GRANT TOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Relatives of Rich Rodriguez have been harassed and threatened in the three weeks since his resignation as West Virginia University football coach, his mother says.
Arleen Rodriguez says her teenage grandson received a death threat and found other harassing notes taped to his locker at East Fairmont High School, while her 12-year-old granddaughter had to be escorted to classes.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/f...mily_N.htm

I know many UC fans, including myself, were upset with Dantonio leaving last year, but I don't think anyone threatened his family.

That's just wrong.

Regardless of how anyone feels about RichWad, threatening one's family is way out of line.

Allow me to be the first to call BS to all of this. One of my family members is a teacher and has one of the Rod children in school in Morgantown. His wife and kids are not going to Ann Arbor till summer. So obviously the threats of violence from crazy mountain men (sarcasm) is not so great to get his own kids out of harms way

I do have sympathy for Arleen Rodriguez, but I doubt her children where the only ones verbally harassed by other children in all of the United States during the past three weeks.

Of course Rich has taken the opportunity to call WVU fans "stupid" and "ingorant" to every TV camera that will listen, so I guess this must be true as well. Pay no mind that Rich said they were the greatest fans in the world when they filled up the Gator bowl and sold out every game for a couple yrs running

Quote:"I don't think he felt wanted at WVU anymore," his mother said

I don't even know how to respond to that...I'm speechless...Its almost sounds like she thinks it was WVU who was having secret meetings with other coaches and lying about it to the media/fans...Or perhapss our AD was calling recruits to tell them Rich was going to be fired before they told Rod himself...

Its amazing how quickly the Rod/WVU football family relationship has disentagrated....not just between Rod and the administration and Rod and the fans...but between Rod and his former players as well....

I think one day he will regret the way he left...



Jackson

Jackson is exactly right.

Morons abound - in fans and elsewhere.

Excellent post Jackson. Well said.

Well Rod seems to be taking a whole lot of his staff with him to Michigan. I think that's kind of cheep. Yea, I understand he needs to be around his peeps but they got a good thing going in WVU. Seems Rod is now a Michigan man heart and soul, how much love does he deserve from WVU?
Hopefullly there's enough left at WVU to make another run at the title.
Who has the better season next year Mich. or WVU. Michigan may have the coach but he's teaching a new system. WVU has the players who know the system but they lost some coaches. Pat White is still pat White and Devine is still devine and Auburn is still early on the schedule.
If Rod doesn't hit the ground running the Mich. faithful will turn on him faster than an ungreatful dog. He has no roots in Michigan and they have really, really, lofty expectations over there.

Jackson1011 Wrote:Allow me to be the first to call BS to all of this.

So the story can't be true?

Come on Jack...EVERY team has nuts for fans...heck, WVU fans vandalized your own FG (Pat McAfee) car after he missed 2 FG's in the loss to Pitt.

Dozens and dozens of UF fans "threatened" a Gainesville Tow Truck Operator after the UF Defensive Captain was caught busting in his place the week of the LSU Game. (Fortunate, as usual, Gainesville DA made sure the case was dismissed BEFORE the LSU Game...and how UF sent the Tow Truck Operator some VERY NICE SEATS to upcoming games.

that's insane. I could see throwing a rock at wannstedt's bus, but this all bad.

i have to wonder how some of these psychos from west virginia would react to something that was actually important and devastating to their lives. losing a head coach sucks, and sometimes the circumstances can make it worse. i'm not denying that. however, has anyone ever gone through a divorce or a major break-up?? has anyone been laid off or lost their job?? has anyone had a loved-one killed?? been evicted?? etc, etc.

bad things that are actually important happen to people every day. if rich rod leaving to take another job will generate a response that extreme, how the hell would these people deal with real adversity?? if they're this mad about this then i'm surprised their aren't dead bodies all over the state.

West Virginians know how to deal with "real adversity," I promise you that.

wvucrazed Wrote:West Virginians know how to deal with "real adversity," I promise you that.

i know that. it's just the adversity that's not so serious that i think they take too seriously. that's really the only point i was trying to make.

KnightLight Wrote:

Jackson1011 Wrote:Allow me to be the first to call BS to all of this.

So the story can't be true?

Come on Jack...EVERY team has nuts for fans...heck, WVU fans vandalized your own FG (Pat McAfee) car after he missed 2 FG's in the loss to Pitt.

-- Not saying the stories are not true...just exaggerated....Again...this has nothing to do with Rod's immediate family in morgantown but his extended family in WV...and from what I can gather in the article it is basically other children are being mean to the Rod children in school....Wow, that's front page news (sarcasm)

-- What really is going on here is: A) Media is sterotyping people from West Virginia...which has basically been going on for a century plus now....B) Rod camp is going into attack mod to make WVU look as bad as possible and to make recruiting as difficult as possible

Jackson

xubrew Wrote:i have to wonder how some of these psychos from west virginia would react to something that was actually important and devastating to their lives. losing a head coach sucks, and sometimes the circumstances can make it worse. i'm not denying that. however, has anyone ever gone through a divorce or a major break-up?? has anyone been laid off or lost their job?? has anyone had a loved-one killed?? been evicted?? etc, etc.

bad things that are actually important happen to people every day. if rich rod leaving to take another job will generate a response that extreme, how the hell would these people deal with real adversity?? if they're this mad about this then i'm surprised their aren't dead bodies all over the state.

