BAC

Some initial thoughts from a legal perspective. 1. From a criminal standpoint, in bringing this to authorities, you need to do more than simply point out that there's a ton of views by people who clearly have prurient interests. Its too easy for the photographer/ videographer to say, "It isn't my fault that these people exist. They're going to naturally go to whatever website has the highest quality videos and that happens to be mine." You need to marshal forth facts that he's tailoring his content to them and engaging with them, and you need to focus on the videos of minors, where your argument is strongest. Point out: (a) How if you click on the "popular" tab on Youtube (so it organizes videos by view count), almost all of the video stills (thumbnails) includes an image of the (minor) wrestler's crotch. Not a coincidence. (b) Specific examples of camera angles, camera focus, and the choice of which wrestler to follow during breaks, that evidence they are not focused on the wrestling but the wrestler and their anatomy. (c) Efforts by the videographer/photographer to seek out specific wrestlers who previously appealed to this community. Are there efforts to seek out the interview of certain wrestlers, or to take multiple videos of their matches, that is not explained by their prowess as a wrestler but, rather, by the viewcount of their last video by prurient elements? (d) Examples of interaction between videographer and commenters that further the notion that he is seeking to indulge their desires rather than showcase the sport of wrestling. (e) Find links to his website on adult websites, and seek ways to trace them to the photographer. Encourage law enforcement to find out from Youtube the identity of the URLs from which traffic is resolving. (f) Find examples of his work on adult websites. If no DMCA takedown notice has been done, why? Is it being licensed, and/or a royalty paid? (g) There are other things that can be done too which I won't mention, but an experienced investigator would know. 2. From a parental standpoint: (a) First and foremost, be careful about what forms/waivers you sign for your kid. If it includes filming or likeness rights, cross it out, or ask in advance to know the name and contact info of those who will be given filming rights. You are the first line of defense for your kid. If you DO sign it, keep a copy -- take a picture with your phone. And you see your kid's video online, contact the tournament organizer to see if you signed a waiver, get a copy of it, and demand to see the list of persons to whom credentials were given. (b) Copyright laws won't help much since you probably don't own the copyright, but if the video wasn't shot by whoever is hosting it, contact the person to shot the video, demand to know what permissions they gave, and demand they do a DMCA takedown notice. Similarly, if the video was shot without authorization of the event organizers, contact them with a demand to enforce their rights against unauthorized filmers. (c) Research and use child privacy laws in your state. This is going to be highly state-specific, as federal rights are more circumspect. Some state laws are more robust (e.g. California's CCPA, updated by the CPRA). Whatever form you signed, don't assume it includes a right to put a suggestive picture of your kid on the internet and profit from it. (And if your state has a crappy child privacy law, talk to your legislator.) (d) Research and use right of publicity laws in your state. Again, this is highly state specific, and more narrow and less useful than privacy laws, but may be useful if your kid isn't a minor, and may give a path to civil suit. A copyright defense isn't necessarily a defense to an image appropriation. 3. Reach out to your state AG's office. They have their own menu of options and may be able to pursue the photographer/videographer, whether criminally or civilly, based on some of the above avenues.

Link here: https://iasportsco.smoothcomp.com/en/event/14853/bracket/871606 Go to Round of 16 match with Adam Thebeau, then to 9:18. Ref not paying attention and dings Nebraska for a point when he retaliates. I'm sure Iowa is fine with it.

Thanks, that's interesting.

Thanks, this captures it all, though its annoying to have to cock your head to the side to watch it. I'm trying to think about what memes to make with the double-bird + splits image. Ideas, anyone?

So the Ferrari we saw yesterday was just as good as the 2021 NCAA Champ version, apart from a little first-competition gassing? Oh man, Brooks would DESTROY him. I can't believe this is even a conversation.

What happened to "You're assuming regression, whereas I think stagnation is far more likely"?

