We’ll find out more tomorrow when Charlie Weis addresses the media, but multiple media sources are reporting that quarterback Jimmy Clausen was involved in a fight late Saturday/early Sunday morning outside a South Bend bar.
First reported by David Kaplan of Chicago WGN-AM radio, the Chicago Tribune’s Brian Hamilton has more of the details.
Starting quarterback and team captain Jimmy Clausen
was involved in an altercation outside a South Bend, Ind., bar in the
hours following a double-overtime loss to Connecticut on Saturday,
taking a punch to the face in the incident, sources told the Tribune.The Irish QB suffered at least one black eye as a result of the
punch, according to a source. A spokesman for Charlie Weis said he
could not reach the Irish coach for comment Monday night.A South Bend police spokesman said Monday no police reports were filed over the weekend that involved Clausen.
Details of the brouhaha vary greatly, from Kaplan’s original report, to Hamilton’s story, to Joe Schad reporting on Twitter at ESPN.com that Clausen was “sucker-punched in the face outside a South Bend eatery,” which would fit, because I’d hardly call C.J.’s the scene for a late-night bar fight.
I tend to believe that the truth, as it always does, lies somewhere in the middle. Either way, it’s not the situation you want the captain of your team to find himself in at two in the morning the night after a loss probably sealed the fate of your head coach.
It’ll be interesting to see how ESPN runs this this story. They could play it up like the overblown beer pong photos or talk about how sad it is that someone would be a big enough jerk to fight the starting quarterback of the football team in his own college town the night of a devastating loss.
Either way, here’s hoping Jimmy’s fine and ready to play well against Stanford. I can’t imagine, barring video evidence of Clausen taking a stool to a guy or getting into an Anchorman like brawl, that he’d be suspended for this one.
-
- StephenOfTroy - Nov 25, 2009 at 5:10 AM
-
No, Mr. Arnold. Your patronizing doesn’t make me feel better. What WOULD make me feel better (aside from you harnessing the awesome time-warping power of Robert T. Gilleran to turn back time and erase the “paper record” that says Texas beat USC for the national title in January 2006) is if you hadn’t threatened to shut this thread down just because someone looked at the inane blather Robert T. Gilleran has littered the internet with and invited us to do our own comparison.
Oh, and bak, that’s hilarious about a program has integrity, to Robert T. Gilleran, if ND can beat them! So you noticed that, too, eh?
-
- StephenOfTroy - Nov 25, 2009 at 5:23 AM
-
Robert T. Gilleran aka robertg:
Apologies, but I didn’t get a chance to ask one important question:
What was the “irreparable injury” you suffered in January 1997? Was it a head injury, by any chance? And was that head injury at all related to the reason for you being disbarred by the Supreme Court of State of California in August 1997? And since you went to Yale Law School, did your head injury cause you to forget everything they taught you?
Well, shoot, that’s three questions, not one. Sue me. Oh wait. The disbarred thing. You can’t sue me. My bad. Get one of your associates to do it.
-
- StephenOfTroy - Nov 25, 2009 at 5:26 AM
-
Robert T. Gilleran, I realize that you may be hopping up and down about my asking you FOUR questions, not three, in the above comment. While I DID merely attend USC and not Yale, you should recognize that I’m not counting “was it a head injury, by any chance” as a separate question. It’s really just a refinement of the first question.
Ok, fire away with the numbered paragraphs that don’t have anything to do with anything that actually happened anywhere in reality.
-
- StephenOfTroy - Nov 25, 2009 at 6:02 AM
-
Mr. Arnold, how exactly is the Clausen-in-a-fight story “tired?” It broke on Monday night. The coach refused to discuss it and CANCELED ALL MEDIA ACCESS FOR PLAYERS AND COACHES. It has been ONE day since the story broke, and the coach sure is acting suspiciously like he doesn’t want the media to find out anything because what they find out would be damaging.
It would be one thing if the coach and the player involved each gave a matter-of-fact summary. Something like “I was at this bar with my Mom, my Dad and my girlfriend. We left. She forgot her purse. We went back. We came out and some guy shoved her. I said to him ‘hey, watch it’ and he punched me in the eye. Nothing else happened. I’m going to play Saturday at Stanford.”
But the story isn’t tired. Now, you know that what gets you in trouble isn’t the crime, it’s the coverup. No crime has been alleged here by the media. But you also know that trying to tell the media (or mom’s-basement-dwelling-bloggers like myself) that there’s no story where there clearly is one is not a winning strategy.
What’s the ridiculous comment thread you’d like us to light up? Something about whether Weis should be fired? THAT story is tired. He should. Now let’s move on with discussing whether Clausen should have been invited to the O’Brien award just so we could see if his eye totally healed. Kidding!
