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Jersey Red Comments On His Feud With Pitino
Wed., March 31, 1999
RED'S WORLD: A little talk about UConn's
Calhoun and 'The Feud"
By KEN 'JERSEY RED' FORD
<snip>
Last week, the clover came off the Shamrock for the
Boston Celtics. It got so bad that a Boston newspaper,
and then a Worcester newspaper, tried to say that one of
the reasons was the feud going on between coach Rick
Pitino and a guy named Kenneth James Aloyseus Ford AKA
Jersey Red.
In the Boston paper was done by two gals who do a thing
called the "Inside Track", sort of a celebrity "who's
who" gossip column and to their credit they did call me.
My comment to them was that the battle going on between
Pitino and myself was personal and I would not elaborate
on and I won't.
But the story took a life of its own and I was told that
Glenn Ordway, who hosts the afternoon drive show on WEEI
radio, spent much of his show talking about the column
and attacking me.
The reason, I was told, is because I do not nor will I
ever listen to that show. I used to, but about a year
ago I decided that I had better things to do with my
life than listen to the Big "O" and his group of misery
merchants talk about themselves for three hours a day.
Usually, some of my friends who do listen fill me in on
what they are saying about me, but more importantly,
what they are saying about Pitino because I really
couldn't care less about the attacks on me. But when
they go over the line and get personal about Rick does
get my dander up.
I have absolutely no problem at all when he is
questioned about his coaching. They are entitled to
their opinion, and when they question his personal
moves, that's also fair game because again that's their
opinion and they are entitled to it. Ditto for the
Boston sports writers who took some real vicious,
mean-spirited attacks at the Celtics' coach last week!
The rule of thumb with the media today is kick a dog
when he's down, and when you have two major papers in
the Hub, the fight over controversy for circulation
dictates that they must get down and dirty and a lot of
last week's stuff was probably written in the sewers and
passed up to a copy boy through a manhole cover so he
could rush to the editors. It's what they do.
I said I won't comment about the snit between the
exorcist and myself but I find hysterical at the
emphasis that was placed on it. Thursday morning at 6 I
received a call from "Happy Hec" of WSAR radio to see if
I would come on the show to discuss the Boston
newspaper's report of our feud and I did go on with Hec.
Try as he may, he did not get the story behind the story
but as we usually do, Hec and I had a lot of laughs.
When I went to work, there were copies of the story
everywhere and a lot of questions. No answers. And there
were a lot of questions when I got home. I had messages
on my answering machine from radio stations in
Cincinnati, Kentucky, Alabama and New York asking if I
would go on and discuss the fight that was fast becoming
bigger than the thriller in Manilla. This was the Brawl
in Beantown!
Forget that the Celtics were mired in a slump or that
Pitino, after the loss in Milwaukee, held a press
conference saying that the Washington Generals played
better defense then his green machine or that he
apologized to Celtics' owner Paul Gaston for bringing
him in to have his team be playing the way they were and
then adding that there would be a major shakeup in the
Celtics lineup the following night.
The big story was the feud all weekend long. I kept
getting phone calls from the media. Everywhere I went
people wanted to know about it.
The way got into the "Inside Track" was initiated by the
Boston Herald's beat writer Steve Bulpett, who is one of
four people who know the story.
Several weeks ago, he told Pitino that he felt that he
owed me a phone call and an apology, and if he didn't do
it, Bulpett would give the "scoop" to the "Inside Track"
gals.
Several times, Bulpett cautioned Rick that he meant it,
going as far as handing him his cell phone about a week
ago and telling him to call me or else. Pitino said
"no."
And Bulpett did what he promised and the story appeared.
With came the aftermath.
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever envision that,
what with everything going on in this world, something
between two individuals would this much attention.
I felt like with most things would go away and the
sooner the better. Well, I was dead wrong.
Early Monday morning someone came up to me and said,
"Did you hear Mike Moran this morning on WSAR's news
roundup?"
I said, "no" and was told that Mike, along with his
panel of The Herald News' Lisa Strattan and SAR's Pete
Lagace, brought the feud up again.
Now let me interrupt here and say that Mike Moran is one
of my heroes. Sadly, because I'm working while he's on,
I seldom get to listen to his show, but in my opinion
Mike is the consummate professional and I would put his
on-the-air opinions against any of the big-time national
radio talk show hosts. He also plays a mean electric
guitar.
So when I found out that Mike was strumming out the
Jersey Red- Rick Pitino blues, blew me away.
Then happened that I was sitting in the teacher's room
and there was a knock on the door. It was a student who
said I had a visitor. I said show him in.
Standing in front of me was a man I had never seen
before. He was wearing a black suit with a white collar.
He introduced himself as the Reverend Lamar Claypool and
he seemed perplexed and uneasy. He said that he needed
to talk to me about something that was bothering him all
weekend.
He informed me that, along with his other duties as a
minister, he was the chaplain at the adult correctional
facility in Rhode Island.
Then I got nervous. I figured he was there to take me to
the slammer for impersonating a radio talk show co-host
on the weekly show I do in Little Rhody.
In actuality, the Reverend Claypool, a native of Indiana
and an avid Celtics fan, was there to see if somehow he
could help to mediate a compromise between Pitino and
myself.
He also said he was concerned about the emotional state
of some of the Celtic players and perhaps he could also
help them during these trying times.
Folks, I'm not making this up!
My disagreement with a friend now had me sitting down
with this truly wonderful, compassionate man of the
cloth. I thanked him for his concern and have given him
Pitino's home address so he can write him down his
concerns about the coach and the players. But I told him
that he had no shot of being the go- between with us.
We shook hands and promised to stay in touch.
When he left the room I sat there dazed. What would be
next I thought? Geraldo Rivera? Ted Koppell or Pitino
and I slugging out on the Jerry Springer Show?
It was at that point that I sought out the person who I
confide in when I'm at my lowest point. The person whose
opinion I value more than that of anyone in the world --
Kenny "the Custodian" Schoonover.
When I caught up with Kenny, he was walking down the
hallway with a plunger in his hands. I poured my heart
out to him and then stood there eagerly awaiting his
words of wisdom.
Kenny looked at me and said, "Ford you think you have
problems? How would you like to face what I'm about to?"
Good ol' Kenny came through again.
This whole thing in the context of the big picture of
what's really going on in life is "crap" and it's also
no one's business but mine and Rick's, and until further
notice, that's how will remain.
Except for this caveat.
While the coach and I are not on the "right track,"
anybody that takes a mean-spirited, vicious and venomous
attack on my friend, will have to deal with me.
<snip>
(c) 1999, The Herald News
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