I Am Not A Traitor

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replying the story in its archived form does not constitute a re-publiccation of the story.

I just want to clarify something that happened on the air today.  It is a fact that I showed up today wearing a yellow shirt and it is also true that I was wearing a Mizzou hat.  It is completely untrue however, that I wore these items because I have jumped on the Mizzou basketball bandwagon and I am ashamed of my beloved Fighting Illini.  That is a total lie.  I love my Illini sports teams win, lose, or draw.  It is true that they had a bad night last night.  But I still love them and support them.  The fact of the matter is, I live on my own, I work a lot, and laundry is not a huge priorty on my list.  I had a yellow shirt that was my only clean shirt, so I wore it.  I had to match, so I threw on my Mizzou hat, which I bought at the Ohio State game in Columbia this year.  It is not because I am turning coat.

It should be noted however, that I do enjoy and occasionally root for Mizzou.  I have many friends who have gone there and are going there.  If they are playing any other team than Illinois, I count Missouri as one of my college teams.  But in no way am I changing my allegiance.  Illinois will always be my team.  And they did beat Mizzou this year, quite badly too. They have beaten many good teams this year including a better ranked Purdue team twice.  I am not concerned about my team.  They will be in the tournament, and they will do me proud.  Some inconsistent play as of late has caused a less than perfect record, but fear not.  The Illini will be back on track in no time.  In the words of Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."