Foley's Friday Mailbag for 4/29/16
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
Foley's opening segment about the Hastert fallout -- and being an intern for Hastert on Capitol Hill -- is exceptionally well done and very worth reading.
And then he had to regress to his mean by saying Jody Strittmatter "influenced" Lee and Teasdale to Iowa, with lots of supposition and qualification but no evidence whatsoever. Unsurprising, tigers don't change their stripes.
And then he had to regress to his mean by saying Jody Strittmatter "influenced" Lee and Teasdale to Iowa, with lots of supposition and qualification but no evidence whatsoever. Unsurprising, tigers don't change their stripes.
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Reading the paragraph as a whole I think influenced is the wrong word.
"kids just grew up knowing about their coach's Iowa roots, hearing stories and maybe envisioning themselves in the singlet."
Strittmatter telling about his past is not necessarily influencing kids to go anywhere. I mean if Cael talked about his past to recruits would they head to Iowa State?
Foley's bio says he went to Virginia but omits his MSU graduate degree.
No, not Sparty -- Making Sh** Up.
Yeah, that was a weird assertion. It'd be speculation on my part, but one factor that could conceivably have played in Lee's mind was being the unquestioned top recruit at Iowa vs being one of a handful of top recruits at PSU. But starting right away seems like a pretty safe assumption, no matter where he went.
" unquestioned top recruit versus a handful of top recruits" I thought about that also. I am still thinking that Teasdale might change his mind and come to PSU, especially since Iowa has so many good recruits at those lower weights.
Agree. One thing I always wondered about Hastert is how does a former high school teacher and public servant come up with $3.5MM in hush money? I suspect he engaged in a lot of "Chicago handshakes" while he was in office to go along with his despicable acts of child abuse.
Lee vs Suriano would be a great match. With Gilman and Clark gone before Lee arrives nobody there could beat Lee.
Wouldn't rule that out, though legal means are probably the biggest sources.
He had a massive pension from his teaching career. Illinois public pensions are notoriously over-generous.
Most likely he had an Illinois state legislator pension. Illinois pensions ... see above.
Then he was a congressman for 20 yrs. They're paid really well, plus pensions based upon final salary -- as if he made his Speaker of the House approx $200k/yr salary in each of his 20 yrs in office.
Then he became a DC lobbyist. I'd be shocked if he made below $300k/year -- and that's likely a serious underestimate. Probably more like $500k/yr as a former Speaker of the House.
Plus whatever he made while in DC, giving speeches on the rubber chicken circuit. If President Clinton can get $75-100k per speech, can Speaker Hastert get $5-10k per speech? Not at the Rotary Club in rural Illinois, but in DC and NYC and the like.
Suddenly that $3.5M hush money doesn't sound so imposing.
I don't think it is unreasonable to speculate that an Iowa graduate may have, consciously or sub-consciously, some effect on his wrestlers decisions. Now, was Foley implying or are we inferring, that is the question.
Back when I worked at a Trade Association in the 90s, an ex-Speaker could easily pull down 15-25k per canned speech. We had to scramble every spring for our main conference rounding those dillholes up. The Speaking Tour vendors provided menus of a sort with CVs and fees.
This is from memories of DC lobbying work which are buried deep in my subconscious for the most part (what an amoral hellhole DC is), but I'm probably underestimating what fees were.
Foley left himself an out in it but it was pretty clear. Like a poster said on my board, how often do you get a kid who no shit gives a top ten list in his announcement, specifically said his coach didn't steer him, plus the coach has many other guys in various D1 programs to include PSU? Foley just chose to ignore anything Lee said. Outstanding douchebaggery.
El-Jefe laid out of some Hastert's income sources. It was the lobbying where he really scored big as noted in his wiki bio.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Hastert#Post-congressional_career
In May 2008, six months after resigning from Congress, the Washington, D.C.-based law firm and lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro announced that Hastert was joining the firm as a senior adviser.[120] Hastert waited until the legally required "cooling-off period" had passed in order to actually become a registered lobbyist.[120] Over the next several years, Hastert earned millions of dollars lobbying his former congressional colleagues on a range of issues, mostly involving congressional appropriations.[121]
Just my opinion, but reading details about how he cashed in as a lobbyist after being a prominent Congressman is almost as disturbing as his abuse of young wrestlers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Hastert#Post-congressional_career
In May 2008, six months after resigning from Congress, the Washington, D.C.-based law firm and lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro announced that Hastert was joining the firm as a senior adviser.[120] Hastert waited until the legally required "cooling-off period" had passed in order to actually become a registered lobbyist.[120] Over the next several years, Hastert earned millions of dollars lobbying his former congressional colleagues on a range of issues, mostly involving congressional appropriations.[121]
Just my opinion, but reading details about how he cashed in as a lobbyist after being a prominent Congressman is almost as disturbing as his abuse of young wrestlers.
