With four NFL divisions to go in what I still contend should be called The Smarter Than Y'all Late-August Preview Madness (Damn, the NFL Starts Later and Later Each Year) Fortnight, it looks like we can have a Rick Pitino conversation and still squeeze everything in. Some say Pitino has handled a big mistake and a horrible situation nobly. I say he's reacted about as favorably as Tim Duncan when he doesn't get a call.
Consider these quotes, the first of which seems to be some sort of attempt to defend his affair.
"I came here at a very difficult time. When 9/11 hit, you needed a community to get you over it. . . . I needed this community to help me get over it."
Now there's some reasoning any wife could accept! Note to Pitino, Chad Ochocinco, and anyone else stupid enough to make a questionable 9/11 reference: It's often frowned upon. How insensitive could you be?!
This second quote came Wednesday:
"On a day where Ted Kennedy died, we broke in the news here in Louisville with Karen Sypher audio-ing the tapes to the detective when it's already been put out. That's a pretty sad commentary on us." No, no. This is pretty sad commentary. Also see Dan Le Batard's "MVP voters are racist for choosing Nash" column and any Tim McCarver broadcast.
I used to cover sports for a newspaper, and nothing disturbs me more than people telling media how to do their jobs. It's called local news, Rick. Proximity is one of the main things that carries a story to the front page, and I'm pretty sure Ted Kennedy didn't die in Kentucky. If you want editorial control, I'm sure any newspaper editor would gladly swap jobs with you. Look, man... women are crazy, especially when they know you're rich. Bite the bullet, pay for your mistake, don't think the media will leave you alone just because they give you courtesy laughs at pressers, and step as far away from your high horse as figuratively possible. You screwed up, and the terrorists and media have nothing to do with it.
-JW
JW,
When did 9/11 join skin color, sexual orientation, and Barack Obama's birth certificate in the great American gallery of Things We're Not Allowed To Mention? Pitino's brother-in-law died in the towers. If anyone is allowed to reference the attacks, it's him.
A closer glance at Pitino's remarks in context, by the way, reveals even less to get upset about (unless you get upset for a living). Here's the pertinent paragraph:
Besides my apology to the university . . . I also apologize to my extended family, which is all of the fans. I came here at a very difficult time. When 9/11 hit, you needed a community to get you over it. In New York City, it was easy because everybody knew the devastation of that and they got each other over it. In Louisville, the impact wasn't felt like New York City, but I needed this community to get me over it. The university and my friends and lvoed ones have helped me through this very difficult time.
Call me an easy mark, but it's pretty clear to me that Pitino's invocation of 9/11 was not, as some have suggested, an attempt to excuse the affair--a Seinfeldian "Our female fans were there for me, and after a while they were just there." Indeed, the man is quite obviously apologizing not just for betraying the trust of a fan base (as if fan bases can "trust" college coaches) but for betraying the trust of a fan base that saw him through a tough time. What's the problem!?
If anyone needs to get off a high horse, it's the sports media, whose desperation to fill the 24-hour news cycle for an ever-fragmenting viewership has led to a self-righteousness that would make Al Gore blush. You're sports reporters, guy. Report sports. A big-time coach's affair might fall into that category. Your uninformed, sound byte-driven take on his etiquette doesn't.
-GM
