Charles Fischer Administrator No. 1 Share Posted April 21, 2022 The morning Eugene paper has an article about the ongoing trial, and how former Oregon Offensive Line Coach Steve Greatwood testified that Duck offensive lineman Doug Brenner was prevented from a normal senior year and a shot at the NFL. (Due to the crazy training) There is much more, but I will let you look into it if you are interested. I'll pass on the rest, because it makes me so sad--how this happened. After reading it--I was thinking..."wow...Greatwood testifying against his Alma Mater and where he coached so long?" Then I remembered how all the assistant coaches were treated when Helfrich was fired, and how wrong that was with all they did to get the Ducks to the 'Natty, twice. What goes around... Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duckman No. 2 Share Posted April 21, 2022 I agree that this is really sad. Also, I am really surprised this case was not settled before trial. Lots of unflattering details now being aired in public. One interesting nugget unrelated to the Brenner case...Greatwood reached out to Taggart to inquire about coaching OL after Taggart was hired. Taggart never responded. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Author Administrator No. 3 Share Posted April 21, 2022 Wow. And Greatwood was five-times the O-Line coach that "Mari" or "Minnie-Me" was. (IMHO) I call Cristobal "Mari" because he doesn't know what to do with the "O." (Thanks to Steven A.!) Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DUCati855 Moderator No. 4 Share Posted April 21, 2022 On 4/21/2022 at 9:41 AM, Charles Fischer said: Greatwood was five-times the O-Line coach that "Mari" or "Minnie-Me" was. He definitely knew how to get the best out of his players! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph No. 5 Share Posted April 21, 2022 I hope the Ducks liability insurance payments are current? THIS is the kind of stuff juries buy into and award absurd damages. I agree with the above comment: This should have been settled. As I often heard when practicing law: A bad settlement is usually better than a bad jury award. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven A Moderator No. 6 Share Posted April 21, 2022 On 4/21/2022 at 10:45 AM, Jon Joseph said: A bad settlement is usually better than a bad jury award. And a good settlement, both sides are unhappy. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastBayDuckDad Moderator No. 7 Share Posted April 21, 2022 At least as far as civil lawsuits go, and unless you are pretty damn positive you are in the right, a bad settlement is nearly always better than a bad jury award. To those of us not in the legal profession the finality of a settlement, even a painful one, is usually preferable to the uncertainty, expense and angst of a lost jury trial and subsequent appeal and possible crapshoot retrial. I suspect that the UO will settle their part of it unless joint settlement of all defendents is required. Greatwood and the outgoing Helfrich staff was dissed by the incoming regime so no surprise there is no love lost. So far this is a bad look for all involved on the defense side and gives us yet another reason to say good riddance to Taggart and the malignant trail he left in his wake. The one ray of sunshine is the bad Karma that caught up to him at FSU. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haywarduck Moderator No. 8 Share Posted April 21, 2022 Greatwood, along with all those assistants help make the program what it was. That is one of the saddest parts of Helfrich's failure. He let down the assistants who had built the program through many years with Bellotti. It would seem we are just now fully recovering from that nightmare ending of the Helfrich era. The way the assistants were handled was pathetic, but they all got their PERS and are probably better off, then having to live through the slick, Mario time. They definitely hold a place in all of our gratitude debt department. Those guys were some amazing assistants. In a weird way it is kind of the way I think of my past dogs, all legends! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven A Moderator No. 9 Share Posted April 21, 2022 On 4/21/2022 at 11:33 AM, EastBayDuckDad said: so no surprise there is no love lost. I'm hopeful love loss had nothing to do with his testimony and that he just "giving the facts". 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven A Moderator No. 10 Share Posted April 21, 2022 On 4/21/2022 at 11:33 AM, EastBayDuckDad said: I suspect that the UO will settle their part of it unless joint settlement of all defendents is required. I think that is solely up to the plaintiffs. And perhaps they are being low balled. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 11 Share Posted April 21, 2022 On 4/21/2022 at 9:06 AM, Charles Fischer said: After reading it--I was thinking..."wow...Greatwood testifying against his Alma Mater and where he coached so long?" Then I remembered how all the assistant coaches were treated when Helfrich was fired, and how wrong that was with all they did to get the Ducks to the 'Natty, twice. I love my ducks as much as anyone, well probably more to be honest, but that doesn't mean they don't mess up as an institution. There are times when your team messes up and it is completely 100% ok to say that they did. It doesn't mean you don't love them but it can be quite the opposite. It is out of love that we need to speak truth to power and make the institutions and the things we care about better. And sometimes that means calling them out then they are wrong. Mullens and Oregon are accountable here because they hired Taggart and in truth when anyone within the program heard about these sort of work outs they should have put a stop to them right away. Then even after the fact of it all Oregon only suspended the strength and conditioning coach and then put some oversight on him from Coach Radcliffe... He should have been fired and coach Rad should have had direct control of the strength and conditioning program until a suitable replacement found. Oregon as an institution bears some responsibility. Regardless of whether Brenner would have actually had a shot at the NFL or not doesn't entirely matter because he has health problems now that he didn't have when he joined the program. Again... I love my Ducks and here they need to do right by Brenner and the players who were put into their care as apart of Oregon Athletics. 