Louisiana Voice

Was it really a decision of plain-sense economics or was it one of motive-driven politics when Gov. Jeff Landry said on Monday, “I can tell you right now, “SCOTT WOODWARD WILL NOT BE SELECTING THE NEXT LSU COACH”?

On the surface of it, Landry made a lot of sense in criticizing the two multi-year, mega-million-dollar payouts of football coaches’ contracts negotiated by Woodward at Texas A&M (Jimbo Fisher’s $77 million) and LSU (Brian Kelly’s $53 million).

But the LOUISIANA ILLUMINATOR may have – inadvertently or otherwise – revealed a political motive as well as an economically prudent one when it noted that Landry “bench Democrat LSU athletic director Scott Woodward from picking the next LSU football coach…” (emphasis mine)

Stressing that “I’m not going to be picking the next coach,” Gov. Squeaky Toy said that the LSU Board of Supervisors would come up with a COMMITTEE which would “go find us a coach.”

But wait. Squeaky Toy has complete control over the Board of Supervisors and, by extension, utter dominance over the selection of said committee and its subsequence decision over the selection of a new coach.

That, on its surface, would appear that by taking the choice of a next coach out of the hands of Woodward, Landry is making a 100 percent political decision and injecting partisan politics into the hiring of a coach. That, in turn, is going to scare a lot of would-be candidates into running from, not toward, LSU for their next coaching job.

And for anyone who for a nanosecond believes that Landry is going to resist the opportunity to have a say in the selection process, I have some gold moon rocks I’ll sell you cheap.

What coach of any credible reputation would want to inject himself into that position? Why, it’s almost like some crazy person wanting to become the next LSU president. Wait. That’s already happening, isn’t it because Dr. William Tate got fed up with having to be Landry’s mouthpiece some time back and fled for Rutgers University.

I can’t say I disagree with Landry’s antipathy toward multi-year, multi-million-dollar contracts. Saying he was “tired of rewarding failure,” he said, “We are not going down a failed path. This is a pattern. Right now, we’ve got a $53 million liability,” Landry said. “We are not doing that again.”

Most everything he said up to that point sounded good. But then, like the yam-colored Frito Bandito, Landry couldn’t stop there. He just had to say, “Maybe we can get President Trump to pick [the next coach]. He knows winners.”

Yeah, sure. Just look at some of his appointees and identify the “winners.” Even Trump calls them losers after they split and split, they always ultimately do.

But back to LSU. Scott Woodward, hired in May 2019, is in year six of one of those multi-year (10-years in his case) contracts that pays him a grand total of $1.85 million per year. That’s $18.5 million over the life of his contract which expires on April 30, 2029.

(Click on + at top of illustration to magnify; scroll down to read all pages)

Of that $1.85 million per year, $525,000 (($5.25 million over 10 years) is paid by the university with the remainder) $1.325 million per year coming as “supplemental pay,” meaning a chunk of his salary, as well as that of Kelly’s, is picked up by private contributors to the Tiger Athletic Foundation (TAF).

That contract is actually between the LSU Board of Supervisors, Ryan Eric, LLC and Scott Woodward. Ryan Eric, LLC is a corporate entity set up by Woodward, apparently for tax purposes, and whose corporate address is the same as that of Woodward.

The main responsibility of any school’s AD, by definition, is to hire personnel and negotiate contracts. And he ain’t done too badly with the hire of Kim Mulkey for women’s basketball, Jay Clark for gymnastics or Jay Johnson for baseball. Between them, LSU has four national championships in four years.

So, with Squeaky Toy’s stepping in and usurping Woodward’s authority, what can we expect of Woodward in the future? What’s he going to do to earn the remainder of that $18.5 mil? What authority does he have left, administering concession and season ticket sales (another sore point, considering the hike in ticket prices and tailgate parking permits during a down season for LSU football)?

It wouldn’t surprise me to see Squeaky Toy pull some stunt to gain control over those as well.

