Regretfully, we have to live in this world again today. Eat at Arby's.
Word of the Day: Dolor.
PARENTS AIN'T BUYING IT. Kevin Warren finally broke his silence (kind of) yesterday with an open letter and an extremely bizarre video interview where he said almost nothing for three minutes.
It was better than what he was doing – hide backstage and refuse to come out – but the Ohio State parents still ain't buying it.
“I think there is still a lack of transparency and no new real information was disclosed to help us understand what changed from Aug. 5 to Aug. 11,” Amanda Babb, the stepmother of Kamryn Babb and the president of Football Parents at Ohio State, told Eleven Warriors. “There is no real plan for the remainder of this year and/or what a winter/spring season will look like. I think it’s extremely hypocritical to say this was for the health and safety of Big Ten athletes, but his son is still playing in the SEC. The letter continued to sidestep real answers to questions we’ve asked.”
What Kevin Warren sent out not only is undermining what our young men and women wear on their jersey... Its embarrassing to the outcry of parents that support their kids... TRANSPARENCY is what we need what presidents voted to cancel fall & What steps are need to play spring..
— Randy L Wade% f@Ly..... (@gslsff) August 19, 2020
And most importantly... Randy Wade's protest will continue as scheduled.
Rain, Sleet or Snow Im BOOTS ON GROUND to show support to our Big Ten young Man... That statement was not transparency... Big Ten family needs to raise up and let the Conference know that is not enough conversation for us... SEE YOU AT 8AM Fri... READY TO CONTINUE THE FIGHT...
— Randy L Wade% f@Ly..... (@gslsff) August 19, 2020
I'm going to be honest, Randy's protest was embarrassingly close to the first thing I thought about when I saw the letter. I was terrified that it was going to kill the protest outside the office that is not inhabited by Kevin Warren, which is bound to be nothing short of incredible (which our Dan Hope will be covering live, by the way).
But I'm glad to hear that it's going to take more than a letter that was presumably plagiarized from the PAC-12's medical recommendations to stop Randy Wade.
“CLUNKY PROCESS.” Kevin Warren's problem wasn't so much his decision to postpone the season as it was his week-long turtling while hell broke loose around him.
Whatever good leadership is supposed to look like in that scenario, hiding from the pissed off people demanding your attention for more than a week absolutely ain't it. That would be like McDonald's serving me Silly Putty instead of chicken nuggets and then refusing to come out from the kitchen to answer any of my many questions.
And yet, that's what the actual commissioner of the Big Ten football conference did at the single most important moment of his career.
He claims he now understands that was a problem, but I'm unconvinced.
In a phone interview on Wednesday, Warren stressed that the league didn’t regret the decision or reasoning behind it. But he fell on the sword for the way the league arrived there and the awkward silence that followed. “Was this a clunky process? Yes.” Warren said. “Were there areas I’d have liked to gone smoother? Absolutely. I need to learn from it and get better at it.
...
That political misfire backfired spectacularly quick on Warren, who lacked allies when he decided to punt on the season. Warren pushing the Big Ten out first, something he seemed intent on doing, only raised the size of the target and the volume of second-guessing. “I’ll be the first one to admit, I was not as clear as I should have been,” Warren said of the initial messaging. “That’s why I felt it was important that I write this letter to explain it."
...
“This process was definitely not perfect, especially around communication,” Warren said. “In retrospect, what I would have done differently is I would have brought all the parties together. That’s part of the learning and growing and striving to be better.”
Do you want to know how I know he doesn't understand this? He gave these comments to one national reporter instead of doing this in a public forum. It's been more than a week and the guy still hasn't done a damn press conference! By the end of the day tomorrow, Gene Smith and Ryan Day will have done two!
He wrote an open letter (that is suspiciously identical to the PAC-12's release from eight days ago), fielded no questions about the open letter, and continues to hide in his shell and make himself completely unapproachable.
And now he's bragging about how he's doing the right thing. I'm truly in awe.
COMIC RELIEF. The past two weeks (or six months) have been hell, but at least it's given us Nick Saban talking about his affinity for Deez Nuts jokes.
Heres Saban listening to Josh Jacobs tell his Deez Nuts story to Dan Patrick last year and his reaction. pic.twitter.com/YgGQ1G9Z8p
— Chicago Gump (@GriffinTSmith) August 19, 2020
I appreciate the absolute delight of the reporters at the fact that Saban is actually addressing this story. I salute those gentlemen. They are truly asking the tough questions of one of the nation's highest-paid public employees.
FREAKISH. The Buckeyes newest commit, Dasan McCullough is a 6-foot-5, 220-pound lab creation that plays linebacker.
He can also do this:
Ohio State commit @Dasan2022 getting close to joining the 12ft club! Dasan can simply do a lot of things other players his age and size cant do! Freak athleticism!! pic.twitter.com/CTnmY1Qacw
— All In Sports (@AISportsKC) August 19, 2020
Ohio State is continuing its longstanding tradition of stocking its defensive lineup with primordial manhunters, and I'm not the least bit upset about it.
SONG OF THE DAY. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole.
NOT STICKING TO SPORTS. Researchers say they know what happened to the ‘Lost Colony’... Doctors used a poop transplant to cure a man whose gut was making him drunk... The Spanish narco who wanted to be Pablo Escobar... For decades, U.S. metrologists have juggled two conflicting measurements for the foot... The strange rituals of super-rich partying...
