re: LSU issues Statement on OBJ CashGate

He was still drunk when he did the interview.

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Does Joe deserve any criticism for snitching in a live interview? I mean, kinda a dick move if you ask me.

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I think if he would’ve been sober he would've handled it differently, and I wish that had been the case. So yeah, maybe a tiny, tiny bit of criticism ... but I can’t fairly put more than that on him without coming off as a hypocrite. He’d been wound up tight for months and A LOT had happened in the last 12 hours. No surprise that he went out and got wasted and got no sleep, and his judgment was impaired. I’d put a bit more toward the question of why he was in a relatively unstructured interview situation at a time like that. The money was already a known issue for team/school leaders, so why not play it safe and have somebody Joe trusts available to advise him, prep him, lay down ground rules for interviews, whatever? I can attest from one bizarre professional encounter with compliance over $5 that didn’t even go to the athletes in question that they and the NCAA need zero provocation to go scorched earth no matter how silly the “violation”. I get why Joe couldn’t think all of that through right then, but I hate that it looks like he wasn’t guided better by somebody who could. Idk, maybe he was and he didn’t listen — but that’s the only thing that would change my feeling about his response.

Regardless, here’s the absolute bottom line: None of that — Joe’s resources, team response, interview style — would have been an issue if OBJ hadn’t pulled that stunt on national TV in the first place. He’s a professional, he knows what kind of position he could be putting the whole team in, and whatever extenuating physical or emotional circumstances might have compromised Joe’s judgment in that interview should not have been any sort of factor in OBJ’s behavior the night before.

I know he’s done a lot for the team, players and recruits love him, etc., but you can acknowledge all of that and still say that he was completely out of line the night of the game. I think we all agree that toddlers shouldn't be allowed to run wild enough to cause damage or distract people at work no matter how enthusiastic they are, and toddlers legit don’t know any better. A grown man who still can’t control those impulses needs to be treated the same way unless/until he learns that you can be the life of the party without wrecking shite that doesn’t belong to you.