Just to illuminate a little, for people that can't believe EVERYONE in Atlanta was trying to leave at the same time...this is what happened...
Schools all opened. Then they all "early-released". If you are a parent, you have got to be there when your kid gets off the bus. You just have to be home. Taking kids into school, parents leaving for work (based on weather reports), and then being told their kids are being released forced everyone on the road at the same time.
City planning, salting the roads, etc, none of that would have made much of a difference the way this went down. The schools screwed this thing by opening school and then releasing them all at the exact same time. It was going to be bad no matter what, but that's what made it a real nightmare.
Again, I'm from Buffalo. I know what I'm doing around weather. It was still a 9 hour experience for me including a 2+mile walk, and I was one of the very lucky ones.
A lot of it was just bad luck, but in my mind the only decision that really screwed everything was the way the schools handled it. My suspicion is that because the schools had already cancelled for "too cold" (which is #softnosed) a week or so ago, the schools were trying to preserve a day off that would otherwise have to be made up for weather cancellations. I think they actually planned to bring them in and early release them, and in the process screwed everyone.
To reiterate, people bristle at the "joke" because it's ridiculing some very trying stuff they went through, and calling them weak after they just muscled through some nasty circumstances. People taking offense aren't wrong.
On the other hand, it's obvious the joke came from ignorance. Not saying stupidity at all, just unaware of the actual nightmare a lot of people went through.
And even then, there's nothing wrong in my mind with a Coach pulling out a heel comment now and then. You can say stuff to make people mad, that's fine. And then it's fine if people get mad.
It doesn't make sense to say "Coach Shafer can't make a joke at other's misfortune" and it doesn't make sense to say "Coach Shafer can make a joke at others' misfortune, but those who experienced that misfortune can't be pissed about it."
Coach Shafer is fully allowed call people who went through this #softnosed to rile up his base, and others are perfectly allowed to point out the success of his teams versus #softnosed schools.