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orebcker No. 12 Share Posted April 21, 2022 I hate having to relive the dark days of the disaster hire that was Willie Taggart. Wishing for a favorable outcome for the players involved but using Brenner and NFL in the same sentence is a stretch. Wasn’t he the one hiking ground balls to QB Lockie in the 2nd half Alamo bowl meltdown vs TCU? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Hilarius Moderator No. 13 Share Posted April 21, 2022 On 4/21/2022 at 12:47 PM, Orebcker said: Wasn’t he the one hiking ground balls to QB Lockie in the 2nd half Alamo bowl meltdown vs TCU? yes 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiseKwacker No. 14 Share Posted April 21, 2022 (edited) This trial is one of those instances where you have two parties (the U of O and Taggart/Oderinde) who would normally be on opposing sides forced to work together to defend themselves. As mentioned above, Mullins and the U of O need to accept responsibility for turning the football program over to Taggart. And, from all those statements former players have made about things Taggart said about trying to weed out players who were coasting and not pulling their weight in the Helfrich era, we can be pretty sure Willie heard those things from Mullins, his staff, or Oregon boosters. Having said all that, I'm sure it absolutely grates on the U of O defense team to have their fate pretty closely interlocked with a notorious pair of Eugene refugees. Edited April 21, 2022 by WiseKwacker Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie No. 15 Share Posted April 21, 2022 On 4/21/2022 at 12:47 PM, Orebcker said: I hate having to relive the dark days of the disaster hire that was Willie Taggart. Wishing for a favorable outcome for the players involved but using Brenner and NFL in the same sentence is a stretch. Wasn’t he the one hiking ground balls to QB Lockie in the 2nd half Alamo bowl meltdown vs TCU? Yes, but as I remember, Brenner and Lockie had not practiced with each other at all before that game. I guess no one ever thought they might need that combination in a game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie No. 16 Share Posted April 21, 2022 On 4/21/2022 at 12:32 PM, David Marsh said: I love my ducks as much as anyone, well probably more to be honest, but that doesn't mean they don't mess up as an institution. There are times when your team messes up and it is completely 100% ok to say that they did. It doesn't mean you don't love them but it can be quite the opposite. It is out of love that we need to speak truth to power and make the institutions and the things we care about better. And sometimes that means calling them out then they are wrong. Mullens and Oregon are accountable here because they hired Taggart and in truth when anyone within the program heard about these sort of work outs they should have put a stop to them right away. Then even after the fact of it all Oregon only suspended the strength and conditioning coach and then put some oversight on him from Coach Radcliffe... He should have been fired and coach Rad should have had direct control of the strength and conditioning program until a suitable replacement found. Oregon as an institution bears some responsibility. Regardless of whether Brenner would have actually had a shot at the NFL or not doesn't entirely matter because he has health problems now that he didn't have when he joined the program. Again... I love my Ducks and here they need to do right by Brenner and the players who were put into their care as apart of Oregon Athletics. This! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DUCKED No. 17 Share Posted April 22, 2022 On 4/21/2022 at 2:24 PM, Annie said: Yes, but as I remember, Brenner and Lockie had not practiced with each other at all before that game. I guess no one ever thought they might need that combination in a game. That is my understanding as well. He was filling in for the injured starter. But regardless of his challenges in hiking a football, he deserves to be compensated for the hell he went through following the ill-advised workouts that sent him and some of his teammates to the hospital. I don't think he was NFL material, and that will likely be a factor in the inevitable settlement, but deserves something, hopefully substantial. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Marsh No. 18 Share Posted April 22, 2022 On 4/21/2022 at 12:47 PM, Orebcker said: I hate having to relive the dark days of the disaster hire that was Willie Taggart. Wishing for a favorable outcome for the players involved but using Brenner and NFL in the same sentence is a stretch. Wasn’t he the one hiking ground balls to QB Lockie in the 2nd half Alamo bowl meltdown vs TCU? Everything that could go wrong did go wrong in that second half. I would like to remind everyone that Oregon's defense pitched a shut out in the first half and then helped lose it all in the second half. I know some fans put the loss on Lockie and Brenner's shoulders but that game was a team effort of bad. Additionally, Brenner was the back up center but not the second best center on the team as that honor belonged to Jake Hanson who was a true freshman at the time and Helfrich wasn't about to burn a redshirt for a second half of a bowl game, and that was was the RIGHT choice. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Fischer Author Administrator No. 19 Share Posted April 22, 2022 Let's not replay the tapes from that awful game. Instead, let's focus on something else.. Oh Look! Here's a Husky Running Back! 1 Mr. FishDuck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyin Vee No. 20 Share Posted April 22, 2022 Not so much against the UO, more so because those were his young men that were damaged. i give Greatwood a pass not so much willie and his gang. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
