Comments on: Mizzou QB Berkstresser Arrested

By: jwolfe

jwolfe — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:43:12 +0000

@MIZSEC if you are in Columbia and see any follow up to this in the Tribune, radio broadcasts, or just grapevine substantiated facts, I’d be interested to know If Berk. was the driver?, what the prosecutor decides based on the whole story?, If the responsible party pays for the damages? and of course what Coach Pinkel decides to do about this if Berk. was the driver. I’m sure the result in Columbia will be a fair one considering this past years events on being responsible with a vehicle AND I think anyone who is interested now has a better idea of what kind of mis-conduct is in question here, it’s much harder to jump to unfair conclusions at this point, even if Berk. gets dismissed from the team or convicted of “Leaving the Scene”.

By: MIZSEC

MIZSEC — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:46:35 +0000

@John at MrSEC John..you did fine, you needed to publish that…this Mizzou fan has no complaints.

By: jwolfe

jwolfe — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:08:16 +0000

@JohnVol Read the article. I think you’re off base on some of your frequent contributions. I don’t write in and say you should keep your opinion to yourself. This is a story and comment format. Mostly it’s pointless to go beyond one opinion against another. In this case, it was possible Johns article was unfairly brief. After reading it i’m moving a little toward John’s idea, but I’m still of the opinion that it made the young man look a little worse than he deserved given what is known right now. This could still change either way. He could come out and say he was the driver and he never intended to make good on the damage, even though we know he went back to the scene to see what was done. It could also turn out that he wasn’t even the driver, just someone who left the scene and didn’t know he had an equal responsibility to report it with the driver immediately. It could be anything in between. I want to be fair and update my opinion as I learn more. If you or John get to Columbia MO to see a Missouri v Vol game I’ll buy you a beer (then we’ll drive fast this same narrow street as we head to the bar-b-que house).

By: MIZSEC

MIZSEC — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:05:24 +0000

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Maty-Mauk-106344

By: MIZSEC

MIZSEC — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:04:46 +0000

well…Berk really let the team down on this. With that said, according to any and all people that I have talked to here in Columbia, MO they have said that James Franklin will be back in time for practice in time for the start of next season. We do have this kid coming in for next year http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-Maty-Mauk-106344…he broke the national passing record this year. I was really hoping that we would be able to red shirt him.

By: jwolfe

jwolfe — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:26:08 +0000

@John at MrSEC Thanks, I looked at the link. It looks like the problem for Berk. is going to be somewhere in between the worst possible scenario and the least. The owner of the damaged car said that “He had no doubt that it was an accident” AND “neither of the two people in the car appeared in any way to be intoxicated”. also “that they came back to the scene to see how much damage had been done though neither immediately admitted they were the driver of the vehicle that did the damage”. Berk did tell police later that he was “involved” but did not say he was the driver of the car that did the damage. The article reads like it would at worst, a lowest class felony in Missouri for the driver of the car (which could or might not be Berk.) Who ever was the driver, needs appropriate judgement over the failure to immediately tell the owner who did it. It’s going to come down to this being a pattern of bad behavior or one incident where somebody had to be fingered before he took responsibility for an accident. We still don’t know why they hit the parked car? using a cell phone, dog or child running into the street?, horseplay while driving, neighbor backing out of a driveway, meeting another driver in a narrow passage? No drugs or alcohol were involved. Probably not speeding. Could be “carless and imprudent” . It looks like all the facts are going to come out and the damaged party is going to be paid. I guess only Pinkel is going to know whether this points to Berk. needing to go or grow his character. This is clearly not a smear story so that word was too strong, but it not the typical bad drunk or high driving incident college age drivers sometimes act out.. Forr me, by itself, I wouldn’t have dismissed this player from any of my former college teams and I don’t expect Pinkel to, unless more bad history comes out. Clearly the bigger story needs to be told to be fair to the player….. So I just told some of it.

By: JohnVol

JohnVol — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:39:12 +0000

@John at MrSEC What is jwolfe’s problem? Get that guy out of here.

By: John at MrSEC

John at MrSEC — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:03:44 +0000

@jwolfe
If you read the story we linked to, you know the estimate is $1000 worth of damage to the vehicle. Seems sort of far-fetched to think he’d not have noticed that.

Second, I’m not in Columbia, Missouri. We run a site that tries to keep you up to date on everything happening with 28 SEC football and basketball teams. We also provide opinion and commentary on just about everything going on in the league.

It’s not our “journalistic responsibility or challenge” to drive to Missouri and start asking questions that Columbia-based reporters are no doubt doing.

If you don’t want to see the headlines from around the league… don’t read ‘em.

John

By: jwolfe

jwolfe — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:02:46 +0000

@MoKelly i think that the game plan will change. It will become more or a battle of the lines and the defenses but Missouri will be improved in both of those aspects. Needless to say we all want to see Franklin play and entire year.

By: jwolfe

jwolfe — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:59:33 +0000

@John at MrSEC It’s not a smear story if he knowingly damaged something and didn’t want to report it, and this could be the case. If it’s just not knowing he did some damage or he was trying to find the owner without having the media jump all over him….. it’s a smear story. You tip your attitude by not writing back that you will follow up this story by getting the facts and completing your first story. You write some good pieces, why would you not recognize the journalistic responsibility or challenge?

By: Some Yahoo

Some Yahoo — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:36:16 +0000

Mizzou may be a better fit for the SEC than I thought. Welcome to the club fellas, come on in. Now, yall just start woking on a tiddy failure to monitor and you’ll be bonifide.

By: John at MrSEC

John at MrSEC — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:16:29 +0000

jwolfe…

The current #1 quarterback at an SEC school was arrested and that school’s local newspaper reported on it. That’s big enough news for us to post a blurb, a link and quick opinion on it.

It’s ridiculous to call that a “smear” story.

John

By: MoKelly

MoKelly — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:02:56 +0000

If Franklin isn’t 100% ready for the Georgia game — well, I don’t even want to think about it.

By: jwolfe

jwolfe — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:36:06 +0000

Leaving the scene of the accident could be not realizing you scraped someone’s bumper in a parking lot. So far this is a non-story. If it comes out that he was doing something else (unlikely) then write a story, for heaven’s sake, you can’t write a smear story every time somebody belches and does say excuse me. Let’s wait and see what the facts are here. Number two, Aston Glas. also looked good at qb in the spring practices. Number three, look at the film of Maty Mauk the incoming freshman, he has a lot of throwing skills that even Franklin doesn’t have. 4, Pinkel is more likely to be forgiving and stated so after his own traffic cite last year. If you remember, the last time Pinkel dismissed a quarterback he said he held qbs to a higher standard, BUT the player had been involved in multiple drinking problems situations and after the player transferred he continued to have drinking incidents. Berk has been an Missouri for a while now and hasn’t been a high profile problem in the media I’ve read. Considering how close Glas and Berk are in talent… would Berk be #2 if he was a problem history? Nah

By: GeoffDawg

GeoffDawg — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:42:21 +0000

I think we still have quite a healthy lead on Mizzou on the suspension/dismissal front. Of course, if they don’t have a QB, our lack of a secondary won’t be as glaring.