-
- BigMike4562 - Nov 25, 2009 at 7:58 AM
-
Well, your wrong, eye witness accounts, little Jimmy shoved the guy in the neck and then got punched. So , if I did that, I would expect the worst wrath from coach Dough Boy. Being said, that is probably why he isnt throwing Jimmy under the bus in the media this week. Maybe outta respect and the fact he broke promises to Jimmy about ND and the possible Championships. Being with parents or not, just a bad scene. Walk away and be a better person, no matter the name calling. As usual with Domer fans, it’s someone elses fault, the officials, the other team cheating, the NCAA or just a rabid fan, never a players fault or a coaches lack of preparedness.
-
- grandpashyena - Nov 25, 2009 at 10:08 AM
-
No robertg for over 24 hrs. What the? Cover blown? Taking meds? Rational thouoght? Out of Gas? Filing suits? Changing blogs? The world wonders. Please come back, we need entertainment. We need our stimulus package. Pleeeeeeease!
-
- NDFAN401 - Nov 25, 2009 at 10:20 AM
-
BigMike4562, Here it is you are right I was wrong! I saw the full report after getting home last evening. I agree with you as well about being with you parents, if there is any time you should be able to walk away from a situation like that it is when you are with family. I wrote in a previous post that the students and athletes at Notre Dame need to stay above these type of incidents and I still believe that. I would have to say that your feelings about Jimmy Clausen being suspended for this game at Stanford is in line with good punishment guidelines. It is hard to say why Jimmy Clausen did what he did must he must now suffer the punishment, unfortunately he will not suffer it alone. What he did is going to affect the entire team and that is what is truly ashame. As for Charlie Weis not airing the dirty laundry in public I must say at this point I agree with his decision, there is enough negativity swirling around this program already!
-
- Art Vandelay - Nov 26, 2009 at 5:09 AM
-
Wow. How did I miss all these fireworks between robertg, SOT and Keith Arnold? Oh, right, I have a life. What kind of lawyer threatens to sue/bankrupt people because they have a differing opinion? robertg should know, with his keen legal acumen, that such a lawsuit would be seen as frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of process for which there would be serious implications for a true attorney. Dude needs to get real. He’d be laughed out of my Bar Assoc. Yale pedigree or not.
-
- BigMike4562 - Nov 26, 2009 at 8:11 AM
-
ndfan401,
No problem, I have been wrong in my life plenty of times, wanting to believe something to the end….at least we can admit it it….I was wrong in my bashing earlier in another post and retracted some staements myself….have a good Thanksgiving with family or friends and lets hope that Texas and Texas AM is a good game…boy I lost interest in NFL…
-
- StephenOfTroy - Nov 26, 2009 at 4:44 PM
-
Art, what’s this? When did you get a life? Was it before, or after you were able to quote Col. Kurtz at length? Was it during a commercial break from Curb? If you want me to be honest, I’m a little miffed that you got a life and didn’t tell me. Good thing I didn’t hire you to be my latex salesman. We’ll see what Pennypacker has to say about this disturbing new development.
Robert T. Gilleran DID get laughed out of my bar association, since I’m also a California resident. But I’m sure they get a bigger laugh out of the gibberish he told me about bringing down the CA judiciary. It’s all of a piece with his account of bringing the Catholic church to its knees. Ok, bad visual. But you know what I mean.
I had the same thought you did; I bet he has never filed any lawsuits as a plaintiff, but if he has, then he’s filed 20, and he’s probably been declared a vexatious litigant, since he probably tried to sue movie characters for doing things in their films he didn’t agree with. “Sonny! Why did you go through the toll booth? Can’t you see when you’re being set up? And why’d you get out of the car? My research confirms that car doors provide better protection against bullets than suit jackets do! Neo! Why didn’t you take the blue pill? Reality bites! Customs Agent Kujan! Why’d you let Verbal go? He’s CLEARLY Keyser Soze! Who would hire that guy to pick coffee beans in Guatemala? You’re all about to be relieved of your material possessions in very public jury trials in the civil courts!”
Happy Thanksgiving.
-
- Keith Arnold - Nov 27, 2009 at 1:56 AM
-
BigMike: Tough to take you serious when you say to not let name calling bother you, then you go drop a Dough Boy comment… And your name is BigMike.
-
- Kejji - Nov 27, 2009 at 2:08 AM
-
Me thinks a begrudging level of respect is creeping into this blog between StephenOfTroy and the screaming hordes of fighting quasimodo’s…another week of this and we will all be holding hands and singing kumbaya.
Seriously tho’ I have thoroughly enjoyed the back and forth between SOT (a regular modern day Hector!) and Art Vandelay..both making excellent points in their rapier like comments.