Definitely agree Titus is having a monster start to the season. He seems to have level-jumped. Undefeated I think? Watters and Conley are solid too. High level recruits. I wonder about the depth of WVU's coaching staff though, especially in the upper weights. Flynn is awesome but pushing 60 so he needs a strong team of assistants. Moore has been with Flynn a long time, but he's getting up there too. Who else besides him and Port is rolling around with these guys on a day to day basis? Moore/Port were both '33/'41, around Titus/Watters' weight -- so that's great for them -- but not so sure about everyone else. Budget's always an issue, but WVU's in a pretty big wrestling area. Would be cool to see them built out their infrastructure a bit more.

Would that still be your choice if you or your daughter were Muslim, or you had Muslims in your family? Honestly, I like Brooks, a lot, and respect his religious views, but I'd need to know his proselytizing wasn't going to put undue pressure on my kid to conform to his worldview to be contemptuous of other religions. Otherwise its disqualifying. I don't think DeSanto deserves to be lumped in with A and B. Three or even two years ago, yes, but to my eyes, he has grown and matured a good bit.

Link? Curious to read that.

I'm not suggesting Brands is suddenly going to get weak-kneed just because a recruit threw a punch and flipped the bird. Or even that it was an Iowa guy he did it to. Brands has always operated on the periphery, on the outer edges of the ethical, recasting unsportsmanlike conduct as merely being "passionate." Just look at his vocal defense of Rathjen's antics. I think the bigger issues are (1) he did it to the crowd, turning the entire Iowa crowd passionately against AJ., and (2) he just wasn't that good. The whole reason that Brands was willing to take a chance on AJ is he wants to win at all costs, and he wants to win at all costs because that keeps Iowa fans and admin on his side. But if Iowans do NOT want AJ -- and as of now, clearly they won't -- then the wins AJ brings won't matter. Brands now risks having his own guy get booed if he puts AJ on the mat, and that's worse for Brands' job security than losing. Maybe Iowa fans could get over it if AJ was suddenly the key to winning NCAAs, e.g. that Iowa was just one stud away from beating PSU, and the antics happened after AJ just finished tech-pinning Glazier. But in fact, AJ was barely a rounding error better than Glazier. He likely wouldn't create many if any new team wins, and sure wouldn't going to put them over the hump against PSU. In short, I'm not putting Brands on a pedestal and thinking he'll suddenly get all moral on us, but his cold "win at all costs" calculus no longer helps AJ.

Completely reasonable. Though I suspect Anthony leaves with AJ, and that Angelo decommits in fealty to his brothers, I do hope Angelo stays. You but have to think he'd be better off far from home, with his brothers not there, so he's able develop his character without their (especially AJ's) influence.

I think I won the internet yesterday.

Local Iowa media aren't exactly know for their hard-hitting journalism. They know Tom will block them from future access if they ask something he doesn't want to answer. So instead they nibble at the edges, to see if he wants to "go there," as when he was asked about Glazier's match, and about Glazier "making a statement." Plenty of room for him in that open-ended question for Brands to speak to the elephant in the elephant in the room, but he ducked it. All the feeble Iowa "reporters" took their cue and went back to lobbing softballs.

You can always count on Tom to stand up for what's right, tolerate no BS, and tell it like it is: Haha just kidding! He totally ducks the AJ fiasco, and only mentions the Anthony/Caleb R match to commend Caleb for his post-match antics.

I mean, the scandal would be if he *didn't* get DQ'd. I mean, what else do you have to do?

That's a pretty good diss of Ferrari right there. It was obviously *intended* as a punch, but the fact that you found it too pathetic to even register as an *actual* punch is pretty awesome.

Not a great look!? That's by FAR the best tan Iowa has ever seen.

Here's the reality folks: 1. That's the last college wrestling match you'll ever see AJ wrestle. Not just Iowa, but anywhere. If the punch wasn't bad enough, he gave the bird too, and then gave the bird to the whole stadium -- full of HIS supposed fans. No one is taking him now. He's done. Its straight-to-MMA now. 2. Anthony's leaving too. He's clearly not a favorite on the team with Caleb so gleefully shoving and clowning on him. They're probably still bitter about him causing Chittum's departure. Even if he might have stuck it out after his scuffle tonight, there's no way he's staying after AJ's antics. There will be lots of spillover on him, and he won't want to stay. 3. Angelo decommits in solidarity with his brothers. Not that Iowa is going to run him out of town the way they will AJ and Anthony, but here's the problem: (1) after tonight, the Ferrari name is pure poison in Iowa City, and Angelo will pick up on that real quick, and (2) blood is thicker than water, and if AJ/Anthony storm out of Iowa City in disgust, it would be an insult to his brothers if Angelo stuck around. That's it folks. End of the Iowa/Ferrari experiment.

