re: An invitation for LSU fans to show some love to the Cajuns (albeit unrequited)

quote:

---

In the late 90's I had a working relationship with Joey Durel. Now the outgoing City/Parish President of Lafayette but then just a business owner whose office was was upstairs at his Johnston Street Pet shop.

I happened to be in his office when word came down that the name change had gone through. The guy was almost pissing himself in excitement, and yet every other word was about LSU. He was asking if I was excited and I just shrugged and told him I didn't see why it mattered all that much. He ranted on and on about how it was all about perception...that simply changing the name would give the appearance of being larger and more successful.

I countered with..."Why not simply get better? Why not attract locals and alumni by actually working to put a better product on the field?"

The inability to do that was all LSU's fault, btw.

Then I REALLY pissed him off and told him, "Joey...I'm a USL alumnus and I can;t wait to get LSU football season tickets. I grew up an LSU fan and nothing about attending USL games while at school turned my into a Cajun fan. If anything, it turned me off. Conversations like this turned me off."

Then I was the problem...not that USL had done nothing to grab and keep me as a fan, just that I didn't blindly support sports programs that had virtually no interest in even trying to get better and fans who DID bother to attend concerned more with the program 50 miles down I-10 they basically never played than with their own.

So...I never call them by that name not because I fear that it will have the affect guys like Durel seemed to think it would...but because they admitted it was nothing but symbolism over substance. It was s shell game. It was Jon Lovitz changing his name to Brad Pitt in the hopes of sneaking into Jennifer Anniston' room...

---