Even more Rick Pitino links:
- Rebecca Rosenberg of the New York Post travels to Louisville and talks to Jacqueline Pitino who says that, as Post puts it, “vixen can’t ruin Pitino’s marriage.”
- Laurnie Caproni of the Maysville Ledger-Independent writes an open letter to Pitino.
- Mark Wiedmer of the Chattanooga Times Free Press compares Vandy’s Kevin Stallings’ behavior to that of Pitino’s.
- Andew Wolfson of the Courier-Journal talks to Pitino’s lawyer, who says that coach did not force Karen Sypher to have an abortion.
- Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal writes that the Pitino story is far from over.
- Nathaniel Bryan of the Elizaethtown News-Enterprise talks to Scott Padgett about Pitino’s situation.
- John Adams of the Knoxville News-Sentinel writes that Pitino is another case of a lesson unlearned.
- LEO Weekly’s C.D. Kaplan is glad that U of L is sticking by Pitino.
- Chris Diggs, the Courier-Journal’s UK fan blogger, takes exception to a letter-to-the-editor.
- Porcini’s will be forever known as the Rick Pitino Restaurant.
- Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News says that in the Pitino case an Alabama president showed the way.
- Darryl Parks of WLW gives his opinion on Pitino from the Catholic perspective.
John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky and graduate of UK, he covered UK football for 13 seasons before being promoted to columnist in 2000. He lives in Lexington with his wife and two sons. You can e-mail him at jclay@herald-leader.com.
I am not a Rick Pitino apologist by any stretch of the imagination, but I will give him credit for one thing: If he really wanted to, Pitino could have swept this entire thing under the rug. He could have paid off this woman with the $10 million, he could have used all of his power and influence as Karen Sypher correctly noted he has a plethora of both…. and more than likely this episode would not have ever gotten out, and he could have kept his sterling reputation intact. But instead he decided that enough is enough and he was going to inform the feds, which he had to have known was likely to ensure that at some point this entire episode would be made public as it now has been. I’m not condoning his behavior, and perhaps initially it was his aim to sweep this thing under the rug and perhaps he even did coax Tim Sypher into marrying the woman. But unlike Bill Clinton (who he writes about in “Lead to Succeed” or John Edwards), he decided to come forward and tell the truth, no matter how messy and damning it is that he had this tryst of all places on a table at a restaurant and then likely financed the woman’s abortion. For telling the truth in the end, I give Rick Pitino credit.
Not sure why my comment isn’t being added?!!!