^^ Sterotype alert***

This is exactly what I am talking about....This is basically what many in the media and around the country think about WV...Those "psychos" from the mountains who react with emotion without giving thought or reason to their actions. Why aren't there dead bodies all over the state?? (sarcasm).

Truth be told, WV has one of the lowest crime rates in the nation and Morgantown has been rated on of the top small cities to live in around the country

I am not saying WVU doesn't has its share of, shall we say, ultra dedicated fans. However, those fans are no different then the ones at Bama, OSU or UF etc. What is different is how the media sterotypes WV in general in comparison to people from Ohio or Fla

And the Rod camp is taking full advantage of that right now. I'm telling you boys, the gloves came off when WVU filed that law suit
Jackson

Jackson1011 Wrote:

xubrew Wrote:i have to wonder how some of these psychos from west virginia would react to something that was actually important and devastating to their lives. losing a head coach sucks, and sometimes the circumstances can make it worse. i'm not denying that. however, has anyone ever gone through a divorce or a major break-up?? has anyone been laid off or lost their job?? has anyone had a loved-one killed?? been evicted?? etc, etc.

bad things that are actually important happen to people every day. if rich rod leaving to take another job will generate a response that extreme, how the hell would these people deal with real adversity?? if they're this mad about this then i'm surprised their aren't dead bodies all over the state.

^^ Sterotype alert***

This is exactly what I am talking about....This is basically what many in the media and around the country think about WV...Those "psychos" from the mountains who react with emotion without giving thought or reason to their actions. Why aren't there dead bodies all over the state?? (sarcasm).

Truth be told, WV has one of the lowest crime rates in the nation and Morgantown has been rated on of the top small cities to live in around the country

I am not saying WVU doesn't has its share of, shall we say, ultra dedicated fans. However, those fans are no different then the ones at Bama, OSU or UF etc. What is different is how the media sterotypes WV in general in comparison to people from Ohio or Fla

And the Rod camp is taking full advantage of that right now. I'm telling you boys, the gloves came off when WVU filed that law suit
Jackson

you mentioned stereotypes, and i agree. the thing that i didn't make clear was (and i should have) that i'm basically talking about the same stereotypes. 'psycho' is a term that i direct toward certain behaviors, not certain people that happen to live in a close geographic proximity. it's just that in this case those behaviors were (allegdly) coming out of west virginia. people threatened to kill him because he decided he wanted a different job. that's psychotic. it is. it really really is. that's not a west virginia thing. that's just a crazy thing. it makes one wonder what i wondered, and that's why someone would be so bent out of shape over something that really means nothing.

i wish i would have expressed it better, or at least explained it better. it's not west virginia that has me scratching my head. it's psychos. these particular psychos happen to be from west virginia. that's all. at the very least i would hope that you would understand why i, along with mostly everyone else, thinks that's crazy.

Quote:However, those fans are no different then the ones at Bama, OSU or UF etc

that, i completely agree with. that's the problem.

I can only imagine this is a national story because it was dredged up by RR legal "minds". You start with kids harassing kids and then expand it into to make it look like a statewide problem.

Who knows, this could mostly be kids. Putting notes on fences and destroying mailboxes are things troubled youth have been doing for years. Facebook also mostly a kid thing. I'm not trying to downplay these events because some of these people need help but there needs to be some context here.

The internet attacks are pathetic but a sign of the times. It is so easy to sit behind a keyboard and anonymously spout hate. It is well past time to forget about RR though.

LaRue777 Wrote:I can only imagine this is a national story because it was dredged up by RR legal "minds". You start with kids harassing kids and then expand it into to make it look like a statewide problem.

Who knows, this could mostly be kids. Putting notes on fences and destroying mailboxes are things troubled youth have been doing for years. Facebook also mostly a kid thing. I'm not trying to downplay these events because some of these people need help but there needs to be some context here.

The internet attacks are pathetic but a sign of the times. It is so easy to sit behind a keyboard and anonymously spout hate. It is well past time to forget about RR though.

I agree with everything you said.

Does this really surprise you? What did they do to the kicker after the Pitt game?

Morgantown, where no couch is safe!

Jackson, thanks for the counterpoint. Regardless the level of harrassment, RR's kids still don't deserve it on account of their father's actions. However, to your point, I agree that in a case of minor ridiculing, this shouldn't be in a fishwrap.

I am inclined to believe that some harrassment might be thrown at RR's family and relatives. The last thing the family wants is attention.