Best of all is poor robertg… SOT disrobed him…opened up a 55 gallon drum of whoop-ass on his head and threw him in the gutter without a kiss goodnight…..Ouch!
Now I will have the perfect response to that pablum-puker when he spouts off on all the other blogs he regularly trolls on..constantly slandering Coach Carroll with his nonsense.
All I’ve got to say to robertg is…people that live in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks. (know any good ex-lawyer jokes?)
I think I know how StephenOfTroy feels about Notre Dame..because I do too.
Even though I am a huge USC fan, I grew up listening and watching Lindsey Nelson call Notre Dame games in the early 70′s. what a voice!
I have an immense amount of respect for the Notre Dame program..but they seem to do things differently today while claiming to hold on to the traditions of old.
I will be going to the Notre Dame Stanford game this Sat. I will be the one who is wearing the “StephenOfTroy” shirt…just in case robertg wants to send his “associates” out to subpoena me.
-
- StephenOfTroy - Nov 27, 2009 at 4:16 PM
-
Kejji:
1) You will be hearing from my attorney (who is working pro bono as I am facing imminent bankruptcy) if in fact you wear a StephenOfTroy shirt to a game without paying me a royalty. Note: Game tickets constitute ample royalty. As would a half-eaten apple. I’m starving here. Who knew that bankruptcy could be so far-reaching?
2) Good points about ND. But I was disheartened to see you give credit to Art Vandelay. He gets all his information from H. E. Pennypacker, “wealthy industrialist, philanthropist, and bicyclist.” You have to have watched Seinfeld religiously to follow that last one. But I know Art is chuckling to himself.
3) If you go to the Stanford game, and you catch Harbaugh’s eye, give him a wave. Whether you choose to “go for two” fingers or just stick with one finger is up to you. What a class act he is, huh?
4) I TRIED to kiss Robert T. Gilleran goodnight. Petulant lad that he is, he turned his face away. So I just tucked him in really tight before looking under his bed to assure that there were no monsters or crooked conference-affiliated refs lurking under there.
Fight On!
-
- StephenOfTroy - Nov 27, 2009 at 4:30 PM
-
Oh, and Kejji, my respect for many of the commenters here should be evident; I’ve told several of them as much in direct words. I respect everyone until they give me a reason not to. I really enjoy reading the opinions of people who either know a little about football or a lot about how to talk smack.
That’s why I like Art. He makes up for not knowing jack about football by knowing even less about smack-talking.
-
- Kejji - Nov 27, 2009 at 9:37 PM
-
Yes..the Stanford/Irish game,I am in somewhat of a conundrum over this…while my allegiance is to the men of Troy, I am also a big PAC-10 supporter, but when that banty-rooster Harbaugh pulled his two point play thing..well I hope he gets his hat handed to him.
Did you see his handshake with Jeff Tedford after the loss to Cal?
He ran out to midfield and literally ran by Tedford while sticking his hand out and barely touching hands.
Harbaugh truly is an asshat.
So I will be wearing a touch of green at the game.
-
- Second Chance Checking - Dec 7, 2009 at 7:40 PM
-
hah really?
-
- Spara - Dec 22, 2009 at 8:33 PM
-
That’s nice to definitely find a website where the blogger knows what they are talking about.
-
- the day the earth stood still - Jan 8, 2010 at 9:55 PM
-
Thanks for posting this. Would be intrested to read more or possibly please contact me by email thank you!
-
- Buying A Car With Bad Credit - Jan 10, 2010 at 10:15 AM
-
Thanks a lot for this awesome editorial.
-
- im short - Jan 12, 2010 at 12:43 AM
-
Greetings to all, This website is excellent and so is how the subject was developped. I like some of the comments as well even if I would suggest we focus on the topic to add value to the subject. It will be also encouraging to the one who penned it down if we all could make mention of it (for many of us who use bookmarking services such as a delicious, facebook,..). Thanks again.
-
- Cheap Laser Hair Removal - Jan 12, 2010 at 2:51 PM
-
Thanks a lot for that extraordinarily awe inspiring column.
-
- coffee tables - Jan 18, 2010 at 1:33 PM
-
coffeetables are great for entertainment or card games. I presonally prefer leather coffetables but just plain wood will do just fine. I cant understand people who do not have coffeetable in the livingroom.
-
- Reva Sickendick - Feb 3, 2010 at 9:12 AM
-
Hello there, awesome article, I thouroughly enjoyed reading this. This article gave me the momentum to try my own article, please see my post by clicking my name at the top of this post, Many thanks
-
- Myrtie Peyser - Feb 4, 2010 at 7:38 PM
-
Love the blog…people are missing out not using MLM and GDI more
-
- Franklyn Loretto - Feb 4, 2010 at 11:33 PM
-
How complete are public records that you get on the Internet? How do you really know if you are getting what you need.
