After last week’s Helmets and Heels where we ended the show with a good debate on Rick Pitino and Louisville’s scandal involving escorts, we invited FS1’s Jason Whitlock to join the show and share his opinion on the topic.
Some of you may have read my article covering the topic and how we should wait until the investigation clears before we call for a Hall of Fame coach in Pitino to be fired but I always like hearing from someone who differs in my opinion and that happens to be one of my cohosts, Amanda Borges.
During the interview with Whitlock, he was reiterating his initial points made in his column on the topic but when Borges asked, “If you don’t blame Rick Pitino, are they [Louisville] just supposed to sweep this under the rug and continue the season like none of this happened?”
To which Whitlock responded on air with the following:
“Sweep it under the rug is too strong and you’re putting words in my mouth. We should act like adults and act like we understand … Look, I don’t wanna get too real on the radio show [laughs] but if you really understand athletics and this relates to men and women. Athletic people, in-shape people, tend to be the most sexually active people on our planet … Go to the Olympics and ask the athletes what goes on with the best athletes from all over the globe in the Olympic Village. You’re talking about people who are very proud of their bodies, very sexually confident and what type of behavior they engage in … Ask any coach working in athletics, on the female or male side, and ask who are the most sexually confident/active people on the campus. It’s the athletes. So we have to bring that reality to how we evaluate this scenario. They’re not the rest of the student body. Their minds, their confidence, their sexual confidence, is different than the rest of us. It takes far more nuance and sophistication to evaluate this situation than what’s allowed in this current and instant-analysis environment of ‘Ricki Pitino’s gotta go and that’s gonna clean up things at Louisville.’ I don’t care who you put in as the next coach at Louisville, those boys, those young men are gonna find a way to hook up in the dorm, or an apartment, in the locker room, somewhere it’s gonna go down. You hope it’s not with Katina Powell and her three daughters but it’s gonna go down somewhere.”
“Again, I’m not excusing all of it but I am taking a realistic look and I hate it when people sit there and pass judgement and never ask themselves, ‘Well what would I do if I was 18 and in better shape than 99.9 percent of the population?” I’m sure you ladies have experienced it, when you 2-3 men together in a group, our IQ level drops 10-points for every guy you add. And if you get 10 or 12 of us in a group and we’ll think of the dumbest stuff on the planet to do. And when you put us all in a crock pot at a dorm, you can’t get shocked when they do dumb stuff.”
Due to radio time constraints, Borges couldn’t get a follow-up question in but did have this to say in a separate interview in regards to Whitlock’s comments:
“I completely disagree with how Jason compares prostitution to Olympians in the Olympic Village engaging in sexual acts, and young college students sleeping with each other in dorms. That’s not even comparable. Aside from the fact that prostitution is illegal in this country, it’s also something that most women don’t choose to do; they are often forced into. But, this is not an argument about why prostitution is wrong. We already know it’s wrong. The problem for me is comparing the act of prostitution to young people choosing to sleep with one another. There’s a big difference.”
Borges makes a valid point in no matter what results from this investigation of what Pitino did or didn’t know, prostitution is illegal in this country and if Pitino and the University of Louisville knew of these actions, proper punishments should be made to all those involved, including former students and staff members.
While the points in my initial argument stems from my ideal that these were consenting adults paying for services from the oldest profession known to mankind which involved no physical harm to either party, it doesn’t take away from another ideal of mine in the human race should constantly strive to rise to a higher standard in our society and not sink to behavior that would reflect badly on an entire population, in this case, the University of Louisville.
It’s been a fascinating couple of weeks debating this topic but before I let you listen to the show, just know there’s much more from Whitlock’s interview PLUS a great chat with Jaguars safety Josh Evans after their huge win over the Buffalo Bills in London which he also talks about if yoga pants are real pants, if a hotdog is a sandwich, his favorite Disney movie and if he sings in the shower.
Give it a listen below…
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SHOW
8:47 Recapping the Jaguars win over the Bills in London
26:10 Studs & Duds from the weekend
37:38 FS1’s Jason Whitlock defends Rick Pitino over Louisville sex scandal
51:29 Jaguars safety Josh Evans joins the show
