Quote Originally Posted by Parrott View Post
_ To start, I'm merely offering some explanation to some points that have been made, hoping to add some perspective. As many share their opinions here, I wish to offer mine as well.

For the record, I wrote in my blog that I received two phone calls and one brief voicemail from coach Lee. Then a third party got involved and point out here that coach Lee made four phone calls. (Even though coach Lee later told me that he never spoke with that third party.) Then another third party got involved and backed up that point - after saying he didn't want to get involved.

Along the way, I expressed confidence in my ability to do my job given my past experience after a third party wrote "You are clearly upset by the way he addressed your question in the press conference as well or you wouldn't have written about it in your blog." That poorly constructed assumption had nothing to do with how I handled the situation.

I wrote here that I know how to do my job without advice from those outside the business, which could have come across as harsh but was never my intent. Name-calling followed. That third party and I have since spoken, and I've moved on.



As a reporter, anything new or out of the ordinary is considered news. In my time covering UL, I've never seen such an outburst by a player or coach, let alone during a press conference. I cannot worry whether it has happened elsewhere. Emotions don't excuse such actions.

The incident was mentioned about halfway through my Tulane game story before I blogged about it the following day. (I didn't have time to rewrite my story due to deadline concerns, otherwise it would have been higher in the story.) Footage of the incident was also run by the two local TV stations at the press conference, so even if I had ignored it the majority of the public would have figured out what happened.

As for this situation, I reached out to Jay around 5 p.m. Monday. Whenever he's ready to talk I'm willing to listen so we can move on to more important issues.

We now return to your regularly scheduled message board. Happy New Year to all. _

And JP, like I mentioned before, I think you know by now that we all appreciate what you do as far as providing coverage for our school and its athletic programs. Its an unfortunate situation that was somehow brought into the spotlight, and in the end, broadcast here on this forum. I hope that you and Jay were able to put things to rest so we can all go back to complaining about the love/hate relationship that is UL...Happy New year.