Lobbying is where these guys all score big after they leave...and that's just your avg Congressman. Think about the perks of being a former speaker, retired 4-Star etc.
Look at the Clinton Foundation...one of the greatest pay for play schemes going. The press is like <yawn>, "But it's a charity."
Look at the Clinton Foundation...one of the greatest pay for play schemes going. The press is like <yawn>, "But it's a charity."
I too left myself a lawyerly out with the words "speculate" and "sub-consciously". I would agree with you Az that he would not steer anyone purposefully, but the sub-conscious is a powerful thing. Well, mine is at least!!
Nico committed to PSU as a HS JR, 5 years before Brands got his first Young Guns commit.
Not to mention all of the other Young Guns at PSU, plus those at various other schools -- Ohio State, Cornell, Stanford, VT, Virginia, Pitt, etc., all before Kemerer committed. Plus Sparky getting 2 the same time Brands got his first one.
If Strittmatter is subliminally recruiting for Iowa, he is among the all-time worst subliminal messengers in history.
Let's put it like this. Do you think it's a total coincidence that their Young Guns coach is an Iowa alum. and that they, as the top recruits in PA, ended up at Iowa rather than PSU?
Very OLD and TIRED argument. Why did all of those other Young Gun wrestlers end up at Penn State? It's easy to make your argument if you only pay attention to the results that back up your position and IGNORE all of the other results.
The YG program attracts top recruits and Iowa is a top program, there's naturally going to be some overlap. In order to resolve the conspiratorial view you're implying--that Strittmatter is acting somehow unethically as an Iowa recruiter--you have to at least begin to show that YG members are choosing Iowa over other schools at a highly disproportionate rate, and no one has shown that that's the case. As lightweights, both Lee and Teasdale had good enough reasons to choose Iowa over PSU even without an evidence-free, borderline defamatory scenario of Strittmatter tipping the scales toward Iowa.
Let's not forget that Lee's former teammate, Kemmerer is already at Iowa. That's a logical connection and pull. As I recall, it looked like we chose to go after Cenzo over Kemmerer. It's not unusual that one teammate follows another teammate. Yes, Nico also went to FR, but that there's a 6-year difference in age.
A lot of well though out intelligent statements on BWI about this. I am an Iowa homer, of course, but glad to see logic take hold on this issue on both boards. No one that does so much for youth wrestling should be defamed like this for any reason without some evidence. Strittmatters name should never have come out of Foley Ass Bag. Stritt is a great role model and his story alone should be held out as an example of what can be accomplished through hard work and determination.
Attack Brands or Cael or Iowa or PSU, but we should all be supporting great youth programs and our youth wrestlers. To hear Stritt talk about Nolf coming back to work with the kids or manning the corner for YG students is amazing This is an NCAA finalist taking a full class load at a pretty tough University traveling the state to support his former team. Something right is going on in that program and it goes way beyond match results.
Just my 2 cents, but if Spencer says "hey Jody, I am down to Iowa and Penn State, what do you think? I would expect Jody to give him an honest answer. If the answer is "hey spence, iowa was great for me. Iowa has Terry Brands who I think would be great for you. The school has strong Big10 academics, and your honey is going there. Granted you can't go wrong at Penn State with Cael, Cody plus Nico will be there for a while, but if you are asking well I loved my time in Iowa."
Whatever Jody Strittmatter said to Spencer, as long as it was an honest and heartfelt answer that is all, in my opinion, that is required.
To answer your question without getting into the snit.
There are several factors to consider.
First. Young Gun's wrestlers are having success at the college level. They are well trained and arriving on campuses ready to go. People would have to be fools to believe some of the very elite YG wrestlers were not going to eventually be successfully recruited by PSU's chief rivals.
Second - Jody is a former (and quite successful) Iowa Hawkeye wrestler. The possibility and thoughts of actually wrestling for Iowa have been brought closer to home for PA kids.
Finally - We have seen highly successful PA kids choose to go to both OSUs, Iowa, Virginia, Cornell and others. That is always going to be true. With the success of YG wrestlers and the lineage of the of the program we see more kids than previously choose to be Hawks. Because of the success of these kids we will also see more choose to be Cowboys, Buckeyes, Cavaliers, Hokies, Wolfpackers, Tar Heels, Wolverines or Big Redders. Ain't no big deal.
I hope Jody continues to put out Nicos, Jasons, Spencers, Gavin and whatever name. Penn State will continue to get the majority of the ones they want, and as fans we will have to deal with occasionally losing one or two that we wanted and maybe even thought we had that decide it is best for them to go elsewhere.
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