At 7:44 a.m. this morning, reporter Sam Alipour tweeted out a first look of his ESPN: The Magazine story about Oregon football’s “pot problem.” Twitter, predictably, exploded when the article hit the web, and what follows is a breakdown of the discourse:
My @ESPNmag story: marijuana & Oregon football. 50% of Ducks smoke weed. But “it’s not just us.” – espn.go.com/college-footba…
— Sam Alipour (@samalipour) April 18, 2012
It didn’t take long for people to start asking Oregon football beat reporter Rob Moseley for his thoughts:
Working on it. RT @DamnitDwight what are your thoughts about the ESPN article posted about the ducks this morning?
— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) April 18, 2012
Not based on my reading of policy. RT @ketchamsteve Does that article give Chip enough probable cause to start testing?
— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) April 18, 2012
@MiasmaWind Not when you have 19 sources all saying about the same thing. That’s a well-sourced assertion.
— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) April 18, 2012
Soon, the national media picked up on the story …
Interesting ESPN Mag article: Current, former Oregon players estimate 40-60 percent of the team uses marijuana: es.pn/IKGJ9s
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) April 18, 2012
To answer many of you, no, not shocked Oregon players smoke weed. Surprised how candidly they talked about it/did it in article.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) April 18, 2012
… though even SI writers aren’t above making a few clever cracks:
I’ll say this: If that Oregon pot use number is remotely accurate, it makes their hurry-up offense that much more amazing.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) April 18, 2012
Meanwhile, the predictable fan criticism of the article began to come in droves:
@stilloldduck 19 current or former Ducks all providing the same anecdotes isn’t scientific, but it’s sound from a journalism standpoint.
— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) April 18, 2012
@uoduxguy Main ESPN story focused on many schools. Only sidebar singled out Oregon.
— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) April 18, 2012
@jordanschmid3 But one issue is that Oregon football team, specifically, is violating Oregon team policy, specifically …
— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) April 18, 2012
@DuckFootball it’s a societal shift that is occurring, and ESPN is trying to pretend this is still the 1960’s.
— Drew (@Duckinthedesert) April 18, 2012
The Ducks themselves had a day off from practice, so they had plenty of time to read and provide their thoughts. From offensive lineman Ramsen Golpashin:
@ArashMarkazi @samalipour So let’s take an issue prevalent across College Football, interview a bunch of Ducks, and make it an Oregon issue.
— Ramsen Golpashin (@RGolpashin70) April 18, 2012
@samalipour u interview a bunch of high people, turn their ill-advised quotes into fact, and pump (cont) tl.gd/h1j7um
— Ramsen Golpashin (@RGolpashin70) April 18, 2012
And Alipour’s response:
@samalipour I understand, but when you lead with and promote using Oregon football, we’re going to have a problem. Agree to disagree.
— Ramsen Golpashin (@RGolpashin70) April 18, 2012
Former running back LaMichael James was also asked for his thoughts, and provided this:
@colewagonerthe more UO win the more scrutiny will come against the program it’s a issue every program has only issue the ducks are on top
— LaMichael James (@LaMichaelJames) April 18, 2012
And former offensive lineman Darrion Weems had this to say …
just read this @samalipour article, and if the point was to expose a problem on a national (cont) tl.gd/h1leuv
— Darrion Weems (@dweems74) April 18, 2012
And finally, former Duck Samie Parker had an unfortunate phrasing choice in his reaction:
Damn they tryin bring the Ducks down but we still flying high
— SAMIE PARKER (@SAMIEPARKER) April 18, 2012
Meanwhile, the story was the talk of campus, and even made it into a Reporting I class discussion:
Yeah, @samalipour, we ARE handing out your @espn article to read/discuss today in #J361NN (Reporting 1) at the University of #Oregon.
— Suzi Steffen (@SuziSteffen) April 18, 2012
And more nuanced takes began to come in once writers had time to digest the news:
My take on Oregon’s REEFER MADNESS… es.pn/ImoSsj
— ESPN_Pac12blog (@ESPN_Pac12blog) April 18, 2012
Bottom line, I don’t care what players do off field. But if it can affect eligibility, it’s news. And smoking weed can.
— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) April 18, 2012
No different then if half the team was habitually missing enough class to affect academic eligibility, in that regard.
— Rob Moseley (@DuckFootball) April 18, 2012
And even NBA writers got in on the fun:
A lot of athletes smoke marijuana. Thoughts? espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/…
— Henry Abbott (@TrueHoop) April 18, 2012
If nothing else, the story certainly sparked a national conversation. Where exactly it takes us, and the Oregon football program, remains to be seen.
