Ole Miss athletics director Ross Bjork has written a letter to the editor of the Opelika-Auburn News, which caught a lot of shit this week for running a photo of Ole Miss receiver Laquon Treadwell suffering a season-ending injury during Saturday's game against Auburn on its front page. Bjork's letter is a monument of insufferability.
Sure, the Opelika-Auburn News splashed its front page with a photo depicting a mildly gruesome injury, but the photo also captured the most important moment of the game, a goal-line fumble with 1:30 remaining that sealed the victory for Auburn. Those circumstance didn't stop Bjork from going full dipshit:
After careful thought and consideration, I feel compelled to express my disappointment in the way you reported the outcome of the Auburn vs. Ole Miss game. Specifically, the way you sensationalized a moment with a grossly depicted image that affects a young man's life. Furthermore, your response to criticism from readers could be described as nothing short of digging your heels in. Quite simply and most disappointing, you showed no signs of remorse for the incredible lapse of judgment.
We run our athletics department with a well-defined purpose, and we operate daily using seven core values to guide us. Together, those core values comprise our "line in the sand," and we will defend them when attacked. It is our belief that your actions are at odds with those of those core values: Student-Athlete Welfare and Social Responsibility. So, it is for that reason that I have written to you.
In closing, we know of no other newspaper that has used such a graphic image of a student-athlete's injury in such a sensationalist way and sincerely hope you have not created a precedent for this type of crass journalism.
Ross Bjork
Director of Athletics
University of Mississippi
It's fun to watch a guy who makes over $400,000 year off the play of his school's unpaid athletes try to stake out the moral high ground. What he's essentially telling this newspaper is: "How dare you use your paper to depict the consequences of the game on which I rely on for my personal wealth!" Screw this guy.