I'll be honest when I confess at the beginning of this week's column that I don't have the slightest clue (full stop?) what to think about what's happening or not happening with Texas freshman wide receiver Bru McCoy.
All I know is that I was having a good time at a cookout on Sunday when the scuttlebutt made its way to Orangebloods, which means I picked a hell of a time to be social with other people
Where we find ourselves is such a unique situation that it's hard to completely wrap your head around how we could possibly be in the situation in the first place. It's like we're watching 1999s
Runaway Bride with Julia Roberts, a rom-com about a woman that keeps getting engaged and ghosting guys at the wedding alter, while wondering why anyone would volunteer to propose to Roberts' character Maggie after personally watching her break the heart of her FOURTH fiance.
FOURTH!
That brings us back to McCoy, who might very soon warrant being nicknamed the "Transfer King," if there's actually anything to this idea that he might transfer to USC and away from Texas just five months after he transferred to Texas and away from USC. From my perspective, the most curious thing about the last 24 hours is that no one from the McCoy side of things released a statement via social media screaming, "#FakeNews."
You know who else didn't post a #FakeNews statement? All of McCoy's teammates in Austin.
The silence felt deafening.
Despite my urge to create metaphors with Julie Roberts movies, the reality is that we might just be dealing with a young man that is struggling to make major life decisions that come with real-world consequences. If this kid is dealing with high-level stress, anxiety and regret, what matters most is that he takes care of himself. Forget about football if all of this is causing him true mental duress.
I suppose there's a fine line sometimes between enabling a teenager who is building a pattern of running from accountability and a teenager that has made a few poor choices and is dangerously haunted by it all, but I lean towards erring on the side of compassion. With McCoy in California at the moment and seemingly pondering his future, I'm mindful of a phrase I've reminded myself in times of heartbreak.
"If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, it's yours forever. If it doesn’t, then it was never meant to be."
This is where Texas is. Bru McCoy needs to make a decision for himself and he needs to stick by it. If it brings him back to Austin, my guess is that he would be a Longhorn for the rest of his life. It he decides he wants to return to USC, it just means it wasn't meant to be for Tom Herman and his staff.
Let's just hope that whatever happens in this critical moment in his life, he has the ability to discover some conviction along the way because part of the process of going from a boy to a man is the realization than a man's word has to mean something.
Right now, McCoy's word is seemingly on the verge of meaning nothing.
No. 2 - We're not the people we think we are ...
In the aftermath of this weekend's Friday news-dump announcing the hire of Art Briles by Mount Vernon as its new head high school football coach, my mood changed from blood-red anger on Friday and Saturday to a little bit of despondence by Sunday.
As I sat down to try and process my thoughts on what had transpired, I found myself wondering about the world around my five-year-old daughter Haven. Full transparency - I wasn't sure that I wanted kids for a large portion of my life because I thought there were already too many people living on the planet and, if I'm truly keeping it real, I wanted to avoid situations like these. Of course, as soon as you have kids, you tend to go all-in on them in ways that you're never prepared for before they arrive. It's a different kind of torment that exists after you've introduced children into this world without the ability to have their lives forever safely navigated.
Understand that this isn't a story about a man needing a daughter to discover the dangers that exist for women in a world that only pretends to place importance of their safety and general well-being.
My mom was abused as a child. I've dated too many women to count that were either abused or sexually assaulted. My first love as a young man once had a panic attack while we were making out, as she went into a scared state because the moment had triggered memories of her being raped. Friends ... family ... neighbors ... you name it, it's all there in front of us in the great wide open.
Believe me, I don't have to be told.
Take a look at this photo.
This was posted on social media last August from Dr. Jason McCulloch, the superintendent of the Mount Vernon ISD. It's from the "new teacher" luncheon for the school district. By my count, there are 15 women in that picture.
According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in every five women in this country has been sexually assaulted. Now you might be the kind of person that would rather quibble over how that number was created than to actually take measures to soak in the overall message, but the truth of the matter is that somewhere in that photo is likely at least one woman who has been sexually assaulted. Maybe two. Maybe three. Maybe four. Maybe (pick a number).
Somewhere in that room is a woman (or women) who lives every day of her life trying to manage a potentially devastating set of emotions, fears and trauma.
