I just took down the last paragraph of the second item of this morning's Sprints. Not because of the complaint from Georgia fans about the recent records shot -- that's the normal back and forth between fans of two teams. But because it might have been read to imply something that I never met to imply about someone whom I respect immensely.
And I need to apologize.
Earlier in the item, I said it was disingenuous for Kyle King to compare Georgia accepting South Carolina joining the SEC to South Carolina accepting Clemson to the SEC. I still believe that. And I made a comment in that last paragraph about Kyle "having a book to sell" -- because he had jokingly said the same thing in the original post.
I freely admit that I am not impartial upon this point; I consider the Georgia-Clemson rivalry one of the most important in all of sports, and I have ulterior motives for wanting to see it rejoined.
That last link is to the post where Kyle announced that he had written Fighting Like Cats and Dogs, a book I look forward to reading one day. (To my knowledge, it's still in search of a publisher, something I feel likely will come sooner or later.)
I had an email sent to me in confidence -- which means you're not getting the name -- from someone who read the post a way I didn't intend it and has reason to believe others read it the same way. Because I respect both that individual and Kyle, I want to make it utterly clear how I did not mean the post to read.
Apparently some people conflated the two points. So they didn't read:
- Kyle had made a disingenuous point in what I believe was an otherwise completely honestly-felt pitch for Clemson, even if I disagree with it;
- SPACE HERE FOR SEPARATE POINTS
- (Tongue in cheek) He jokingly says he has an ulterior motive because of the book, but here's another ulterior motive I want to jokingly propose.
Instead, they read: "Kyle wrote a disingenuous post ... because he has a book to sell." That is something I would never in a million years write about Kyle.
The reason it's important enough for me to write a separate post and try to clear this all up is because I respect Kyle far too much for anyone to ever take that away from that post without me doing everything I can to refute it. And because that interpretation would offend Kyle, members of the Dawg Sports community and the thousands of people that read that blog every day -- and it should.
Kyle is one of the bloggers I most like to debate. And part of that is because he is passionate about his positions and one of the most honest and forceful advocates for those beliefs. The thought that anyone who read Sprints this morning would interpret it that way is probably so foreign to me because I would never say anything like that about Kyle.
So let me say a few things right now: If you're not reading Dawg Sports every day, I don't know what your problem is. It's one of the most consistently well-written and entertaining blogs out there, so spend a few minutes checking it out.
And I am truly, sincerely sorry to Kyle for what I wrote. It doesn't matter that they might have been misinterpreted, because I'm ultimately responsible for how reasonable people might interpret them, and the person who reached out to me is completely reasonable. So I made a mistake and caused offense I did not mean to cause. I'm sorry. Period.
I wish I could take saying it back. Since I can't, I decided to do the next best thing.