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Time to stop mistaking ‘swagger’ and ‘moxie’ for ‘being a dickbag’ (updated)

By Mike | 02.24.11 at 7:00 am

Matt McGloin needs to grow up and get a sense of humor.

Or, better yet… how about simply shut up?

You can judge for yourselves by reading the string of Tweets from SBN’s Jeff Junstrom (formerly of BSD). They are in ascending chronological order, so read them starting with the very bottom tweet. It starts out like any boring Wednesday night on Twitter. Evan Royster asks if anyone saw a movie he was watching. McGloin tweets back the ending of the movie, and in the process, issues a spoiler. So Junstrom tweeted in response: “Dick.” What ensued is something I just can’t wrap my head around…

Now, there is no sense in trying to explain why Junstrom did nothing wrong. If you need that explained, then you too have no sense of humor. But this is not something fans, bloggers, or even fellow teammates expect from a player who is supposedly vying for one of the most important leadership roles on the team. Taking issue with Junstrom’s simple “mention” of @MacQB11–as if he were some kind of deity–was bad enough. But to take the castigation another step further by apparently whipping out the “You don’t know me…” whine, was immature, if not down-right elementary school behavior.

But it’s not as if McGloin has come across as a likable guy up until now. He didn’t just have a bad night and spouted off out of character. No way, this is quite in character for the idol of #TeamMac. Like this fine nugget from Mac’s yap trap just a few weeks ago, during a very volatile time within the program, when Rob Bolden was considering transferring out of the program:

Tuesday night, McGloin was interviewed by ABC affiliate WNEP-TV at a high school basketball game in Scranton. He kept his comments about Bolden brief but had this sound bite: “If he does go it’s tough. He was a good backup to have.“

Did McGloin offer a comment that reflected any semblance of statesmanship? No way, Jose. Even if his comment wasn’t meant to be a jab at Bolden, McGloin shouldn’t have said anything at all during the situation. Again, this goes back to McGloin’s lack of mature restraint, something which is expected from someone representing Penn State in a very public media spotlight.

Do I think McGloin is a bad person? No. As he so directly pointed out, I/we don’t know him.

What I can go off of is what he’s shown publicly, which is that he’s just a jerk who runs his mouth when he should keep it shut.

The unfortunate part of all this isn’t that he’ll lose some fans. I’m sure more than a few folks will be turned off by this latest hissy fit. The unfortunate part of this is that he doesn’t seem to care. These aren’t Ohio State fans who he shot back at after a heckle. These have been his teammates, fans, and those who invest time to cover the team.

And if McGloin was really that upset about the absolute NOTHING Junstrom tweeted, then he’s in for a rude awakening the next few years of his football life. Because people in this business, particularly when that business is Penn State football, don’t like whinny, immature assholes.

Update: Well, this isn’t a true update in the sense that there is a new development in this story. But I did want to include this screencap from VBR’s Ben Jones, which illustrates further that McGloin’s attitude explosion last night was hardly an isolated incident:

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  • Kevin McGuire

    Good stuff Mike.

  • Tim

    This is only the sparkler part of the fireworks show. Just wait until McPickSix loses his starting job to his "good backup."

  • David

    In fairness, McGloin is no more than 20 or 21. How many kids of that age have every word/tweet/email disected the way it happens nowadays? I'm sure I would have come off less than stellar if everyone hung on my every word back when I was that age.

  • Mike

    I can see what you mean, David. However, I would be that you weren't the starting quarterback for a BCS power program, regularly featured on ESPN and in the national newspapers. Because that's who McGloin is. It's not like he didn't ask for attention. He practically begged for it all season, then lived it up during the season with comments left and right, even taking a crack at Kirk Herbstreit (though, who DOESN'T want to take a crack at him?).

    My point is that he knows, or should know, that he's a public figure, representing the university BY CHOICE. So if he can't handle criticism from the media, I think he needs to find a new career path, or at least go find a nice IM team to play for.

  • JoeJoe

    I came here looking for Ohio State content. I'm guessing that the domain was registered back in the 1990s.

    I stayed and read this piece. The PSU QB situation sounds promising. A former walk-on that is a raging hemorrhoid bodes well for your upcoming season.

  • Adam

    I was never a McGloin guy for the exact loose cannon behavior outlined above, so I don't really disagree with the substance of this piece. Apologies if it came across differently in other forums.

    I just don't think a college quarterback acting like a child should excuse an attention whoring blogger from acting like a child. You could argue the first tweet was innocent enough, but sharing the contents of a private message with everyone else then taking a few more cheap shots was incredibly immature, especially for a blogger.

  • Mike

    JoeJoe, the domain "LinebackerU.com" is actually registered by Penn State, to the best of my knowledge and research. I only registered "Linebacker-U.com" (with the dash) in Nov. 2010. And don't kid yourself, there is only ONE Linebacker U, and it's sure as hell not Ohio State! (I'm just kidding around, thanks for reading!)

  • joe gagan

    To the people who have the time in their pathetic lives to constantly follow Matt Mcgloin should get lives. the kid can flat out play so to all the haters out there make sure you buy your Rob Boldin jerseys because his jersey will look good in a back up role.

  • Mike

    Joe G, you're absolutely correct. I mean, seriously, how impressive were those touchdown passes against Ohio State and Florida? Oh, wait, you mean most of those touchdowns were thrown to the OTHER team????

    And, uh, yeah… in case you didn't know, this is a Penn State blog. So, sure, pretty much we like to constantly follow the subject we're writing about on a daily basis. That's how we get all those fancy spellin' words right, like quarterbacks' names 'n sitch!