So, don’t be surprised if Woodward bids the Ole War Skule arrivederci and buenas noches (if he’s bilingual) at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Speaker of the House or jester to the king?

Mike Johnson, the self-proclaimed “Moses of the House,” is not above lying.

In fact, he’s damned good at it. Maybe that’s why Pedo-POTUS ridicules him behind his back.

Trying his best – and failing miserably – to be empathetic, he said this week there “cannot be a regular legislative session so long as the government is closed and Americans are feeling so much pain.”

First of all, he doesn’t feel any pain so long as he continues to collect his $612.33 per day even as federal workers go without pay during the current shutdown.

Second of all, the shutdown is the choice of Republicans in Congress, not the Democrats as they would have you believe.

Johnson says if the Democrats would only vote to approve spending bills, everyone could get back to work. The Democrats, however, to their credit, refuse to return unless action can be taken to keep Affordable Care Act (ACA) premiums from skyrocketing, making coverage unaffordable for millions of Americans. So, Johnson is lying when he attempts to lay the blame for the shutdown at the feet of Democrats.

Besides, while Johnson blames the Democrats for the shutdown, which began Oct. 1, it was Johnson who sent House members home back on Sept. 19 – in order to avoid a vote on releasing the Epstein files. Those Epstein files, by the way, could arguably be linked to the Seventh of the Ten Commandments Johnson claims to adhere to.

Johnson also is lying – and he knows full-well he’s lying when he claims that millions of undocumented immigrants are receiving Medicare/Medicaid or ACA benefits. It’s not true because it is illegal for them to enroll in either of the programs. Johnson knows that, yet he continues to make the claim otherwise. So much for the Ninth Commandment.

Likewise, Johnson is lying when he insists that he is prohibited from swearing in newly-elected Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Arizona) while Congress is not in session. He points to Louisiana’s Julia Letlow as an example of one who was not sworn in until about a month after her election when in fact, it was Letlow herself who chose the date that she would be available for the ceremony.

Oops.

Moreover, two other Republicans were elected during a recess but they were immediately sworn in – by Johnson. Still, he chooses to lie through his teeth while claiming to be a devout Christian. Grijalva, by the way, is the final vote needed to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files. Mikey wouldn’t be letting that little fact dictate his reluctance to administer the oath of office, would he” Nah, couldn’t be something that crass.

Johnson has also defended (a) Herr Frump’s demanding payment of $230 million in damages from the Justice Department over past federal investigations (in other words, Johnson, an attorney, sees nothing wrong with der Führer’s suing himself), (b) the demolition of the East Wing so that el Presidente may erect a 90,000-square-foot, $300 million ballroom while children on SNAP are about to go hungry and federal workers go without paychecks and (c) endorsed TACO Don’s pardon of former Rep. and convicted con man George Santos because MAGA-man believes in “redemption” even as he pursues prosecutions of three of his critics. All that fealty pretty much knocks Commandment Nos. One, Two and Eight in the head

It’s certainly no wonder that Ol’ Yam Tits was recently heard privately claiming that it is actually he, not Johnson, who is “speaker and president.”

Want to hear a good one? Johnson was quoted by MSNBC as saying Republican House members are currently doing “some of the most meaningful work of their careers,” adding that he is reluctant to “pull them away” from their time in their home districts.

On second thought, he’s probably right that by staying out of the Beltway, they may well be doing “some of the most meaningful work of their careers,” because they sure as hell haven’t shown much evidence of work in Washington.

Just a quick reminder that LouisianaVoice is in the final week of its October fundraiser and we still need your help.

You see, there’s no $54 million buyout for our services so we must continue to toil away at finding and reporting official misbehavior on the part of our public officials.

So, if you can afford to do so in light of runaway costs of food, utilities and medical care, any help you could provide would be greatly and humbly appreciated.

