Jason Whitlock Goes MySpace

When Jason Whitlock trashed the KU football team in Sunday's paper with a special emphasis on criticizing Todd Reesing, I took it as the usual Whitlock pile on. I mean it's nice to know you can count on certain things in life, but it did seem a little more passionate than usual. Tuesday's additional dash of venom directed toward KU from JW revealed the source of his anger. Sure he's a poor sport and was probably upset that he lost a steak and milkshake by picking the Hawks. That alone would probably justify him jamming a knife into the two biggest wounds for KU football fans during what is one of the darkest weeks in KU sports history. In case you missed it, the great one touched on KSU fans tearing down our goalposts in 1994 while calling us a basketball school.

If you read between the lines, it's pretty clear why Jason threw a journalistic tantrem in the paper. He wanted to target KU fans because the battle lost on the field didn't compare to the one lost in the stands. Even Jason knew before gametime that his precious Arrowhead Armageddon would end in 2008. Jason wanted this and Kansas City really wanted this, but the reality is that was KU's best effort from an Arrowhead attendance standpoint and it ended in a 50/50 split. Next year, it will likely be 80/20 MU and the reality is Kansas just isn't going to play a road game against Mizzou every year.

Whitlock wants to blame it on KU being a "basketball school." The simple fact is Missouri draws on a much larger fan base and shares it with no one. KU splits one of the smaller states in the conference with KSU. It's no secret that KU plays in a 50,000 seat stadium and the Tigers have a 68,000 seat venue. That alone underscores the disparity. This is not an excuse or a surrender to Mizzou, just facts that we need to know as we compete in the rivalry and conference. So, the Arrowhead experiment is complete and it was a huge financial and media/hype success. The recruiting impact is still to be determined.

Unfortunately, it doesn't matter whether or not KU fans are sore over losing, it doesn't sound like many will return in 2008. Which means the series is over in Kansas City.

Back to Whitlock, I can't let either the "basketball school" or "goalpost" attack slide. Yes, we have a huge tradition in basketball. We've won national championships, conference championships and make regular appearances in the Final Four. Winning builds the fanbase and the longer you sustain it, the bigger it grows. So yes, we have fans that will buy season football tickets just for basketball points then dump them on the open market. That's brutal. Those are called bandwagon fans or traitors. But the fact is I've never seen 50,000 people in Allen Fieldhouse. I know a lot of KU fans that have football tickets but pass on the basketball tickets. Most of the true fans at KU want to win at both sports. Sustained success on the football field will grow the bandwagon. The year over year improvement is evident under Mangino and the season ticket base and attendance continue to grow. Drop the "basketball school" smack. Especially during a period when Kansas fans deserve to celebrate a team that collected a record 11 wins and though clearly overmatched fought to the end at Arrowhead.

The mention of the 1994 goalpost incident is just irresponsible. It comes up on the message boards every now and then and certainly was the low point in KU sports history. I expect that from internet punks and loners, but I was disappointed to see it in print from a sports journalist that actually has a national voice on real issues in society. There are two things to consider about that incident:

1. KU fans were caught by surprise by the occurrence. It was the pure brashness of an unimaginable act of poor sportsmanship that caught everyone off guard. It's interesting to me that all KSU fans wear it as a badge of honor.
2. If KU fans had taken action, it would have been a national incident of violence that would have marred the college football for a long time. I've always wondered why Kansas didn't get some credit for taking the high road there. I thought it was an incredible act of sportsmanship that there were no altercations. When it is brought up, the implication is always there -- you should have fought to the death to preserve those goalposts. Maybe. Or possibly, you just put it in perspective as an entertaining child's game played by young men in large venues. Enjoy the highs, support the team and don't worry so much about the lows.

By now though, all KU, KSU and MU fans know the spinning Whitlock will spray that machine gun of MySpace style abuse in their direction at some point. In sports, you can't win 'em all. In journalism, those jesters don't even really play.