How We Should Remember Snoopgate
Greatest Late Night of all time?
While I understand why it’s tempting to scrutinize everything about last Friday, let’s take the Snoop Dogg Late Night episode for what it is: it’s really, really funny.
The fact that Snoop’s concert became a national news story is your classic case of “bad optics,” and the more general details fit the whole corruption narrative. The money gun! The multiple amended apologies! Self’s body language!
While KU isn’t helping themselves at all by drawing out the story—Jeff Long’s fault—it’s something that’ll probably be talked about all year. But I wouldn’t mistake that for some kind of literary metaphor, something that’s going to affect actual performance in competitive basketball. The Snoop $100 bill is not legal tender.
As KU scrambles to figure out who they want to blame publicly, I’m thinking a lot about what Jeff Long would consider “vetting.” Two phone calls? That’s one more call than he made in the Les Miles coaching search, jussayin. One call and a couple texts? I’m not asking, “Has Jeff Long ever been to a rap concert before?” because I already know the answer to that. I’m asking “Has Jeff Long ever heard about someone going to a rap concert before?”
I can’t stop laughing about it.
While KU messing up these details is telling, and maybe exposes how frayed everyone working for the AD is nerve-wise, my anticipation for the 2019-20 is escalating to levels I could have never predicted. In terms of memorable Late Night scrimmages, this one is an all-timer.