To make a one-time contribution by credit card, go HERE and then scroll down to the YELLOW DONATE BUTTON in the right-hand column. Click on that and simply follow directions.

Again, thank you for your continued support all these years.

It’s uncertain as to how prevalent a presence Allstate has, but the folks of Winnfield might want to question if their police department is in good hands.

Not only was Police Chief Johnnie Carpenter ARRESTED in April 2011 for obstructing a federal marshal who was attempting to serve a federal arrest warrant and subsequently CONVICTED and sentenced to six months in federal prison, a year of supervised release and fined $4,000. He was even honored with a PARADE, complete with marching band, in Winnfield following his release from prison.

 But he also appears to have done a less-than-thorough job in vetting one of his part-time officers.

LouisianaVoice confirmed on Monday that Ben Earl Johnson is employed as a part-time police officer for the city of Winnfield. Johnson has a checkered history at best.

Johnson was hired by Louisiana State Police on Dec. 3, 1995 but was terminated on March 27, 1998 because of repeated disciplinary problems, things like:

• Failure to be in his assigned parish for patrol;
• Altering accident reports with white correction fluid;
• Sloppy and error-plagued paperwork and accident reports, including incorrect dates, incorrect mileposts and even incorrect parishes and incorrect judicial districts;
• Unauthorized attendance at a Northwestern State University football game in uniform while off-duty;
• Altercations with fellow state troopers;
• Rude treatment of females stopped for traffic violations;
• Logging incorrect dates he worked on his time sheets;
• Losing citations that he had written;
• Allowing his patrol unit to run out of gas and then attempting to claim mechanical problems;
• Losing his State Police badge and badge/identification card holder;
• Failure to search and handcuff a prisoner later found to be in possession of a pocket knife;
• Possession of radar equipment in his patrol car that had been missing and which caused considerable concern in efforts to locate the equipment.
• Patrolling in the city limits of Alexandria and Pineville against troop regulations;
• Calling in traffic stops before violations actually occurred;
• Inability to locate accident he was directed to even though both vehicles were in the roadway;
• Untimely submission of paperwork;
• A five-day suspension for leaving his assigned parish to travel nearly 20 miles off his assigned route.
• On April 27, 1997, barely four months after his designation as a State Police Trooper, he became embroiled in a confrontation with a Rapides Parish sheriff’s deputy after the deputy allegedly made disparaging remarks about him to a woman Johnson was dating. Johnson appeared at England Air Park where the deputy was assigned while off duty but in his state police vehicle and threatened the deputy with physical harm.

Normally, when a State Trooper resigns in lieu of dismissal may land a job with another law enforcement agency. But Johnson did not resign; he was fired, which usually also involves revocation of his Police Officer Standards & Training (P.O.S.T.) certification.

Despite that, he was next employed as a police officer for the Veterans Administration at the VA Hospital in Pineville. It was while employed in that capacity that he was ARRESTED by Natchitoches police for ATTEMPTED RAPE of a woman in a Natchitoches hotel.

Incredulously, the charge of attempted forcible rape, a felony, was reduced to a misdemeanor by then-10^th Judicial District Attorney Ven Kyzar who now is a judge on Louisiana’s Third Circuit Court of Appeal. On Nov. 13, 2009, Johnson signed off on an inexplicable AGREEMENT that dismissed the charges against him upon the satisfactory completion of a pre-trial intervention program.

Several other judicial districts were consulted and all agreed that those with such felony charges are ineligible for pre-trial intervention program. But even stranger, Johnson’s pre-trial intervention appears to have been fast-tracked with warp speed because, according to DIMISSAL PAPERWORK issued by then-district attorney investigator Danny C. Hall to Barbara Watkins of the Veterans Medical Center in Pineville, charges were dismissed that same day.

One former district attorney said it was unheard of to DIMISS CHARGES on the same day an individual was assigned to a PTI, especially when the dismissal was contingent upon completion of the program. Moreover, he said, there was no way anyone could have completed such a program in a single day. “The person would have to know somebody,” he said.

