The lawsuit against EA Sports over using player likeness just got a huge boost this week. The lawyer representing Arizona State’s Head Coach Todd Graham has announced that Graham will be joining the lawsuit along many former players. The reason this is a boost is because Graham will be the first coach to join the lawsuit. How a coach’s “likeness” comes into play is something that could be heavily debated.
There’s no jersey number nor physical statistics such as height, weight, etc. for Head Coach’s. The AD sets their objectives before the season begins that have to be met. If you’re looking for a new job, there’s a set of objectives that program has for you when taking the job. Just because you’re interested in a program, doesn’t mean they’ll hire you either.
Todd Graham was not available for comment due t0 summer practices being held, but his lawyer released this statement:
“Todd started playing NCAA Football when he was selected as head coach of the Pitt Panthers. After his season ended, he enjoyed the Coaching Carousel feature so much that he was able to accept other opportunities to better himself. No guilt, no text messaging his players. It’s like no-strings sex without having a woman signed paper to keep her mouth shut. Unfortunately, Todd’s coaching career has hit a ceiling as some programs he’d like to coach will not hire him. Todd feels that this is because of his so-called reputation in real life, and maybe EA is trying to exploit it.”
That reputation is that Todd likes to changes jobs…and change them a lot. It seems playing the EA Sports game, he kept moving around from program to program.
EA Sports has declined comment on the matter.
Please destroy and refrain
from using all pictures with the
“Likeness” of Fraud and the Pitt logo!!!!!!!
Thank you.
The heights of Todd’s narcissism knows no boundries!!!!
What’s the latest on the TT soap opera ?
Did PC physically survive the meeting with Mama T ?
Or was he “bumped” to a pulp ?
And when will Pitt start answering the phone when 4 star recruits call ?
These and more questions will be answered …
in the next rendition of…..
As the World (of Oakland) turns.
He must have stopped eating Penni’s famous Elk cutlets.
The clock is ticking faster and faster as we approach the beginning of the season and Thomas needs to settle up or say sayonara.
This seems to be a “mommy” issue and that is not
a good thing given past history.
And her Moose pate as well.
Is Smiley keeping abreast of all these schools really doing high tech upgrades to their facilities?
Or should I ask ?
Some cool things about Arizona’s new Lowell-Stevens Football Facility: underwater treadmills, ventilated seats in the locker room and interactive touch screens that tell the history of the Wildcats program. … (and what history would that be, lol) (always an also ran in the PAC 12)
That’s U of A’s big rival….ASU !
But it would be funny if they did !
Chryst has said, publicly and many times, that he wants players who want to be at PITT. Chryst takes a hard line with this and doesn’t consider the depth chart when doing so.
Thomas as shown by his actions does not fall into that category.
So my question is “why” hasn’t Chryst explained the status of Thomas’ request for reinstatement after his almost immediate change of heart and their subsequent meeting together? I think that it puts Chryst in a negative light when this lack of information is the status quo, because it permits speculation and all forms of misinformation to take root and propagate. Most of which, considering a large proportion of Pitt fans tend to be negative, reflect poorly on the Coach when such speculation is permitted to swirl around the situation.
Meanwhile, the Press who should be some what “investigative” have avoided the subject themselves as if it was the plague. It’s their responsibility to at least pose this same question to Chrst at this point in time. This is just horrible PR for the program when business is conducted via a “lack of information” like this.
Your feelings on this, please?
I laughed with you said, “the Press who should be some what “investigative”.
You are talking about Pittsburgh media and more specifically Pitt media. EJ controls the message and the local media.
All the media has the cell phone number of Todd Thomas, his mother, and other players. Real easy to do an investigative report if they chose to on just about any subject.
But they never do.
Of course, Thomas who has been publicly poisitive throughout, expressed an immediate desire to return … which PC can either accomodate or reject.
I believe, as Panther94 notede above, that Thomas may beback at practice today after a few days suspension; otherwise, we will likely not see him again in a Pitt uni.
He DOES NOT CARE what people think!
Despite what grades you may be giving Chryst at this point for his coaching, his recruiting, his coaching hires, his management of players… and oh yes… the way he mundanely responds to reporters’questions… he is above everything else a tobacco-chewin’, small-town Wisconsin quy who is much more character than ego.
Appropriate that we should be reminded of the past with the picture above.
More than anyone could be, Chryst is the ANTI-GRAHAM.
Who would you rather have?
The answer should be easy… and the picture above enough to remind everyone how bad it can really be.
Move forward with the players that want to be there and want to work hard. Why would the coach dwell on a player that is putting himself before the team?
Thomas quit on his team and himself. I can understand why coach Chryst is weighing his options. On one hand, maybe Thomas deserves a second chance. On the other, what message is Chryst sending to his team. It maybe better to move on and go with the players who did not quit and want to play for Pitt — win or lose.
The season is closing in on us. It’s time to focus on the people who are practicing for Florida State and beyond. Thomas can focus on his studies and look for his life’s work. With two ACL injuries, NFL scouts will not look favorable on his NFL potential.
Hail to Pitt!
Got me too!
He is running a major college football program that has as one of it’s biggest issues a lack of attendence at games and a marginal fan base.
Can he and the program afford to do such a poor job with PR, continuing to ignore these facts, without negatively affecting the program going forward?
Bill Belichek (sp?) is another one who is tight-lipped about his team. But he wins. When this crop of redshirt freshman O-linemen are seniors, we are positively going to destroy some defenses. I’m holding judgement on everything until then.
I realize that the entire story was fabricated after not seeing any other news story about it.
i also searched sports news outlets for more!!
kudos to Panther Rants.
I’ve deleted most of today’s posts
Just so people know, I’m now blocking any mentions of Joe D. or any comments by Joe D. that aren’t productive or monotonous. I’ve already blocked at least 50% of those kinds of comments but now it’s going to be 90%. That may mean a lot less posts here but to be honest I don’t care because I stand all of this Joe D. talk every day.
——————–
Now I don’t propose that Chas do the same for PittDan83 … but it may serve as a warning.
You can diagree with another poster, and you can disagree with pretty much the opinion of almost everyone on the site (I have done so a handful of times), but you don’t have to be so megative just for the sake of being hateful
Dokish devoted an entire post to removing JoeD.
However, I won’t be surprised when Pitt.Dan83 shows up on Panther’s Prey.
Enter Paul Chryst. The program has a leader in Chryst who is the exact opposite of Graham. We’re in year two and I’m not quite sure what we have yet. I’m not sure anyone knows. We may have the next Pop Warner and we may have the next Paul Hackett.
It’s year two and players are still leaving. Good ones. It could be a cleansing, but it could be something worse. At this point, it’s impossible to tell. His tactics may be driving out some of the best players while ridding the program of some bad character. I’m not so sure that’s what happened with Todd Thomas, but Chryst’s version of winning may come at a cost. It may also come much later than anticipated. Pitt is entering a new, more difficult conference with a lot of questions and flaws. I am not making excuses for Chryst. He could easily cater to his stars and allow the players to rule the roost.
However, I will offer one suggestion for Pitt fans. Let it all play out. This program has been through just about everything. No program in the country has seen the instability that Pitt has over the past few years, not even Penn State. So, before year two begins, let’s remember that not everything is black and white. Our expectations as fans should not change. Pitt should win the games it’s supposed to win. But remember that not everything is decided in a year or two. It may take four, five, six, or even seven. As fans, we want to see progress. The results, good or bad, will come.
Hell, we’ve tried everything else, maybe now is the time for a little patience.
