I heard about the Bryce McNeal MySpace yesterday during the day, and was like “ok, whatever. Recruits’ Myspace pages are not ‘news’.” Then, last night, I received a tip from a reader that McNeal was indeed going to commit today. I told him thanks and I’d wait until it hit something a little more mainstream (while figuring that the teaser I posted was vague enough that it could refer to anyone).
This morning when I woke up, I had several e-mails telling me that MGoBlog was reporting that McNeal was a commit. With no front page news on either pay site, I was skeptical, but decided it was worth running. I changed the article to be entirely speculative about everything other than McNeal’s telling of Facebook/MySpace friends (which did, in fact, happen), and run the story.
When the story turned out to not be true, instead of removing a post (and the associated comments), I decided to give an update that the information within it had been discredited by sources with much more inside information than I have (Tom Beaver of GoBlueWolverine). I figured this would be in the best interest of the kid, and I would sacrifice not giving premium information (which the non-commitment ironically classified at the time) for the sake of the athletes in question. I’d rather be a jerk for a couple days than a jerk who potentially ruined a kid’s chance at going to the school he wants.
For anyone who is mad that I misled them, or about anything else, I apologize, and will continue doing my best to maintain the journalistic integrity of Varsity Blue.
Posted under Recruiting
Tags: apologies, bryce mcneal, Football, Recruiting
No biggie…no one got hurt and you put a caveat in your original post.
I am just waiting for that POS coward anonymous poster who claims you steal from others by backing up his claim. So far, the coward who tries to pick up lil boys from his computer is proving to be the liar that he is by not proving his point (because he CAN’T).
I always enjoy your site. Thank you for all that you do.
You do NOT need to apologize. There’s nothing wrong with saying that someone told you something, if they did in fact tell you. You never claimed that you knew for a fact that McNeal committed. As long as what you said was true to the best of your knowledge, you have no reason to apologize.
I thought you said Bryce McNeal committed?
The original post (which you can find in the archives) said that he was expected to commit. It never ended up coming to fruition.