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Off the fence and on board

HammerOfJustice

Senior
Gold Member
Dec 8, 2006
850
1,458
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Charleston, WV
I am man enough to admit that despite the enormous amount of hostility I have harbored toward RichRod due to the despicable way he conducted himself after announcing his departure for Michigan, coupled by the multiple times I have publicly and vehemently expressed my hostility toward the concept of him ever returning to lead WVU's football program again, his statements and visibly evident emotional reaction to being rehired during today's introductory press conference and his interview with Caridi have led me to have a change of heart.

As of this moment, I still do not trust him as far as I can throw him. As of this moment, because he apparently remains unwilling to utter the very simple words: "I am sorry", I remain unwilling to forgive him for the sh*tty way he treated his alma mater and the WVU fanbase in general as he departed for Ann Arbor, setting all the bridges between him and Morgantown on fire whilst bending backward at the waist, thrusting both middle fingers into the air and yelling, "F*CK ALL Y'ALL!!!!"

But I get why Wren hired him. RichRod may be too proud today to say, "I'm sorry," and the closest we may ever get to the apology we are owed is his assertion that he has grown as both a coach and a person ''and in particular in the 17 years since I made the mistake of leaving.'' But that overly-proud and unduly non-repentant bastard is visibly burning with an intensity to prove the whole damn world wrong, and that fiery determination is an intangible WVU desperately needs to be a viable competitor in today's world where our financial resources are relatively limited and must be invested extremely wisely. It pains my friggin' soul to admit it, but it's true.

As I noted in another thread, there is an important distinction between using the passive voice ("Mistakes were made") vs. the active voice ("Jimmy made a mistake" or "I made a mistake"), in that the passive voice obscures who bears responsibility for the screw-up while the active voice affirmatively attributes responsibility to someone.

Much to my chagrin, RichRod unfortunately did not "apologize" today. But he did accept responsibility for deciding to leave, and he acknowledged that decision was a "mistake" on his part. And as of this moment --- when examined in the full context of all the other positives that have been/appear to be happening around his return (e.g. Pat McAfee fully jumping on board and giving RichRod a weekly segment on his enormously popular show + big donors pledging to do whatever is needed to help him succeed + former WVU players vocally and enthusiastically endorsing his return) --- that's enough for me to cast aside my long-simmering hostility, welcome him home, and pray to God that he can catch lightning in a bottle once again. LGM
 
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