13.14… and that angle has not been approached… the people simply want a counterpoint to the points that have been made… and because it appears that the counterpoints are not going to come from other columnists, the fans are taking every opportunity to avail themselves of the ability to write their beliefs in a public blog.