As a not-Iowa fan, I'm VERY disappointed in the Ferraris' behavior. Not that it happened. But that it happened so soon. I would have FAR preferred it if they had actually committed scholly dollars to AJ, built their recruiting around AJ and the other Ferraris, and THEN they started their inevitable implosion. It was always astounding to me that Brands's blindly craven desire to win would allow him to let such cancerous d-bags on his team. But not being an Iowa fan, I've always seen it as a true gift... like your biggest enemy willfully injecting himself with cancer cells. Because what would Iowa do if this happened AFTER all three Ferraris were in the lineup, with untold scholarship dollars tied up in them, no real backups, and who knows now much NIL investment? The fallout would be GLORIOUS. But sadly, tonight, that ship has sailed. Iowa will now escape, and with minimal damage.

No reason? Might want to rewatch the video. FIFY

When Vak is defending him, you *know* the whole "AJ-to-Iowa" thing must be a done deal... J/K. I don't think I'm "dismissing" him though. Just suggesting that his hype outstrips his accomplishments and ignores what's happened since.

C'mon now Anthony, you aren't going to let Caleb flex on you like that are you? (Am I a bad person for thinking it's fun watching the cancer grow and spread?)

Excluding freestyle takedowns sounds like you're cherry-picking, and its an odd question since he hasn't wrestled *anyone* in 2 years. That means our sample size is mostly 2021, in a weak weight class. No doubt Ferrari's stats in that modest sample size are excellent. Not sure of the answer and not sure how to look it up, but I'm pretty sure Noah Adams took him down. Also pretty sure he couldn't take down Warner, or Adams either. How would you rate Warner and Adams against Aaron Brooks? Look, Ferrari obviously was really good. He's a 2021 NCAA Champ with only one loss. If he'd stayed out of trouble and improved at the same rate as Brooks from then until now, it'd be a different conversation. But the truth is even in 2021, he was the best of rather unexceptional group, and failed to distinguish himself on the senior level -- and since then, he's almost certainly regressed, while Brooks and others have improved by leaps and bounds. He's a physical specimen, but even if he has the maturity and humility to get back to where he was before (a really big "if"), Brooks has passed him by.

Yeah, that's probably right, but I'm talking more about scholarship money, and whether AJ wrestles right away. Seems to me the safer route for Brands is to let AJ do what Anthony's doing -- wrestle unattached, see if he behaves, and let him join the team in the fall if all goes well. AJ may want to compete right away, but I have a hunch his performance this weekend, if he competes at all, is going to weaken that argument.

I agree in part but mostly disagree. Yes, he has elite strength and speed, but he's never had an elite offense. It is his defense that's made the difference in close matches. Keep distance, use his strength/speed to keep opponents at bay, and sneak in for a score. Lots of 3-1, 4-2 type matches, against Jake Woodley type guys. Has he ever beaten a top-20 guy by more than 5 points? I don't think so. I'm not faulting him for that approach. It's the best winning formula for him until he learns to diversify and open up his offense. But it's risky at best against someone with an equally stout defense (e.g. Trent Hidlay), and won't work at all against someone with a dynamic offense. Someone like Brooks. Remember, a couple weeks after winning NCAAs in 2021, Ferrari entered WTTs, where he promptly lost to Macchiavello, and then Ben Honis. Brooks, meanwhile, lost only to David Taylor at 2023 WTTs, and convincingly beat Zahid Valencia along the way -- who ended up bumping up a weight and winning a world medal. These guys just aren't on the same level. Maybe AJ's defense would keep him from getting majored by Brooks, but I think a Brooks MD is far more likely than a Ferrari win. Even at AJ's best I think Hidlay beats him 8-9 times out of 10.