Former Gophers head coach and expert AW SHUCKster Jerry Kill did it again yesterday. The new SIU athletic director took to Sirius XM College Sports radio yesterday and decided to be the humble, charming, wonderful person we all know he is.
Wait, that’s not what he did at all.
It typically takes something pretty impressive to pull me away from all the fun and games that come with being an accountant in January and February, but ol’ Country Jer managed to pull it off by lobbing accusations and whining about his former assistant coach from NIU. He claimed that Fleck has changed a lot and that he’s got an ego problem, he comes out and attacks the man for having a marriage fail, he whines about how Fleck treated his guys and says that a culture change was needed and that the culture was bad with bad people, and that he aired it out with Fleck. and he whimpers about how he thinks Fleck is all about himself and not about the players.
First and foremost, shut up and go away. While I feel terrible that you had to step away from the Minnesota job, you’ve been nothing but a goddamn weasel ever since. You tried to force your way into the vacant AD job at Minnesota after you left, you went to Kansas State to try to find a way to become Bill Snyder’s replacement by being an intermediary between the football team and the AD, you tried coaching again at Rutgers even though you know full well it wasn’t a good idea because of your health. And why is that? Certainly none of these are driven by ego. You’re flawless. An angel in a career field littered with others that are similarly selfless
And the culture comment? Well first of all, he’s never publicly said that the culture was bad. He’s just said that he needed to get everyone on board with HIS culture. That’s different. But you know what? I’ll come out and say that the culture was bad. When there are multiple allegations of sexual assault between both yourself and your hand-picked replacement and the response to all of that is “WELL AWW SHUCKS” you can fuck right off. The culture was bad and needed to be fixed. Boo hoo, he treated your guys poorly. They needed a kick in the ass to become responsible young men in this day, you stuck-in-the 1950’s-ass prick.
And as for Fleck and the players, that’s a load of bullshit that anyone can recognize if they take 5 minutes to watch or listen to what he’s saying (assuming you can find a way to turn down the exclamation points). Fleck is excitable. He’s wild. He may be borderline insane in public. But he most definitely cares about his guys. Watch what he does when there’s a big play. Or go to an open practice and watch him sometimes. I highly doubt you’ll see anyone in a Golden Loafers shirt under this regime.
And then there’s the one thing that bugs me the absolute most of this whole thing. The sly little comment about the first wife. Jerry and his staff love to make comments about Heather and the fact that P.J.’s first marriage didn’t work out. This is such reprehensible bullshit that it has my neck twitching. While the timing of the legal ending of his first marriage and the courtship of the now Mrs. Fleck is rather close, nobody knows the details except for those three. Hell, there’s a very good chance that things were over well before they were legally over. Maybe he was sleeping on the couch in the basement for a year or so before deciding to leave. Maybe he didn’t know how to be away from his kids. Marriages fail, and it’s just a part of life. But to come out and use that as some sort of cudgel against someone is weak, lazy, and fucking pathetic.
So please, Jerry. Shut up and go away. We know who you really are thanks to your efforts to tear down any legacy you had here Brick by Brick. Oh, wait. We can’t use that because you forgot to trademark it and Tennessee took it. Whoops.