You don't know anything about the man, his philanthropy, his community involvement - none of that. For you, it's enough that he stupidly got his arse caught while carrying an ego that was too big for his shoulders on top of his messy shorts. He embarrassed himself and - worse - his family. Pitino did the same thing. What does that do for us? It made us laugh then and it makes us laugh now. Finally, we are absolutely guaranteed to have 2 guys who won't be pontificating like preachers about how "they always do the right thing", when the whole world knows it is bullcrap anyway.
The upside? We get 2 absolute sporting geniuses who now give terrific press conferences, full of information and totally transparent and who are relieved of the oppressing need to be all things to all people. We've seen their warts, lol. We're just glad it was them and not us. Now we can watch them work their craft, which was their only job in the first place...lol, aside from staying out of trouble.
1) They don't need to pontificate when you do it for them.
2) Most of us, if not all of us, respect what Petrino can do on the field. Our disrespect is due to his extra-curricular activities.
3) If the man is half as wonderful as you claim, he would never have made such a stupid statement, especially without knowing the rule! (HINT: read the thread)
4) Most Coaches have charities and do some sort of charity work. They have to, it is part of the job. Frankly, I fully expect it of any D1 coach.
5) Pitino was a Boeheim assistant. We also knew him well from his time at Providence. We respect his hoops acumen, and disagree with his extra-curricular activities. Pitino doesn't make a lot of stupid statements. If/when he does, and we need to talk smack, they become fodder.
It is the way of smack talk. Get over it. Don't defend Petrino, he made a verbal gaff and this is game week between us. Everything is fair game, in play, whatever colloquialism you prefer. After the game, we will pull for you guys against others (all OOC, NCState, anyone that will improve our bowl opportunities, Georgetown). There really is no level of hate with Louisville, way too early in the series history to hate. This is just game week.
Syracuse is a school that rarely hates. We reserve it mostly for Georgetown and PedState. We greatly dislike WVU fans, VATech (excellent series history there), Miami (who doesn't) and NCState is moving in this direction.