The ESPN cameras caught Renardo Sidney pummeling team captain Elgin Bailey on national television and everyone thought Sidney started it all. That doesn’t seem to be the case. Susan Shan has a different story and she is sticking to it.
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In my [URL=”http://susanshan.com/2010/12/24/renardo-sidney-fight-elgin-bailey-stands-diamond-head-classic/”]previous report[/URL], I was told that both Renardo Sidney and Elgin Bailey would be dismissed from the team for their fight in the stands at the Diamond Head Classic. I’ve now received word that Sidney will be reinstated in a few weeks, but Bailey is permanently gone
Let’s start from the beginning. Bailey, who was supposed to be Sidney’s mentor on the team, has been projecting a bad attitude due to the attention that Sidney was receiving. Bailey was jealous of the media attention and was becoming increasingly problematic in practice and in games. He mouthed off constantly to the coaches and isolated his teammates.
One Mississippi St. player even said in a recent practice, “Someone is going to get into a fight with that guy soon.”
The coaching staff was tired of Bailey and his attitude so Bailey was on a short leash already.
Fast forward to the fight in the stands. Like I previously reported, Sidney asked Bailey to move his leg; Bailey refused and began to curse and berate Sidney. Sidney said something back, and then Bailey got up and started attacking Sidney.
Sidney didn’t want to fight and kept backing off, but Bailey continued to attack him. The footage that ESPN showed was thoroughly misleading and an inaccurate portrayal of what really happened. Clearly, showing Sidney as the troublemaker made for a better story given his history.
Head coach Rick Stansbury and his staff actually wanted to keep Sidney in Hawaii but Athletic Director Scott Stricklin was embarrassed and angry about the situation, and ordered the staff to send both Sidney and Bailey back.
Everyone involved with the team agrees that Sidney is a good kid. He has his issues and occasionally has a poor attitude, but he’s a good person and really didn’t want to get involved in the fight, much less instigate it.
For these reasons, Sidney will return to the team but Bailey will not.
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[URL=”http://susanshan.com/2010/12/25/renardo-sidney-remain-team-blame-fight/”]Source[/URL]
Jeff Goodman has spoke to the MSU athletic director and he is saying the story above is false..
[QUOTE] [URL=”http://hootsuite.com/dashboard#”]goodmanonfox[/URL] [URL=”http://twitter.com/goodmanonfox/status/19052916203585536″]10:32am via TweetDeck [/URL]
Mississippi State spokesman Gregg Ellis told me no truth to blog report from @[URL=”http://hootsuite.com/dashboard#”][COLOR=#239cb9]Susan_Shan[/COLOR][/URL] that Elgin Bailey has been dismissed from team.
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It will be interesting to see what MSU does in this situation and to who is telling the truth in all of this. It is a pretty weird situation that involves 2 players who fought in the stands, ESPN, a blogger, and now Jeff Goodman and an AD. I think we have a 30 on 30 movie in the making.
