Getty ImagesHow does that old chestnut go? ”If you’re in a hole, stop digging” or something along those lines?
If that’s the case, somebody needs to take the shovel out of Stanley Williams‘ hands post-haste.
Sunday night, the 2014 recruit and Georgia verbal commitment “confirmed” to a 247Sports.com website that he had taken an on-campus visit to Notre Dame over the weekend. The site, BlueandGold.com, subsequently learned that Williams had not, in fact, visited the Irish. When contacted about his spinning of a tall tale, the running back “apologized for his deceit” — the BlueandGold‘s words — and blamed outside pressures for his lying about the visit.
“I felt a lot of pressure to say I had went on the visit,” Williams said. “At the time I was supposed to go, but couldn’t go because of some things that I had going on.”
Hey, everybody makes mistakes and “stretches the truth” on occasion. And, if Williams had simply left it there with an apology the story, like so many others, would’ve died a slow death and waned from the public conscience. So, of course, Williams did the exact opposite of that.
Speaking to ESPN.com, Williams intimated that BlueandGold.com made up the quotes attributed to him in their article, labeling them as “incorrect” and saying “I never told anyone I was going anywhere I wouldn’t be.”
“Well, I can’t really say what they did and what they didn’t [do],” Williams said when asked from where the quotes came.
“It was just a big misunderstanding,” Williams said. “I just don’t want people to think I have a bad reputation of lying or saying where I am going and things like that. But I told them I wasn’t going to be able to make it, because I had a basketball game. When they texted me and asked if I was going, I said I was supposed to go, but some other things came up. We had a game on Saturday, and I wasn’t able to make it.”
A big misunderstanding? When you’re quoted in the original article as saying things like “The visit went great”… and “before I took the visit”… and “after taking the visit there,” it’s easy to see how those types of words could be misconstrued. It’s also easy to see why someone would apologize for false remarks that they later claimed they never actually made.
Williams was also quoted in the piece that created the original stir that “I’m definitely open to other schools right now. … I want everyone to know that I’m open and interested.” When he spoke to ESPN.com? “Most definitely I am a Dawg,” said Williams.
Yeah, good luck to all involved.
take the next week off, notre dame football. you don’t need to be in any more news for awhile.
Definitely college material.
scalpemseminoles says:
Jan 22, 2013 11:19 AM
take the next week off, notre dame football. you don’t need to be in any more news for awhile.
————————–
PLEASE!!! I am so sick of hearing about ND Football…
The kid did what every sports analyst does. Make up a story. There is no accountability in the US media, especially the sports media. They lie! Simple! So they teach kids to lie! Simple! ESPN is home to a bunch of unethical imbeciles. It is what it is.
Hey — if he can make false statements, so we can we:
Stanley — You are a really, great player with great morals and standards.
Stanley — You would be an asset to any program, including ND
Stanley — You are a winner!
What a complete load of BS, and he knows it.
Did he take lessons from Manti Te’o? Is this a class at Notre Dame?
who gives a shit!
Let us review:
Roman Catholic priests “made up” the stories about teaching altar boys Communion when they were actually molesting them.
The Roman Catholic Church “made up” the news release that these priests were disciplined when actually more often than not, they were just transferred to a far away parish.
Notre Dame claimed they had a sexual abuse policy but that was “made up” when it was examined so they modified it twice under scrutiny after co-eds at the university were assaulted by football players.
The National News media “made up” Notre Dame’s rankings over the past decade prior each football season because they wanted them to do well and promoted them into the top 25 when they had no talent and no team.
The BCS followed the news media and “made up” a #1 ranking for Notre Dame when they really did not have a great schedule and this was proven by the butt whipping and anihilation an SEC team, Alabama put on them.
The Heisman committee along with the national sports media “made up” the excellence of Manti when he was not at that caliber of play, proven in his complete failure in the Alabama game.
Manti “made up” his girlfriend and then “made up” all his lies and deception, taking away from the real story of his grandmother passing. What a crud!
Williams “made up” his story about a visit to South Bend…well, Stanley join the crowd!
Many thanks to this “made up” post which was sent to me by the doc and his wife of southernpatriots now in Appalachia helping with the medical outreach there.
Sounds like a recruiting site making up more of their BS stories to get people to purchase a membership. It is no secret how slimy those fledgling reporters are. How do we know that these quotes were not made up by the reporter… Either way poor journalism. Pretty sure this guy needed a story and got caught up and made up a bunch of lies… Funny how there is no audio or video about this?
