Rebel Roundup - July 21, 2011 - Where We Unapologetically Reply to Godfrey's Hate Mail

RCR Media Days Coverage Continues Today
Whiskey Wednesday is live and on the scene and will bring whatever off-the-cuff observations he has when he has them. Stay tuned to this here homepage and keep up with us on the Twitters.

The SEC's most underrated players | SEC Blog - ESPN
Brandon Bolden, per ESPN.com's Chris Low, is the single most underrated player in the SEC. It's hardly a tough sell to any Rebel fan, but to a conference which can boast Michael Dyer, Trent Richardson, Marcus Lattimore, Tauren Poole, Spencer Ware, and Vick Ballard- all of which are more than capable of 1,000 yard seasons - a guy like Brandon Bolden gets lost in the shuffle. Obviously that doesn't matter a bit, because Bolden is a truly potent offensive weapon, regardless of how many people out side of Oxford care to notice.

Rebels' Sowell emerges as All-SEC selection | Rivals
Neal McReady traces the emergence of Bradley Sowell from a sophomore who, even by we at the Cup, was a much maligned element of the Rebel offense, to a senior all-SEC pick at offensive tackle.

Ole Miss Athletics assists Smithville | The Dispatch
Houston Nutt and other Ole Miss athletics coaches and administrators took time to visit Smithville, MS, a small town which was the unfortunate victim of the horrifying tornadoes which tore across the Southeast earlier this year, to offer assistance, relief, and aid.

Lindys Ole Miss Preview | Lindyssports.com
Lindys is seeing exactly what we're seeing. The Rebels should be good offensively, especially on the ground; mediocre-to-bad defensively, especially through the air; consistent on special teams; and frustratingly hanging on the cusp of a good season.

LSU on probation after NCAA accepts sanctions | LATimes.com
My question is why does LSU even need to flirt with NCAA violations? You think recruiting there would be pretty easy, especially considering the wealth of talent throughout Louisiana high school football and LSU's status as the SEC school in the Pelican State.

Hell, I could recruit kids to LSU. "Hey, Marcus Lafayourchette, you're a pretty rangy bro, good hands, strong 'n' stuff. How's about you come on down to Baton Rouge. We'll give you a scholarship and, in return, all you gotta do is eat cochon de lait, play football, and act like an imbecile. Whaddaya say? Sign here."

Godfrey Has Fun With Fan Mail | OxfordTown (Page Nine)
Steven Godfrey follows up on last week's bombshell of a column which humorously and haughtily derailed any argument possible for Starkville, MS as being "Mississippi's College Town." This week, he looks at the backlash of that column and concludes that we college football fans are crazy. Of course, one didn't need Gofrey's column to know that, but he makes a compelling case using some pretty poignant, powerful evidence in the form of an email from an infuriated Grinder - one of dozens, I'm sure - which invaded the confines of his Gmail box this past week.

Click the jump to read the email (with Godfrey's censorship) as well as my annotation:

… Why don’t you live in Coxford if it’s so great ... I know ... cause you suck as a writer and can’t get a real job! I’ll tell you what — the next time that State (The people’s university) attracts national attention because ... the president of Fed Ex’s son kills a cop, a drunk frat boy falls out of a tree and kills himself, a bunch of drunk frat boys die in a fire, a foot-ball player is thrown out of one school then becomes your starting QB ... and ain’t worth a (expletive), OR the next time the KKK comes to our campus to march (it’s the (expletive as an adjec-tive) 21 century and you dumb (exple-tive, plural) have the KKK marching on your campus???) OR if any of our esteemed alumni gets caught bribing federal judges ... I will see you eat that paper in the Junction. But until then ... eat (poop) you piece of (poop) (homosexual)!

—Hobie Mark Hobart, Avon, Miss., submitted via Facebook

Mr. Hobart, or "Hobie", makes a multi-pronged argument which absolutely slays Godfrey with its fluidity and wit. ("Coxford"? Brilliant!) I don't know how any of us could ever recover.

It's easy to see why Godfrey chose this out of the multitudes of "fan" mail he received last week, in that it's low-hanging fruit. It's horribly written, disgusting, dripping with insensitivity and prejudice, and so unfathomably mean-spirited that one cannot help but wonder if it's satire.

For starters, there's the whole HA U SUK AND AIN'T GOT NO JOB joke, which, regardless of Godfrey's employment - I'm certain he earns keep somehow - is bland and juvenile.

Then there's the Ku Klux Klan reference, an argument whose entire ineffectiveness the utilizers of such have yet to grasp. Let me explain this slowly, Hobie, the Ku Klux Klan, and all of their grouchy, cowardly redneckery came to Oxford to protest against Ole Miss. That does not make Ole Miss a bedfellow of the Klan. By your logic, I could conclude that Barack Obama is a batshit crazy, überprotestant homophobe because I have seen Fred Phelps and company, with their "God Hates America" signs and all, protesting in front of the White House. (I know this explanation, as simple as it may sound to me, could perhaps be like Newton lecturing a fucking goldfish, but it was worth a shot.)

But then, Mr. Hobart, you cross the line in a big, big way, and I just cannot grasp why or how any person would say some of the things you did.

What I cannot fathom, as a human being, as how you attempt to use horrible tragedy - despite missing some facts here and there (the "president of Fed Ex's son" didn't kill anybody) - to somehow bemoan Ole Miss and Oxford, as if we Rebel partisans are somehow implicit or responsible for said tragedies. I really want to be civil and reasonable here, but fuck that. I've learned over the years that you can't reason with someone so moronic and spiteful.

So answer me this, Hobie: what type of low-life, vindictive, sniveling little shitstain of a human being makes mention of an entirely accidental conflagration, one which consumed an on-campus structure and took the lives of several innocent young men, as some sort of indictment against the victims? The answer is, of course, the same callous simpleton who does the same for the death of an officer of the law in the line of duty who fell victim to a now imprisoned drunk driver, and for the accidental death of a young man who died while, of all things, climbing a tree in his fraternity's backyard.

How. Dare. You.

How dare you take random, unpredictable tragedies which caused mothers to grieve for their children and so passingly make mention of them to retaliate against a largely satirical column which (accurately) said that Starkville ain't as cool as you think it is? How can you at all be proud of yourself for that?

Dickie Scuggs? Fine, we're all felonious bribers. Jeremiah Masoli? Sure, we'll take any old mercenary we can get to do our bidding. "Piece of shit faggots"? (I'm assuming that these were the actual words used in the message which Godfrey's censored into  "poop" and "homosexual" for the Oxford Town column) Whatever, call us shit, that's what rivalries are for - I do find it funny that a guy who wants to label Ole Miss as a bastion of bigotry opted to call Godfrey a "fag", as if the use of such language isn't at all the mark of a bigot.

But don't you dare so carelessly speak of the heartwrenching incidents which have gripped the Ole Miss community over the past several years. You sir, Hobie (do you really go around introducing yourself to people as "Hobie?") have taken the rivalry too fucking far. Take a step back, take a deep breath, reevaluate your priorities, and