NTY: There's Nothing Humane About It
It didn't take a psychic to predict that given this week's headlines surrounding the recruitment of Rashaan Evans, auburn spin machine Never To Yield Foundation would write a rebuttal. Earlier this morning they published, "Oh The Humanity" defending the auburn fans who have tormented the Evans family since National Signing Day. In case you aren't familiar with this site, it was established, "to promote the positive image of Auburn University, its students, its alumni and its fans". It's secondary mission is, "to help combat the negativity that is directed at Auburn by its detractors, by the media and by anyone else who seeks to do our family harm". Translation for those who don't speak cult: It's a website who's goal is to pump sunshine up auburn fan's asses while attacking anyone who dares to speak ill of anything orange & blue. Though their posts are often extremely long & boring enough to induce you into a coma, curiosity got the best of me today. The following is a summary of NTY's dissertation followed by me debunking the entire diatribe...
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Part I
Never To Yield-- Auburn is awesome. Their football program is a juggernaut. Gus Malzahn is the best thing since sliced bread. The state media hates them. They have a vendetta against auburn because they ruined the much anticipated coronation of Alabama being crowned the best team in the history of the universe.
My Crimson Chaos-- Anyone who suffers through Jox's Opening Drive with auburn homer, Al Del Greco, or reads anything written by Al.com columnist, Kevin Scarbinsky, knows that there is a very loud, very positive auburn voice within the state media. As for ruining Bama's coronation, I think we did that to ourselves. You'd think they beat us in a 59-0 type beatdown rather than a last second score.
Part 2
NTY-- Rashaan Evans was born in auburn to parents who both attended auburn. Evans upset auburn fans on signing day, not because he chose Alabama, but the way he handled his recruitment. This clown show culminated on the final weekend during a birthday party where Bama & auburn coaches were forced into a dance-off. Evans father, Alan, has held a 32 year grudge after being passed over for Bo Jackson when he played at auburn. Alan is also in love with the media spotlight.
MCC-- First, can anyone honestly see coaches from either school actually agreeing to a dance-off? Were people dancing? Most likely. But a dance-off? Of course not.
Rashaan Evans was one of the most highly recruited players in the nation. Why wouldn't he make the most out of it? We treat these kids like rock stars. If anyone is to blame; it's the fans, recruiting sites, & ESPN. We are responsible for this culture so none of us have the right to complain about the monster we created.
As for this grudge, Alan & his wife are both auburn graduates. His wife is on 2 separate boards at auburn university. He made his home & opened his business in auburn. His son showed an affinity for auburn when he was videoed rushing the field after auburn's Iron Bowl victory. Yep. Definitely a big grudge... I'm sure Evans has been planning his revenge 32 years, a full 14 years before Rashaan was born.
Part 3
NTY-- Players should expect backlash because there's always disappointment from the team who didn't come out on top. However, this is not something auburn condones because they're so happy signing players who want to play there. And those who don't? It's their loss, not auburn's. Alan Evans' celebration of his son's decision only further insulted auburn when he took to Facebook posting status updates such as, "RTR, LOL". And when he posted a picture with Saban captioned, "No more sneaking around. Roll Dame Tide", that was clear evidence that they had been dishonest with auburn's coaches regarding Rashaan's decision.
The elder Evans is continuing to involve the media by discussing how horribly they have been treated this past week because he's terrified the media spotlight he adores might disappear. They made a public spectacle of the recruitment & the signing ceremony. Inviting 2 auburn signees to the event was only intended to humiliate them even further.
MCC-- It's naive to think a player so highly recruited won't get some backlash. That was a big concern for Rashaan's parents when making the decision. But nobody could expect what has transpired over the past 7 days. Every fanbase has a lunatic fringe element. Grown men & women have made some pretty irrational choices in the heat of anger when it comes to their team. But there's a HUGE difference between tweeting Cade Foster death threats moments after a last second loss against your rival & what's transpired this week. When someone takes the time to uncover information about a kid's family, to stage a boycott against the family business, & encourages local restaurants not to serve them, that's not a bad decision in the heat of passion. That's calculating & that's psychotic.
Evans' signing day ceremony wasn't unlike any other ceremony of a top recruit. ESPN airs many of them. The Evans tried to eliminate some of the chaos by limiting attendance. And like any kid, I'm sure inviting the 2 auburn signees was nothing more than wanting his friends there to share such a big moment. He's clearly friends with several auburn recruits evidenced by auburn signee, Roc Thomas's tweets defending him earlier this week.
And if bragging about your son's success & meeting famous people on Facebook is disrespectful & just cause to be attacked, I have got some really bad news for about 85% of my Facebook friends.
Part 4
NTY-- By creating the spectacle & then daring to rub auburn's nose in it, the Evans deserve the backlash they've gotten. There is no evidence whatsoever that auburn fans have staged a boycott of the family business. Rashaan is not the first recruit to receive critical comments after the recruiting process. He is, however, the first, "to have his father bawl like a spanked baby and issue public pleas for people to stop being so mean on the Internet".
MCC-- This is my favorite part. NTY believes Evans deserves all the backlash. And immediately goes on to deny there being any evidence of a backlash... Wait. Huh?
The simple fact is that a certain segment of the auburn fanbase have most certainly attacked the Evans family. The proof is documented in these screenshots taken from Rival's auburn message board. Rashaan Evans never committed to auburn. It simply never happened. Just 2 days before signing day, auburnsports.com writer, Justin Hokanson, asked Evans had he made a decision. Evans replied, "Every school is still even. I'm taking these next few days off & talk to my family about things". Evans went on to list 2 important factors in his upcoming decision stating, "which school can best prepare me for the NFL & who can help me grow as a man, who is the best fit for me".
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Maybe auburn should just own up to some of their fans' bad behavior instead of continuing to deflect & scream how other fanbases behave badly, too. Rashaan Evans never lied to them because he never committed to them, verbally or otherwise. And he doesn't owe auburn anything just because he grew up there. However, we all owe Rashaan respect & admiration for all this young man has accomplished.
But that's just me....
Everybody
is still even. I'm taking these next few days off and talk to my family
about things. Really, there isn't a school in the back of my mind
anymore, everybody is even. To be honest, I won't know until the day
before," - See more at:
http://auburn.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1605027&PT=4&PR=2#sthash.FOhMdpX4.dpuf
Everybody
is still even. I'm taking these next few days off and talk to my family
about things. Really, there isn't a school in the back of my mind
anymore, everybody is even. To be honest, I won't know until the day
before," - See more at:
http://auburn.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1605027&PT=4&PR=2#sthash.FOhMdpX4.dpuf
Everybody
is still even. I'm taking these next few days off and talk to my family
about things. Really, there isn't a school in the back of my mind
anymore, everybody is even. To be honest, I won't know until the day
before," - See more at:
http://auburn.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1605027&PT=4&PR=2#sthash.FOhMdpX4.dpuf
Thanks for stopping by, y'all!!! Roll Tide!!! Roll Rashaan!!!
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