Sunday, April 15, 2007
Spurrier Talks Again...(and not about football)
Nothing unusual about Steve Spurrier generating controversy with something he said, but this time it had nothing to do with football.
It seems that after South Carolina's spring football game, the Ol' Ball Coach was asked about something he had said Friday night at an award presentation. At the earlier event, he was heard to say that when the Gamecocks played Tennessee last year, ESPN's Game Day coverage was "marred by some clown...waving that dang, damn Confederate flag behind the TV set. And it was embarrassing to me and I know embarrassing to our state." It's worth noting that Spurrier himself grew up south of the Mason-Dixon line -- Tennessee, in fact.
Asked about the comment on Saturday, he said, "My opinion is that we don't need the Confederate flag at our Capitol. I dont' really know anybody that wants it there, but I guess there are a lot of South Carolinians that do want it there."
For some reason this is considered a controversial subject in South Carolina. It seems to me that removing the flag from the Capitol is a no-brainer. Even if you set aside the racist implications, the fact is that the Confederacy is not only dead, it was intended to be a separate country. You won't find the Spanish flag flying on the grounds of the Florida Capitol, or the French flag at the Louisiana statehouse. And if someone tried to raise the Mexican flag at the Capitol building in Texas, it wouldn't take ten minutes before the flag was replaced on the pole by the person crazy enough to suggest the move.
It seems that after South Carolina's spring football game, the Ol' Ball Coach was asked about something he had said Friday night at an award presentation. At the earlier event, he was heard to say that when the Gamecocks played Tennessee last year, ESPN's Game Day coverage was "marred by some clown...waving that dang, damn Confederate flag behind the TV set. And it was embarrassing to me and I know embarrassing to our state." It's worth noting that Spurrier himself grew up south of the Mason-Dixon line -- Tennessee, in fact.
Asked about the comment on Saturday, he said, "My opinion is that we don't need the Confederate flag at our Capitol. I dont' really know anybody that wants it there, but I guess there are a lot of South Carolinians that do want it there."
For some reason this is considered a controversial subject in South Carolina. It seems to me that removing the flag from the Capitol is a no-brainer. Even if you set aside the racist implications, the fact is that the Confederacy is not only dead, it was intended to be a separate country. You won't find the Spanish flag flying on the grounds of the Florida Capitol, or the French flag at the Louisiana statehouse. And if someone tried to raise the Mexican flag at the Capitol building in Texas, it wouldn't take ten minutes before the flag was replaced on the pole by the person crazy enough to suggest the move.
Labels: Spurrier flag controversy South Carolina
