In response to an Outside the Lines report that generally focused on academic issues at Florida State and specifically focused on the perceived educational problems that former Seminoles defensive back Antonio Cromartie demonstrated while in Tallahassee, Cromartie’s agent strongly disputes a comment attributed to him by Tom Farrey of ESPN.
As MDS explained earlier today, Farrey pointed out that Cromartie and agent Gary Wichard declined to be interviewed for the story -- but that Wichard admitted that Cromartie has some “language deficiencies.”
So if Wichard declined to talk to Farrey, when did he say that Cromartie had language deficiencies?
Indeed, Wichard told us today by phone that he never said that Cromartie had “language deficiencies” or anything remotely similar to that.
Wichard also told us that, contrary to the representation from former Florida State receiver Fred Rouse that Cromartie could read only one or two words per minute, Cromartie has no deficiencies with reading or writing.
Wichard said he was with Cromartie in the offseason, while Cromartie was filming a commercial, reading off a teleprompter while doing so. (We assume it wasn’t a spot for Beast After Shave.)
Wichard made another great point: Cromartie is one of the more prolific pro football tweeters, a skill that requires (wait for it) the ability to read and write.
Actually, he was the first NFL player to be fined for a Twitter posting, after complaining about the food at training camp. Wichard said that Cromartie does all of his computer work without any assistance or editor, and that Cromartie has none of the problems that were attributed to him during the report.
As to Rouse, ESPN curiously doesn’t point out Rouse’s potential unreliability and/or cognitive inabilities, which include an arrest for felony burglary of a teammate’s apartment.
The occurred after Rouse left a glove at the scene of the crime.
The glove has Rouse’s jersey number stitched into it.
In his defense, maybe Rouse doesn’t know his numbers.
After all, he went to Florida State.