Something strange happened behind Tennessee’s Football Message Board premium paywalls Saturday.
Two reputable sites. Two well-connected and respected reporters. One closed scrimmage. And one selfish head coach who refuses to put a rabid fan base out of its misery.
And two accounts about practice that fit together about as neatly as a husband’s alibi and the hotel receipt in his truck.
One site said George MacIntyre or GMac received first-team work and took the opening snaps.
The other site insisted that was “absolutely not true” and declared the job already belonged to Faizon Brandon.
Somebody had bad information.
Somebody had misunderstood the information.
Or somebody had carefully removed the one sentence (from a paywalled article) that made the whole damn thing make sense.
By midafternoon, subscribers were cross-examining each other like divorced parents fighting over who gets the pontoon boat.
Welcome to Tennessee’s quarterback competition, where the truth is hidden behind a paywall and the bullshit comes with free shipping.
For the low price of two monthly subscriptions, Volunteer fans could now receive conflicting intelligence about a practice nobody was allowed to watch.
The trouble started when JustTheMessenger23 imported information from the other site or also know as the ‘TOS‘:
“George got the majority of first-team reps in practice this week and was the first QB in the scrimmage today.”
Then came his disclaimer:
“I’m just the messenger.”
A sentence traditionally spoken by someone who has set a bag of lit hammered dogshit on your front porch, rung the doorbell, and asked if you smell smoke.
MakeVawlsGreatAgain objected:
“That’s not fitting the vibe around town.”
The vibe around town.
Not practice footage. Not a coaching announcement. Not a depth chart.
The vibe.
Somewhere between the Turkey Creek Costco and the Broadway Barbershop in Maryville, the Knoxville metropolitan area had apparently reached an unofficial quarterback decision through atmospheric pressure.
GMacTruth immediately experienced what medical professionals describe as a full-body return of circulation.
“So George took the first reps? Interesting.”
Interesting is doing some heavy lifting there.
The man went from quietly accepting defeat to mentally picking out MacIntyre’s Heisman ceremony necktie in the time it takes to warm up a mozzarella stick.
Across the pew, FaizonFirst responded:
“That’s not true at all.”
No supporting evidence.
No explanation.
Just the digital equivalent of slapping a plate of chicken tenders off the table because somebody mentioned GMac might have taken the first snap.
Then the missing sentence from the paywalled article surfaced.
The original report also said MacIntyre did not appear to take advantage of the opportunity.
A small detail. Very insignificant.
The kind of small detail that changes “George is winning the job” into “George got a chance and didn’t do much with it.”
Like telling your wife you got laid and leaving out that you paid for it.
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