Yeah I guess I am sick of hearing about ND too but isn’t it crazy how things drastically changed in such a small amount of time? There is probably a lesson somewhere among all of this for those who like to run their mouths before having the right too (bragging rights). Weeks before the National Championship game these comment sections were filled with arrogant ND fans acting like they were the new kings of college football before even earning the crown. Then we fast forward about a month after the 42 to 14 beatdown, and the ‘death of a girl that never was’ Te’o scandal, and now about all you will get out of them is a thumbs down which I am probably about to get my fair share of (lol). Sucks that all the classy ND fans (which were seemingly hard to find) had to put up with all the backlash that the “bad apples” of the ND bunch had created from running their mouths and being just downright mean before all this transpired. Those “bad apples” definitely had it coming though. It’s like my mother always said, “you made your bed, now you have to lay in it”, or “you reap what you sow”, etc etc etc, you get the picture…I have said my peace and will now leave it alone until the next bigot rear’s his or her ugly head with a insult here and an insult there, here an insult, there an insult, everywhere an insult, Ole McBigot had a BIG mouth, e i e i oooooo…
Lassester, I think what your mom said was that you often had rambling, incoherent thoughts. Nothing has changed for ND: an undefeated regular season, with a promising future ahead.
Mr Alligator Snapper;
Wow. Some of the responses to this is just asinine. Blame the school for this Good God. How in the world can you guys Turn this story of a kid, into ND’s fault is beyond Me. The name of this website should be changed to Conspiracy Football Talk. What does the Church have to do with this. You Guys have demented minds…..
4 words,I think its funny.
What is it with Notre Dame and liars-It started with Theisman changing the pronunciation of his name. NCAA should slap sanctions on ND based solely on stupidity.
ND law school dean, G. Robert Blakey, was in charge of lying to Americans about the JFK Assassination in the 1970′s House Select Commitee on Assassinations. This was the follow up whitewash after the Warren Commission when people stopped believing those lies.
He should have been enlisted to help ND and Te’o cover up their lies…
Well, see, what had happened was…
An 18 year old lied? STOP THE PRESSES AND SAY IT AIN’T SO!!!
AlligatorSnapper:
Who taught you logic? What does the heinous crimes of Catholic priests at Catholic Churches have to do with Notre Dame or their football team? Do you generalize about races of people the way you do about a religious denomination?
So Manti & his fellow members of the defense had a horrible game and now he’s an overrated, over hyped player? I’m sure you said the same think after Tyrann Mathieu got exposed in last year’s 3-TD blow out loss to Bama in the NC game? No, I know SEC fans too well. If they have a bad game, it’s cause they didn’t want to be there but if another team has a bad game they’re overrated. Sorry, but the SEC is now Bama & everybody else…& they’ll prove it again next year.
This ain’t the 1940s, 1960s or even 1980s, so to suggest the media is bias FOR ND is a joke. They weren’t even preseason ranked. I do agree that the media jumped on the bandwagon for the sake of the NC which was televised by who…..ESPN. I’m sure you’re aware that the SEC, not ND, has a TV contract w/ said station.
While I was hoping for a competitive game, I’m not shocked by the outcome. Bama is loaded with talent three-deep. ND only had a handful of players who would see the field for this Bama team. While a fan should never root for his/her team to lose, looking back; the best thing that could’ve happened was that they lost at least one game putting them in a BCS bowl w/ a more comparable opponent. Ask any rational ND fan & they’ll admit that the Irish were about a year ahead of schedule….this was not expected and admittedly was a season where the turnover margin & some lucky breaks led to an undefeated regular season.
While the schedule looked daunting on paper preseason, it’s fair to say that MSU, SC & Michigan underperformed. However, every team ND plays is an FBS school that is either Independent or belongs to a BCS conference. No FCS schools. Look at our schedule & play it every year and try to convince yourself your team would run the table. OU, Michigan, Michigan St, USC are perennial powers that have more NCs won among them than most of the SEC (excluding Bama). Just be rational dude. Don’t talk about what you lack knowledge in. Set your emotion & hatred aside and venture outside your bubble that is the SEC.
Some of you are retards. This has nothing to do with ND football. The subject is an idiot recruit lying. I would much rather talk about how dumb Florida State football players are. I believe 27 players busted for cheating on a music exam a few years ago. Discuss….
All I heard before the big game was how Te’o and his boys had a SEC type defense. Guess they forgot to mention they were talking about Auburn’s.
I used to wash my kids mouths out with soap for lying. Maybe his Momma should too!
No. He was there on a visit. I saw him there…. His tour guide was Te’o's girl friend….
What the heck is this world coming to?
