This appeared on the TigerTown board this morning. I know we're all tired of this. But just for the record: GeauxTiger says: Earlier this afternoon, it was brought to my attention that Coach Saban and LSU were still VERY hot about the "speech" that he was said to have made to the team after the KY game that has made it's way aorund the south. Some on The Lair had spent some time tracking down the person who had made the post...only to find out that the poster's name was...Mike Ritter! Gulp... No...it was not me. Rather, it was my cousin, of the same name. Mike is a HUGE LSU fan, a tremendously gifted writer, and one of the funniest guys I've ever known. Most of you will remember his posting of a fake conversation in rebutal to Chris Warner's tirade about Chancelor Emmert a few months ago. He used the handle M. Dave Ritter for that one. Mike tried to call Coach Saban's office this afternoon to apologize, but was not able to speak with the coach. He hopes to get that chance asap. In addition, he asked that I post an apology both here on The Lair, and on Tiger Town...to all LSU fans. I think it pretty much covers it...but since I've now spoken to him about this issue, I'll be happy to try and answer any questions some of you may have about this. "I'm asking Geaux Tiger to post this message for me onThe Lair and Tiger Town boards: Dear LSU Community, On Sunday night I posted an email on the LSU TigerTown board as "The Kid". Although the post reflecteda lot of my own personal feelings about Saturday's LSU-Alabama game, it was a complete, total and unauthorized fictional account. I live in New Yorkand I have no relationship to the LSU program (exceptas a fan who watches the game on television) and I have no contacts with anyone employed by LSU. Thespeech was a satire of the one that Bill Murray gavein the 1979 Ivan Reitman film, "Meatballs". In the movie, Murray gets his troops fired up by ranting about all the advantages that Camp Northstar has and repeats the phrase, "IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER." I thought it was funny and it kind of got me fired up about THE GAME. I'm very surprised and somewhat disappointed that some people (especially in some parts of the country) thought that the document was real. The person who was most affected by this was LSU's coach Nick Saban. In passing it off as a transcript of his speech, I allowed some people to use the post to question Coach Saban's character. No person in football deserves this less. Coach Saban has been a leader at LSU in building the character and sportsmanship of the football players, building the new Academic Center and growing a culture of excellence both on and off the field. I know that he's also built relationships with high school coaches and coaches in the SEC (including Coach Fran), and he has a reputation of honesty and integrity in the coaching fraternity at every level. It takes hard work and rare human qualities to build that kind of reputation, and I deeply apologize that I've given some people the opportunity to question it. Although I sensed that Alabama fans were hurting about this, I hadn't realized it was a big issue until Coach Saban was on the Paul Finebaum show on Wednesday night. That's why I am coming forward to apologize to the LSU community now. Chancellor Emmert, Skip Bertman and Coach Saban are doing an incredible job in Baton Rouge -- and I'm truly sorry that my goofing may have detracted from their efforts this week. But believe me, nothing can stop these guys; these are winners and they're building something special at LSU. If anyone would like to verify this, feel free to email me at [email protected] ATBADTH, Regards, Mike Ritter"
Y'know, for a "HUGE LSU fan and a tremendously gifted writer", o' Mike ought to learn how to spell the players he's such a fan of. It's not Damon James, it's Damien. Maybe he was thinking of Damon Duval, Auburn's kicker. There were a couple of other fairly glaring errors that should have tipped off the "hoax-iness" of that locker room speech. Good luck tomorrow, Tigers. Let's have a good, hard-hitting, well-played, injury-free game. This is what SEC football is all about.
