OT: Big East Twitter Unites
- Thread starter hbkmyr
- Start date
Divine Providence was a good watch but I honestly couldn't believe they used the Big East name and logo as their handle. Heck, when I saw the name "Big East Films," I assumed it was an official Big East product until I actually started watching it.
Still weird that Goodman is so, so mad, though.
Still weird that Goodman is so, so mad, though.
Yeah but without them there’s not much content. It’s more content than “news”.
Nobody was touching the Cooley rumors.
Just skimmed through the doc, it's actually really good. Shout out to Fanta for being such a big part of it.
Who knows but he’s been very sensitive to this Cooley story prob bc the relationship w him.
Fanta's participation is clearly one of the reasons behind all the drama. From that tweet thread referenced above:
Some people are of the opinion that I tricked a certain interviewee into doing this or that i was dishonest about the doc during production when in reality they had final cut over their lines and *did* cut 7/8 lines from the film. Which is fine. They had every right to.
But it sucked when i started hearing rumors that this same interviewee was telling people that he didn’t know what the doc would look like when it aired when in reality they had seen the entire thing and said it was outstanding.
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There's really no reason for Fanta to dissociate himself from the doc. Of course we all heard about the rumors of Cooley's philandering, but there really still isn't anything to substantiate them presented here. One fan calling Cooley a "scumbag," explaining how the rumor mill works in Rhode Island and that when he heard about Jared Grasso using drugs and it turned out to be true, so that's proof does not hold up. It's not journalism. It very well might be true, but this was cut in such a way so as to have the whole point of Cooley betraying Providence hinge on it and the proof isn't there.
Still, I say that there isn't any real reason for Fanta to dissociate himself from this because in none of his clips does he say this was the reason, not even obliquely, so he's got nothing to apologize for as a journalist.
The shame of it is that overall, the doc really built a very effective narrative around Cooley's story of growing up in Providence and how that job was an ideal for him and how the city embraced him and loved him. It even did a nice job hinting at some components of his personality that might have led him to have an affair (or more than one), with the one guy talking about how he "needed to be loved," and a few other instances. It's perfectly fair, I think, with all the rumors out there, to paint the picture of a man who has a another side to his personality that the public didn't see, a dishonest or disingenuous side, and leave the rest to the imagination. That is, if your editorial stance is that the affairs were real and Cooley's wife really did give him an ultimatum to leave or he was in a world of mess. It was just too overt with an element that is just too unprovable. (And that I don't doubt very much, either.) The standard of proof is higher for a good documentary than it is for gossip at the game or a message board.
Great watch. Really captures the Providence fans opinions that I know.
Is this a good thing for Fanta though? He's gaining a lot of traction in his career and doing great things. Will the BE have a problem with him going forward if the likes of Cooley a BE coach don't ever want to talk to him again? He didn't say anything bad at all and I love his takes, but was this a risk to his rising career vs the powers that be (Cooley/Goodman etc.)?
Hope not I love the kid.
Is this a good thing for Fanta though? He's gaining a lot of traction in his career and doing great things. Will the BE have a problem with him going forward if the likes of Cooley a BE coach don't ever want to talk to him again? He didn't say anything bad at all and I love his takes, but was this a risk to his rising career vs the powers that be (Cooley/Goodman etc.)?
Hope not I love the kid.
Not sure what anyone is upset about. I thought that was well done.
This guy (who turned out to be a DePaul fan) created a YouTube and Twitter account called Big East Films, where he vowed to make one feature length documentary about every Big East school. He used the Big East logo as his profile picture.
The first doc he made was about Providence, and told the story of Ed Cooley's tenure and departure. It got very much into the details of the rumors of Cooley cheating on his wife as a reason for leaving.
The people interviewed in the doc were mostly just normal fans of Providence (and a Georgetown blogger), plus John Fanta. John didn't say anything wrong in the doc, but it likely raised eyebrows from his bosses that he participated at all.
The Twitter account got shut down by the Big East for copyright reasons. Then the account holder released screenshots of Jeff Goodman of all people sending him messages calling him a bad person for making this documentary, and telling him he was going to jail, asking if he looks good in orange, etc. Just really getting all up in this guy's grill. And now everyone is clowning on Jeff for being so ridiculous
Don't forget that Goodman also threatened to track the guy down in the off-season when he has more time. That was by far the weirdest piece of it. Goodman has been fired off of the Field of 68 internet broadcast.
The problems with the video were 1) an authorized use of the Big East name and wordmark and 2) they spent a ton of time talking about Cooley's supposed affair, which no one had firsthand knowledge of.
Personally, I thought it was pretty good for a "fan made" documentary. The fact that it led to Goodman shooting himself in the foot was just a bonus.
I am disappointed that the guy who made the "documentary", a DePaul fan, is not going to be making more of them. Supposedly the original plan was to make one for each big east team. I think they would've been a lot of fun.
I don’t think so but they’ll probably leverage him. Fanta is in content creation. He goes on fan podcasts, media podcasts. He’s getting FO68 hits. What did he do wrong? He said nothing controversial. He gave the piece legitimacy by being involved, so what? “Student athletes” are constantly scrutinized on innuendo or gossip, but when it’s a coach who comes off as a real BSer and has his words used against him everyone clutches their pearls?
The bigger question is why is Goodman so sensitive to this topic? Like who cares? Why threaten the creator? He’s doing it to defend the honor of Fanta?
To me this whole saga boils down to 2 things.
1. PC fans insecurities about losing a coach within the conference, rooted in decades of being considered one of the “little brothers” of the Big East although Gavitt founded it.
2. Georgetown fans being so desperate to have something to brag about after years of irrelevance that they’re unwilling to entertain the idea that Cooley may have had some ulterior motives other than Georgetown being his “dream job.”
Thought the documentary did a pretty good job of capturing that.
It’s compelling bc you have one of these coaches dead to rights with trying to leave a job during a season. Plus in the backdrop of starting 20-7, 12-4 with a top-20 ranking. A season after winning their first BE RS title and making the Sweet 16.
Talk about crash and burn, whew. For his legacy and that season. They lost 5/6 after all this was coming out.
All of this amounts to pretty strong circumstantial evidence that there was something else afoot that motivated Cooley to pick up and leave.
Was he two faced? Seems like it. Did he quit on his team? Seems like it. Was he trying to hide something? Seems like it.
We’ll never have an answer to what really went on behind closed doors, but for an amateur produced documentary it made a very compelling case for why Cooley was hiding something.
Goodman was kicked off of Field of 68? I would love that if true, but haven't seen that anywhere.
Oh wow that's awful. Big condolences to Fanta. This might also explain why Jeff Goodman was so protective of John this week, huh?
