Can We Please Just Lighten Up?

You can tell we are entering the dog days of summer. Spring football is over, and we are still a full two months away the start of NFL training camps and college football practice. And in the South, the NBA playoffs and baseball in 100 degree heat/100 percent humidity doesn't exactly fire up the masses.

This time of year is known as sports purgatory.

So, how do we know it's that time of year? The media--and some people--is making something out of nothing.

Today's exhibit, Thursday's innocent, tounge-in-cheek radio interview Vanderbilt head football coach James Franklin did with a Nashville, TN radio station.

“I’ve been saying it for a long time, I will not hire an assistant coach until I’ve seen his wife,” Franklin said in the interview. “If she looks the part, and she’s a D-1 recruit, then you got a chance to get hired. That’s part of the deal.

“There’s a very strong correlation between having the confidence, going up and talking to a woman, and being quick on your feet and having some personality and confidence and being fun and articulate, than it is walking into a high school and recruiting a kid and selling him.”

Not only were Franklin's comments clearly meant to be taken in jest (which was obvious when listening to them), but oh by the way, there is some truth in what he said.

However, Vanderbilt's vice-chancellor of athletics--and Franklin's boss--was not amused. David Williams said he found Franklin's comments to be "inappropriate".

Please.

We have become such a politcally correct society that there is very little room for fun--and creative freedom. For one of the few times in school history, Vanderbilt football is semi-relevant, following a Liberty Bowl berth in Franklin's first year. That a radio station wanted to interview Franklin is proof of that. He was trying to be human, showing a side that was both funny and thoughtful.

And what did he get in return? Criticism from his boss and some media outlets (CNN discussed the topic this morning). He then felt compelled to apolozgize via Twitter to anyone he may have offended.

Good grief.

As for what Franklin said, give it some thought. His assistant coaches are charged with, among other things, convincing 17 and 18 year-old boys to commit to attending Vanderbilt and playing football. And oh by the way, those coaches are competing with coaches from other schools in the Southeastern Conference and across the country. Franklin understandably wants assistants who are not afraid to go after the most talented players--

players who are getting attention from the big boys, the likes of LSU, Georgia and Tennessee.

If you are afraid to approach a hot girl, and instead settle for the sure thing (see "homely"), you might not have what it takes to recruit in the SEC.

That's all Franklin was saying.

He didn't blast gay marriage, criticize someone's race, or release some of the Pope's private documents. He was funny. He was "real".

It's ashame more people can't be that way.