Matt, We Have the Receipts
UofL fans are #mad and you should hear us out, Rick Pitino strikes a deal, and of course some links...
Chris Hatfield
I'm not worried about Matt Jones hurting the City of Louisville. He's lived in Louisville for a significant portion of his life and seems to enjoy the city. Despite his constant portrayal of being an ‘every-man coming from humble beginnings,’ my man surely loves him some city-life.
I'm not worried about Jones hurting the University of Louisville either. The fact is Kentucky’s politicians have been doing that for many years now. He can't possibly do a better job there. The University of Louisville merely is stronger than those efforts, and now under new leadership, more than ever, I'm confident it will remain that way.
What I am worried about is Jones’ contribution to the toxic urban/rural divide in the Bluegrass State (thanks to Gabe for putting that in a phrase that I 'couldn't seem actually to piece together). An issue that helps contribute to Kentucky’s allergy to forward progress, or to take any action that might positively impact Louisville in some outsized way.
So far, he's not offered much to ease those concerns. His recent confutation with Louisville fans on this matter are essentially gaslighting. He's treated others like these concerns are irrational, or cribbed in the shallow vile of sports fandom (when their interests are merely much deeper than that).
This is what Matt Jones gets wrong. Or maybe what Matt Jones knows, but wish weren't true or just simpler to approach. (This is why I whole-heartedly believe Rocky Adkins, who doesn't have the smugness or skeletons in his closet, would be a better option to defeat McConnell. But that's a different story for a different day.)
Why people are so easily uneasy about Jones is the same reason why Red vs Blue runs so deep and fierce. It’s what makes our rivalry great. For many fans, it’s much deeper than sports. It blurs into culture and life in ways that just make things matter more. Jones knows this. It’s why he’s spent over ten years successfully rallying one of the country’s most rabid fanbases.
The reality is that Matt and KSR have succeeded by perpetuating stereotypes and undertones on a Barstool lite platform and then not only refusing to apologize for them. Instead he’s insulting the intelligence of everyone with the "haha it's just sports" guys attitude.
Does this look like just sports?
"What would George Washington be like? He and his men 'would've been caught dead in their tracks on the Delaware River once the Hessian forces heard the Ying Yang Twins blasting from the 15-inch subwoofers in the back of the Durham boat. And even if the echoing sounds of "Shake It Like A Salt Shaker" 'didn't alarm enemy forces in Trenton, the unmistakable smell of smoke from the 'crew's Black ‘N Milds, coasting across the frozen water like a dark cloud in the night, 'would've been impossible to hide. The now famous operation, known for its surprise attack, 'would've been a complete failure and quite possibly changed the outcome of the American Revolutionary War." -Drew Franklin on a Kentucky Sports Radio blog entitled "What if our Founding Fathers were Louisville fans?"
"It's Tuesday afternoon. Kick-offs in 30 minutes. Your bill, steam pressed. Your ear, blingy. Your L, ol'' english. Your purple velvet pouch, empty. Your tee is shining, 'it's a motherf*cking ''chrome out.'' And your beard, looks like it was etch-a-sketched by the hands of God. You, my friend, are a manscape architect. Trimt up and ready for football." -John Dubya on a Kentucky Sports Radio blog entitled "Get in Line".
Insert the entire twitter history of KSR friend Not Jerry Tipton here.
It is essential to note that Matt Jones made none of these comments directly. But they landed on his site, in the community that he has fostered and grown. There are quite ugly things out there that he has said that have disappeared from the interwebs. There's a lot of dead links on KSR these days. But people have them, and I assure you that they'll come out if Jones runs.
In a way, though, that doesn't matter to me. Allowing these things to be said on a website that you have built your entire career on IS being complicit in the matter. And that's all I want Matt Jones to acknowledge. I want him to apologize to Louisville fans. I want his dark past not to dim a potentially bright future.
I want Mitch McConnell out of office because I believe he's the vilest politician in American history. And yes, I would vote for Matt Jones to make that happen. But I can't personally reconcile that without these things addressed. I can't knowingly vote for someone who has endorsed a platform that walks this line and doesn't acknowledge it as wrong.