Today, that woman (or women) will arrive at work knowing that her public high school will dismiss the importance of her well-being in the name of football. ****ing football.
Make no mistake, McCulloch and the rest of the Mount Vernon school board knew exactly what they were doing in releasing their press release late on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, as if they stole it right out of the Baylor University playbook. They just hired a man largely responsible for the ugliest sexual assault scandal in the history of college to serve as a coach and some sort of a moral compass FOR FREAKING HIGH SCHOOL KIDS!
Seriously, what are we doing?
Who are we?
I don't know what to tell Haven, but I have some time to figure it out, although not too much time. I suppose the best thing I can do is not pretend that the world is anything but aloof to her general well-being.
Tell her that the world talks a good game, but it might just grab her by the ...
Tell her that if it happens, please know I will believe her and support her no matter what.
Tell her that if it happens, justice rarely gets delivered.
Tell her that if it happens, let's hope there's never a connection to anything football-related that comes with it.
Speaking of pictures, this is Dr. Jason McCulloch's profile photo on Twitter.
Presumably, those are his two daughters. I wonder if he ever stays up at night wondering about the world he's brought them into.
Apparently not.
No. 3 - We cannot stop banging our pots ...
The decision-makers at Mount Vernon are counting on us not caring enough about this four days after it was announced.
They are counting on us to get distracted or bored.
They are counting on us not to care that much about the fact that it just hired a monster of men to roam its classroom halls.
We can't let that happen.
Call. Email. Whatever it takes.
No. 4 - Random Texas baseball thought ...
It's amazing how little one cares about the Big 12 baseball tournament when the team you cover/follow/cheer for doesn't qualify for it.
I say this with a serious face ... I have no idea what happened. I don't know who won it. I don't know who lost in the championship game. I don't know if it got rained out.
No. 5 - Texas softball ...
It's funny, there got to be a time in game three of its Super Regional battle against No. 8 Alabama when things seemed pretty bleak for the Texas softball team.
The Longhorns had a dropped fly ball that extended the third inning and the Tide followed it up with a three-run homer and then another home run to make it 6-1. Freshman pitcher Shealyn O'Leary wasn't really to blame for what had occurred in the third inning, as four of the runs that were scored against her were unearned, but after the second home run, the look on her face spoke of a young woman that was slightly shattered. While she held it together, the cameras captured her angst well.
At that one moment, you knew the Longhorns were probably facing too tall of a mountain to climb.
Yet, at the same as I was thinking this was likely the end of the season, I knew that this Texas team wouldn't quit and that before seven innings of play were over, it would leave its guts spilled out all over the field in an effort to get back into the game ... which is exactly what it did.
Scrapping and clawing the entire time, Texas managed to get the game back to 8-5 in the seventh inning and had the tying run at the plate when the comeback fell just short. Considering we're in the infancy of Mike White's tenure at Texas, the moment felt like a call to the future when days like this will serve as the motivation needed to climb the tallest mountains and not just matchups to get into the College World Series.
In my mind, this was like the end of the original Bad News Bears when the Yankees ended up winning the league, but the Bears came away defiant in the belief that they'd kick the Yankees' ass the following season.
That's where my head is with this team. They'll be back.
"Just wait ‘til next year!"
No. 6 – BUY or SELL …
BUY or SELL: You’d be shocked if Texas doesn’t win a national championship by 2030?
(Sell) Winning national titles is hard. Very few programs pull it off because it requires a certain amount of luck and good fortune. Look at Oklahoma. They've been knocking on the door with some of the greatest quarterbacks in college football history and they haven't even played in the title game for the last decade-plus.
BUY or SELL: There's some part of you that sees the schedule, a third-year QB, and thinks, "This team could actually make the playoff and play for a national title in 2019 if the cards fall right."?
(Sell) There are just too many questions right now. Texas' talent is so young that I believe it is a year away from being that kind of team.
BUY or SELL: David Pierce and staff have the coaching skills and roster talent for a turnaround in 2020?
(Buy) I suppose it comes down to what you think registers as a turnaround, but when you're last, there's nowhere to go but up.