The kid played a joke about a fake Notre Dame visit to riff on Manti’s fake girlfriend. It was funny, although probably in bad taste, but he should just own it and move on. All this “I was misquoted” makes him look like an idiot.
This kid is obviously prime head coach material. Can’t wait until 15 years or so to see what school he will deny any interest in the night before the press conference announcing his hire.
I am starting to wonder if Notre Dame really exists… I mean my dad says he graduated from there, but a lot of people are saying a lot of things about Notre Dame and apparently none of it’s true. Maybe Notre Dame is like Santa Clause and it’s just something grown ups tell kids about to make them act more behaved or play better football.
alligatorsnapper says:
Jan 22, 2013 12:25 PM
Let us review:
(snip for brevity)
Many thanks to this “made up” post which was sent to me by the doc and his wife of southernpatriots now in Appalachia helping with the medical outreach there.
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Actually out there doing something for the less fortunate. Imagine that. Too busy to bloviate on a football blog.
It’s the culture ND is symbolic of. This Te’o mess is eye candy but the suicide of a real woman and the subsequent mess isn’t.
What is ND going to do about it?
Stay tuned.
@mikes1160
You’re absolutely right nothing has changed. Notre Dame fans still LOVE to run their BIG mouths. SCOREBOARD!!! Love it…..
This Manti Te’o situation has gotten way out of hand. I don’t like Notre Dame football anymore than any other Notre Dame fan, but people writing diatribes comparing this situation to the Catholic Church scandal of pedophile priests ought to be ashamed of themselves. This doesn’t have anything to do with the Catholic Church or Catholics. In fact, Manti Te’o is Mormon. Religious bigotry is not attractive in any form and trying to compare this situation to pedophilia, then tar all Catholics with it is grotesque. I don’t care what else people do with their time. If they have time to write stuff like that, they have too much time on their hands.
Sorry, that was supposed to be “I don’t like Notre Dame football anymore than any other non Notre Dame fan.”
With all due respect, Deb, this Te’o controversy falls right in line with what the RCC does when it faces tough questions. I think ND welcomes the Te’o tumult as it deflects attention away from an apparent sexual assault and subsequent suicide involving ND student(s).
You can look at what is going on with the revelations what the bishop of the Los Angeles diocese considered doing to make things easier on self-admitted diocesan priests.
It fits a pattern and the pattern isn’t particularly flattering to the RCC.
Deb I agree with comet on this one.
@cometkazie …
I’m an evangelical and spent yesterday (in another venue) reading diatribes about how stupid we are as a group. As you know from reading my posts about Southerners, generalizations bother me. I can’t complain about people generalizing evangelicals if I’m not willing to take the same stand for Catholics. The rank and file isn’t responsible for the behavior of the hierarchy–whether you’re talking about corruption in government or institutional corruption in the Catholic Church.
I see in Notre Dame’s handling of the Te’o situation, the same kind of circling-the-wagons behavior (although on a much lesser scale that we saw in Penn State’s efforts to wipe the Sandusky stuff under the carpet.
In reading the transcript of Te’o's original interview with Schaap, he mentioned that Brian Kelly is the one who took the tragic girlfriend story public. And when he reported the potential hoax to Kelly, the coach’s response was that she was dead, that’s how they were going to play it, period.
I can actually see an inexperienced Mormon kid getting caught up in a spiritually based online relationship, having the coach make a Big Media Deal out of it, then feeling he has to keep talking like it’s real because the coach says so. In that way, yes, Notre Dame has put protecting the brand ahead of doing the right thing–just as the Catholic hierarchy and the Penn State administration did. But I don’t think that behavior is unique to Catholics or to Notre Dame. And I think we should be careful about drawing thos parallels.
Deb, very much as usual, we are on the same page.
My criticism is of the hierarchy, not the rank and file, and I dare say your last paragraph sums it up as well as it’s going to be said and it makes sense.
BTW, I saw a bumper sticker “Roll Tide” right here in Danville yesterday. I woulda yelled “Geaux Tigers” if I coulda caught up with him.
Thanks for your insight.
Thanks, cometkazie. The generalizations I was reading yesterday about people who share my beliefs put the issue on my front burner.
Somehow saying “Go Tigers” doesn’t deliver the same flourish as seeing “Geaux Tigers” in print
One of my Vermont friends, who actually is from Villa Ricca, Ga., originally, wanted to pronounce it “Joe.”
He got to Vermont by marrying a very nice Vermont girl who was also a good childhood friend of mine.
Hey, if they can have fake girlfriends there, why not fake recruiting visits too?