Enemies of the State: What we still don't know
Enemies of the State: What we still don't know
Just what did they do with the information they stole?
The Meet at Midfield crew—that is Ryan Donnelly, Patrick Mayhorn, Kevin Harrish and me—put the nail in the coffin of the sordid tale of Kirk Barton and his business associate, Ken “NevadaBuck” Stickney, losing their outlet’s credentials for their theft of Ohio State football practice tape.
From the gang at Meet at Midfield:
Barton and Stickney “will not receive Athletics media credentials for the foreseeable future,” Ohio State athletics spokesperson Jerry Emig confirmed in an email sent to Robert Glickman, an arbitrator in the now-concluded legal battle between Barton and Stickney and fellow co-founder Marc Givler – who has since left Buckeye Scoop and launched a separate website, Buckeye Huddle. Barton and Stickney’s actions also led to the revocation of media credentials for colleagues at Buckeye Scoop who were uninvolved in the incident, according to the email.
Emig’s communication to the arbitrator, speaking on behalf of Ohio State, also noted that the pair were in “direct violation of Ohio State’s closed football practice policy” and were “uniquely problematic because of the improper and dishonest manner in which they gained access to these closed practices.” Emig continued, saying they “compromised the spirit of journalistic integrity.”
Barton and Stickney are threatening to sue Donnelly and me. It’s funny how quickly we went from two dudes without a pot in which to piss to two dudes with “lottery money,” as Barton so eloquently put it last night.
Barton and Stickney have resorted to smash-and-grab tactics, stealing video and audio content from other outlets and peddling it as their own. Not that they have respect for their customers since they switched the billing cycle from every four weeks to 28 days without telling them. They also fired 90% of the staff the week after their annual subscriptions were renewed with no refunds. Their former customers have had to dispute the charges with their financial institutions.
We know these two see the world like every con artist, where they’re always the smartest in the room, and everyone else is a mark to be pilfered to finance whatever dumb new purchase these two losers wanted to make.
We don’t know for sure how Barton and Stickney accessed the tape. The common thought is they paid an injured backup to access the footage. As the story goes, that player was discovered when coaches asked why this random benchwarmer had suddenly turned into a film junkie.
Whatever it is, we know Ohio State was ready to prove Stickney’s and Barton’s malfeasance. As unbelievable as it is, there was a short time when you could access legitimate inside info by subscribing to the work of two serial fabulists.
It’s worth asking if Nevada and Barton sold the information to anyone other than those foolish to subscribe to their racket.
This is speculation with no concrete proof, but knowing that projection is a favorite tool of narcissists, it’s worth revisiting that time Stickney accused Tim May, the godfather of the Ohio State beat, of repeatedly selling inside information to Ohio State’s opponents throughout his career.
Here’s a collection of posts from a previous exposé from The Rooster:
No opposing coach would believe they could get Ohio State’s game plan on the internet forums. A drunken quality control coach for Wisconsin told me their offensive game plan on the eve of the 2019 Big Ten championship in Indianapolis, and #87 still ran wild for them despite me repeatedly tweeting at Ryan Day to cover #87 before the game began.
But Stickney and Barton, for all their flaws, are not random assholes off the street. Stickney, in particular, has connections throughout the industry.
How much do you think an opposing team would pay for information on Ohio’s State team formations, schemes and personnel changes? Probably a pretty penny, and we already know how much Barton and Stickney love them.
It’s also coincidental that Ohio State lost to Michigan for the first time in a decade when Barton and Stickney siphoned liquid gold from the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
Again, that’s all speculation with no concrete evidence. But we know that Ohio State traditionally prefers to sweep the dirt under the rug when confronted with a scandal.
After all, Barton has an All-American Buckeye tree on campus. And it’s embarrassing for the program that these two-bit grifters could even weasel their way into the inner sanctum in the first place.
It’s similar to leaving the White House with classified nuclear secrets. We don’t know everything that Barton and Stickney did with their ill-gotten information, but we do know they only have loyalty to themselves.
And with those two, no gutter has proven too deep.
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