BUY or SELL: This off-season has the biggest turnover of starting personnel in your OB history?
(Sell) I'll still point to 2006 when the Longhorns were trying to replace a guy named Vince Young, in addition to an NFL-level left tackle in Jonathan Scott, the best tight end in the history of the school in David Thomas, an all-American defensive tackle in Rodrigue Wright, a Thorpe Award winner in Michael Huff and another cornerback in Cedric Griffin that was among the best in the country. That's a lot of bad mothers that left the line-up and the 2018 Longhorns lose only one first-team all-conference player on offense (Andrew Beck… as a fullback) and two on defense (Kris Boyd/Charles Omenihu), soooooo ...
BUY or SELL: With new young blood at specialty positions - Texas returns a punt or kickoff for a TD this year?
(Buy) It has to happen, right?
BUY or SELL: Parker Braun makes first team all-conference? We have at least one first team all-conference D lineman?
(Sell) Braun is going to make it, but I don't see any defensive linemen on the roster I'd make that claim about.
BUY or SELL: Jordan Spieth has won his last major tournament?
(Sell) I'm not mentally there yet.
BUY or SELL: Sixers make the Eastern Conference finals next year?
(Sell) It's pretty tough to make that projection without knowing what the roster and the rest of the league look like.
BUY or SELL: The Milwaukee Bucks had a great season but the playoffs showed they are not quite ready to take the next step?
(Buy) Clearly.
No. 7 - Is this Kawhi's Moment?
Look, I know Spurs fans don't want to think about this, but with Kevin Durant possibly out of this entire series, the match-up between Golden State and Toronto feels weirdly competitive with Kawhi Leonard assuming the role of best player on the planet (at this very second).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not picking against the Warriors, with or without KD, but what Leonard is doing in these playoffs is putting together a playoff run for all-time. He just looks like a guy that can't be stopped and it's hard not to think about game one of the 2017 series between the Spurs and Warriors when thinking of what a team led by Leonard might be capable of.
With one Finals MVP under his belt, Leonard is playing for his own legacy in these Finals, much the same way Steph Curry is. One of these two players will emerge into a newfound territory by finishing off this season with a Finals MVP and a ring.
Like I said ... I'm picking the Warriors, but damnit, I have a ton of apprehension at this point in not siding with whatever team Kawhi plays on because that dude has the glow.
No. 8 – Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind …
... Rest in peace, Bill Buckner. If there's a heaven, here's hoping you scoop up that ball and make the final out every time.
... Rest in peace, Bart Starr. If there's a heaven, here's hoping you get stopped on that quarterback sneak against the Cowboys every time.
... Donovan McNabb is a Hall of Famer in my book.
... Giannis Antetokounmpo will learn from his team's setback in the playoffs this week, just like almost every other player in the history of the sport not named Magic Johnson has. Giannis has work to do on his game when he's in the playoffs, but he's such a force that he'll almost certainly be back in this spot and he'll be better for it.
... I don't care if Bru McCoy, Jake Smith and Sam Ehlinger put their names in the portal on Saturday, I am not to be bothered during the Champion's League Final. I might fling myself off a bridge if things don't go well for my Reds.
No. 9 - The List: Top 10 All-Time Country songs ...
As was discussed a week ago, Sirius XM came out with its list of the Top 10 country songs of all-time and it was an absolute mess (thanks to Brian Davis of the Statesman for the photo).
With such a disaster in front of us, I thought I would make my own Top 10 list.
10. You Don't Know Me - Ray Charles (1963)
9. Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain - Willie Nelson (1975)
8. Stand By Your Man - Tammy Wynette (1968)
7. Folsom Prison Blues- Johnny Cash (1957)
6. Amarillo By Morning - George Strait (1983)
5. I Walk The Line - Johnny Cash (1956)
4. Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks (1990)
3. Crazy - Patsy Cline (1961)
2. He Stopped Loving her Today - George Jones (1980)
1. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams Sr. (1949)
No. 10 – And Finally ...
In honoring all of those that we've lost in our nation's history on Memorial Day, I found myself haunted by this article, which details what we ask our men and women to sacrifice when they serve for our nation. It's well worth a read and a reminder that nothing in this world comes without a cost.
From the article:
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