Kentucky deserves better. We deserve better.
Apologize & acknowledge these things. That's truly all were asking. Give us a chance to even give you a vote.
We have the receipts, Matt.
Local Links
I’ve been pleasantly waiting for The Athletic’s ‘State of the Program’ college basketball series to make it to Louisville. That day has arrived and the consummate Jeff Greer has required reading as we enter October and ready for hoops season.
We didn’t drop a newsletter last week, but if we had Joe Sonka’s CJ report on Matt Bevin’s knack for taking personal trips on your dollar would have been at the top of the links list. If you haven’t read the original report do, and check out the latest in the events. This may define the next month of the race.
Declining numbers of students playing football is hardly a new phenomenon, but it appears to be reaching a fever pitch in Louisville. Kevin Wheatley of WDRB talked to local coaches, players, parents and more about the decline.
If you heeded Chris’ advice and listened to NPR’s “Embedded” podcast series on Mitch McConnell then you’ll likely want to know that host Kelly McEvers is coming to Louisville to talk about the project. Tickets are still available.
Finally, we would be remiss if we didn’t send you to Jack Harlow’s latest effort Confetti. Which features countless references to our fair city and is certainly his best work yet.
By Striking a Deal, Pitino Tries out a New Story
Gabe Duverge
Rick Pitino is a man of stories.
The annoying long-winded uncle of college basketball, you don’t need me to remind you of his penchant for storytelling. We’ve all heard the same group of anecdotes in pre & post-game pressers.
Only through that lens does Pitino’s deal with the University of Louisville make any real sense.
Since dramatically exiting out of a back door at Grawemeyer Hall, Pitino’s storytelling has painted Louisville as the adversary. He has since called the leadership that fired him illegitimate. He has gone on radio show after radio show to plead innocence (and ignorance.) He has released his own statements during Louisville pressers, as the team tried to move forward without him.
The fact is that Rick Pitino took every chance to keep at odds with his former employer in his version of this story.
But for all intents and purposes, this settlement was an L for ole Rick. After months of quite publicly voicing how he was aggrieved by the “imposter board.” Pitino walking away with nothing outside a clerical change doesn’t settle any scores.
But the Pitino that signed off on this deal, the one who released a statement seemingly with his tail between his legs, wasn’t about settling scores. it was about ensuring his story gets told.
By allowing the settlement to be a “great day for the University of Louisville,” Pitino gets to put his foot open in a door that was shutting. Its hard to imagine that by fighting tooth and nail, he could win back any of the support he had lost after three lost banners, two recruiting scandals, and one looming dust up with the NCAA.
With this move, the stage is set for healing. With this deal, Pitino gets a less tenuous end to his story.
There’s no guarantee that Pitino will be welcomed back to Louisville with open arms. But he’s one step further to seeing the hatchet get buried.
Outside the Snyder
The more we learn about the failures of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes, the more disgusting it all becomes. It “was an honest mistake, but the secrecy shrouding the program’s existence told you it wasn’t a 100 percent honest honest mistake.” The New Republic Maureen Tkacik outlines how capitalism and not engineering led to tragedy.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election, some of the first writings that really made sense were those of Lauren Duca, then of Teen Vogue. But the further we get from her emergence into the pundit scene the more haters she amassed. As she releases her first book, Buzzfeed News’ Scaachi Koul explores how much of Duca’s criticism is warranted.
RIP Hollywood Video. Whenever I pass one of the locations that used to be a video rental, I get misty eyed thinking about hours spent in the ailes. Netflix exec Marc Randolph tells a relevant story in Vanity Fair about the time Blockbuster laughed the Netflix guys out of the room. Hilarity ensues.
The moment that stand out most to me about a trip I took to Clemson, to watch Louisville lose, is when the public university stadium took a moment to pray. The Guardian’s Gabriel (nice name) Baumgaertner explored how Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and other college football coach use faith on and off the field.
Again we were out last week. But I’m going to take the liberty in tossing in last week’s blockbuster tale of an Instagram influence, her friend/editor, and the lies they shared. If you missed this, don’t miss it again.
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