We always knew that it would complicate things, change them, make them feel dirty, but now money is taking over the game that Americans really hold dear to their heart: college football.

When I watched that terrible excuse for a coach, Lane Kiffin, stand in an untucked white polo in front of the press in Knoxville last night and say “There wasn’t one day that I didn’t work my hardest for this program,” I wondered, “How?”

How could that be true?

If it was true then you would be too damn proud of your blood, sweat and tears to walk away. These young men’s lives would mean too much for you to walk away like that.

You would be able to see their mothers and fathers faces in June lit with pride, whose hands you shook when they invited you into their home and then dropped their sons off for camp after high school graduation. You’d hear the small talk you made with their little brothers about being a Volunteer one day in your office.

You know that’s a lie, now, right?

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