    Thanks for reading!

  • joe gagan

    if Matt Mcgloin didnt start that michigan game, save BOLDEN against northwestern and rightfully start the other games psu wouldnt have made a bowl. And im sure that first half of the ohio state game you were loving mcgloin along with the rest of america. That 'dickbag' gave the team a much needed leader with his confidence something the team rallied around something BOLDEN didnt show.

  • Galen

    Wait a minute… doesn't Twitter EXIST to constantly follow people's lives?

    Twitter has been the best and worst thing for sports.

  • Mike

    Great point, Galen. That's why I can't understand why some people think it was wrong to even aknowledge what McGloin was doing on twitter. (the two BSD guys have ripped me for this post, as well as Jeff for the original Twitter exchange)

    Matt McGloin has a PUBLIC Twitter account. He specifically states under his profile that it is the "Official" Twitter account for Penn State's starting quarterback. So don't give me this bullsh*t sob story about how he isn't asking to be open to criticism for what he writes/says.

    If he doesn't like being "out there," then make your Twitter profile private to your friends only. Or, and I know this is tough for some to grasp, DON'T HAVE A TWITTER ACCOUNT AT ALL!

  • Jeff

    I'll simply say one thing, as I didn't expect this to be such a big issue, and I've already spoken privately with those who feel they were harmed.

    But @Adam, who called me an attention whore. LB-U Mike wrote the story, all I did was make some tweets, the subject of which has been blown completely out of proportion by a couple of people.

    Contrast that with Adam's posting of no less than seven stories across at least two blogs (not to mention any work he might do with the Collegian) for one Big Ten basketball game, including numerous Twitter updates throughout said game.

  • Scrappled

    He can "flat out play"…against the worst defenses on the schedule. And I find it comical that he "saved" Bolden against Northwestern. Bolden was 3-for-4 at that point in the game. That's almost as good as the people who think Pat Devlin "saved" Daryll Clark at Ohio State by not completing a single pass.

  • Scrappled

    Anyway, I love a good blog war. I don't know what the best part of this is — the over-reaction by McGloin, the over-reaction to McGloin's over-reaction, or the self-righteous handwringing this whole episode has produced elsewhere. It's all been pretty fantastic.

  • Galen

    ONE…TWO…THREE…FOUR…

    I DECLARE A BLOG WAR!!!

    Wait aren't these things suppose to happen between opposing teams? Have we just created a blog CIVIL war?!?

  • bba55500-40f9-11e0-9330-000bcdca4d7a

    I saw McGloin the other day walking into class wearing his Rose Bowl book bag like a boss.

  • Mike

    Odd, I wonder why he wouldn't be sporting a bag from the team's most recent bowl game.

  • joe gagan

    i find it "comical" that you said Mcgloin didn't save Bolden because he was 3-4 at the point, yet the score was 21-0 when Mcgloin entered the game and as we all know joe pa got his 400th win this day. I also find it "comical" that you are comparing what Mcgloin did and what Devlin. Devlin took a handful of snaps where as Mcgloin led the team to victory in about 3 quarters of play and earned the starting job. overall the whole situation is just plain "comical"

  • Mike

    Joe, your own opinion on McGloin's impact on the team is whatever you want. But you can't be taken seriously when you don't even know the facts.

    It was NOT 21-0 when McGloin came in for Bolden. It was 7-0. So Northwestern was able to ring up 14 more points before McGloin put a scoring drive together right before halftime. McGloin was in for 3-4 drives before that first touchdown by PSU. He was no more impressive than Bolden in those first few drives.

    Last time I checked, Bolden wasn't responsible for Northwestern scoring 21 points in the first half.

    And if you want to play the "bailout" game, then why the hell wasn't Bolden inserted into the Michigan State game? MSU was up 21-3 going into the 4th quarter. Yet Bolden was yanked after 4 passes vs NW? I won't even mention the Outback Bowl.

  • Tim

    Joe's got a point. Bolden was doing a shitty job in the secondary, letting Northwestern's receivers get a good 15-20 yard separation on him. Only Matt McGloin and his 5 pick six TD's saved the day.

  • bba55500-40f9-11e0-9330-000bcdca4d7a

    All I know is Bolden was looking like he was having a blast at THON with his teammates. Hopefully he brings that energy and enthusiasm into spring practice because we are going to once again have a really good qb competition this year!

  • Mike

    Whoa, whoa, whoa… hold on a sec. Was that a POSITIVE comment? That kind of polite and sane commentary has no place here, sir!

  • Adam

    Mwhahahahaha. Junny ripping me from running pre and post game stories about a basketball game like any responsible news outlet. Hil-arious.

    I know as a recruiting geek this might be hard for you to understand, Jeff, but some people actually care about the games on the field rather than their prom dates when they were 18.

  • Jeff

    @Adam So now your story has changed? Originally, you called me an attention whore in your comment above based on me retweeting supportive tweets yesterday. That's when you made some passive aggressive tweets and your first appearance of "attention whore." Now that I've shown you are the person that seeks so much attention, you've reverted to another story that involved posting a kid's public picture to show the Penn State fans of BSD what Jordan Kerner looks like after he committed?

    I'm not sure what mwhahahaha spells, but whatever the oppposite of that is, put it here.

  • Adam

    Dude ya tweet all your stories on your personal account.

    And no one cares what Jordan Kerner looks like.

  • M1EK

    Thon sucks.