A sitting judge said much the same thing. “He knew someone. It usually takes six months or longer for a case to be dismissed that way,” he said. At the same time, he said the district attorney could have seen it as a weak case, particularly in light of the fact the victim waited several days to report the incident. (The victim told police she was “embarrassed and ashamed,” and initially “just wanted to forget about the entire day” but her best friend convinced her to talk to police.). Still, Johnson, saying, “I feely admit my guilt,” ACKNOWLEDGED that he had been arrested and charged with the crime of attempted forcible rape, a felony” and that the pre-trial intervention program was established “to divert me from further criminal conduct.”

He even told his would-be victim at one point prior to their struggle that she was safe with him because he was a POLICE OFFICER.

So, how did the VA handle his Natchitoches arrest and his subsequent confession? He was stripped of his position as police officer but was kept on – in the Human Relations Department, of all places, where he supposedly had access to employee personnel records, including home addresses and telephone numbers.

Equally baffling is why such a serious felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor and then how did he manage the “satisfactory completion” of a pre-trial intervention on the same day he was assigned to the program, allowing the charges go away instantly?

All that would be bad enough to warrant his prohibition from ever again working in any capacity of law enforcement but he is doing just that and LouisianaVoice confirmed on Tuesday that he is even P.O.S.T.-certified. Wonders never cease in Louisiana.

Brian Kelly was originally signed to a 10-year, $95 million contract to coach football at LSU. Sunday, a little more than halfway through his fourth season, he was shown the door. His firing followed a humiliating pounding at the hands of No. 3, undefeated Texas A&M on the Tigers’ home field.

That meant that the, BUYOUT OF HIS CONTRACT before negotiations which at this writing, were still ongoing, carried a face value of $54 million, the second-largest buyout of a coach’s contract in NCAA history.

The record buyout, by the way, was the eyepopping $77 MILLION owed Jimbo Fisher by A&M when he was axed in 2023.

Kelly and Fisher have a common denominator (besides both having coached at LSU where Fisher was an LSU assistant under coaches Nick Saban and Les Miles). That common thread that links the two is Scott Woodward.

While serving as athletic director at A&M it was Woodward who signed Fisher to a 10-year, $75 million contract in December 2017. The A&M Board of Regents extended that contract through the 2031 season in 2021. A clause in his contract stipulated that should he be fired without cause before Dec. 1, 2021, he would be owed a whopping $95.6 million. Alas, he was canned after a disappointing start to the 2023 season and his contract was bought out for $77.5 million.

Of course, Woodward, a native of Baton Rouge, moved back home in 2000 and was responsible for the hiring of Kelly to that $95 million pact on Nov. 30, 2021. Obviously, Woodward wasn’t around for Fisher’s firing – he left A&M but the fact remains that he was the one responsible for hiring both coaches.

The LSU Board of Supervisors and Woodward would be financially prudent to follow the example of one Walter O’Malley, owner of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1950-1979. He had a manager named Walter Alston to whom he signed to 23 consecutive one-year contracts, from 1954-1976. All Alston did was win seven National League pennants and four World Series titles. None of that multi-year contract business for O’Malley. Consecutive one-year contracts seemed to be sufficient incentive for Alston to win and win he did.

Of course, the business of sports has changed drastically and there are no more one-year contracts. Players and coaches alike demand security while the rest of us go to work each day never knowing when a hedge fund is going to buy our employer and lay us off and relegate us to the scrap heap of the unemployment line.

Fair or not, that’s the direction the mega-dollar of sports has taken us and we appear to have gone along for the ride willingly and without complaint.

So, we’ve come a long way since Paul Dietzel became LSU’s head coach in 1955 at a salary of $12,000 per year (Les Miles chewed that much in grass during a single game), which by the way, was about average for a time when football was a game and not a business.