Can you smell that smell??

I don’t know when grunge became cool. They say it has something to do with Seattle and a dead guy named Cobain. I don’t know when it became acceptable to use horrendously bad language in public….especially in front of women. I don’t know when hearing “F-bombs” dropped no longer brought embarrassment. I DO know this; call me old-fashioned, but my ears still turn red and I still duck my head when I hear that bomb dropped.

The behavior of some people is analogous to walking around in a cloud of dust, sprinkling dirt on all they come in contact with. They seem to be happily dirty. They don’t try to explain it. They don’t try to hide it. They don’t try to fight it. For them, it is a part of their character, and a fact of their life. In many ways, their behavior is as slovenly filthy as Pigpen from the Snoopy comic strip. But whereas Pigpen was kind of cute in his dirty ways, other people are not. They're just nasty.

Maybe that’s why Bobby Petrino is a good fit for Arkansas. They are Pigpen central. Home of the Razorbacks. Chitterling country. Can you smell the Pig Sty?

You certainly can when you observe Petrino’s behavior. This past week the Southeastern Conference has been debating the “Excessive Celebration” rule. Really, it is an “Unsportsmanlike Conduct” rule. And if you look up the words “unsportsmanlike conduct” in the dictionary, you will find a picture of Bobby Petrino. Oh, he may have a great offensive mind, but his demeaner is simply offensive.

Not only is he a sojourner coach looking for his next gig, he has one of the filthiest mouths in all of football. When ESPN or CBS has a Hogs game, they cannot show Petrino more than a couple of seconds without showing, in glaring and colorful clarity, F-Bombs, the Lord's name in vain, and other words being mouthed out toward coaches, referees, players and the camera. Cover your kids eyes and ears when he is being shown and turn down the volume. Mama, you don’t wanna hear this!

My mother would have taken a bar of Dial soap and a fingernail brush to his tongue. That smell in Razorback stadium isn’t from the Boar Hog they have down by the endzone, it is the stench that comes from Petrino’s mouth over on the sideline. As Jack, who worked in the Machine Shop at Columbus Mill, used to say about a Plant Engineer: “That man sho’ can cuss!”

Tomorrow, Auburn plays the Hogs in Fayett-nam. I hope they packed a lot of soap for the trip, because even though there is an artificial rug for the turf, there will be plenty of filth flying around that will need to be scrubbed off.

War Eagle!
WJLaneSR