Louisiana Voice

Lo and behold, Jeff Landry puts his foot in his mouth again on the day LouisianaVoice publishes my first contribution to the blog. I couldn’t let that pass without comment.

Landry was speaking earlier last week in an exclusive interview conducted over the phone with sports columnist Jeff Duncan. Landry again made a public display of his ignorance of the issues or at least his willingness to be ignorant of the issues. But his greatest ignorance is he seems to be oblivious that a sitting governor should not be involved in hiring or firing coaches at LSU. He obviously thinks of LSU athletics as his personal brand. In his comments he used “we” and “our” a lot. He bragged about trading texts with Lane Kiffin during spring practice. He didn’t say a word about coaches’ salaries or the Athletic Directors who have to be fired for negotiating such bad deals but he was quite open about being close to Will Wade and being “irritated” Wade wasn’t hired last year and that’s why there’s a “big change in leadership over there.”

Landry also spoke about the hiring of Kiffin, the Saints, and other sports related issues. But it was his comments on the current state of college athletics that irritated me most of all. A governor should know better. Unless it’s his intent to obfuscate.

Among his many problem comments was this gem, “Right now, the only focus in college sports is a loyalty to Benjamin Franklin on the $100 bill, rather than the loyalty to the teammates and to the coaches and to the programs. But I didn’t get to write those rules — I had to play by those particular rules. And the only way to get Lane Kiffin was to do what we did. I didn’t like it. I don’t think it was fair to his players. It wasn’t fair to him, but hell… Again, Congress needs to get off their tail and fix this thing.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong. I addressed the issue of “greed” in my post which Landry, an attorney, should have some grasp of. He also invokes the old trope of “loyalty” which doesn’t mean anything if it isn’t a two-way street. Then he says he didn’t write the rules, but there are no rules and that’s the problem. The NCAA cannot enforce rules limiting or prohibiting an athlete’s opportunity to earn money at the school of his choice because they are not exempt from antitrust law. And there were certainly other hiring timelines for Kiffin but they would have come at the expense of LSU so the “we had no choice” excuse is invoked since principles aren’t a real thing anyway. Finally, Landry caps it all off with “Congress needs to get off their tail and fix this thing.” The NCAA could “fix this thing” right now if it wanted to. Congress wouldn’t have to do a thing. All the NCAA would have to do is reorganize into enough divisions that strict rules could apply for each division and each division only. That would probably get them the antitrust exemption they need to enforce regulations. But as it has been 12 years since the NCAA has known that and has done nothing. I doubt the NCAA has any desire to “fix this thing.” But Congress getting involved is “a” solution, certainly not the best or even a desired solution. Once something becomes “the law” then you are bound by it. I distrust Congress to make a law that binds college athletics and won’t have some unintended and negative consequence. Personally, I believe breaking away from the NCAA is the only workable solution but I understand that’s both controversial and debatable.

Landry isn’t alone in his ignorance of the problem, on college athletics or any number of other issues. Nor I suppose is it surprising someone out of their depth would nevertheless be elected to higher office. But it is still disappointing when the governor of your state insists on getting involved with your favorite teams, because he can, even though he can’t be bothered to understand the current issues. It’s bad enough Landry is hiring and firing coaches and administrators without also contributing to the misinformation running rampant concerning college athletics.

But maybe it’s just a sign of the times. This isn’t just a problem with the current state of college athletics. Misinformation and the willingness to believe it – and repeat it – is running rampant everywhere. Nothing can be taken at face value anymore. Knowing the facts requires a little more effort than turning on the evening news. If you or I won’t put in the effort that’s lazy. But when leaders won’t put in the effort that’s dangerous. We should all pay more attention to the danger of intellectual laziness in the people we elect.

The full text of Duncan’s interview with Landry can be found here: