Well, as you probably know by now, Jay Glazer, the guy from Fox Sports who outraged me and apparently a good number of people from Kentucky, apologized in his column for his faux pas.
As a person who let his anger get the best of him and joined Gazer in the gutter last week, I am happy to see what he wrote. It may not be the abject, crawl-on-your-belly-over-broken-glass kind of regrets some of us may have desired, but it is, in my mind, more than sufficient.
I have already apologized to New Yorkers for my over the top screed in response to Glazer, and any hard feelings I have for Glaze have been put aside. Anyone can hurt people's feelings, but not everyone is big enough to get up there and say "I'm sorry, I blew it." That's what Glaze did, and I hope all Kentuckians who were put off by his earlier column will join me in accepting it in the spirit in which it was offered.
Actually, this whole affair has opened my eyes a bit -- in Kentucky, many of us are quite sensitive these days to the "hillbilly" moniker and suchlike. One of the biggest reasons, especially among those who follow sports, are opposing fans, but I don't know many Kentucky sports fans of any stripe who can't take that abuse. I suppose it is more about an apparent validation of that "hillbilly" slur by the mainstream media that causes some of us to react as if we had a chip the size of the Empire State building on our shoulders.
Anyway, I'm glad to see this behind me, and I hope Jay gets a chance to come back to Kentucky. Perhaps both Glaze and I can have a "do-over" -- I think I will plan a visit to the Big Apple soon and purge all those unpleasant memories for good and all. And perhaps, we will prove once again that sports can help people overcome stereotypes and misjudgments better than practically any other form of entertainment.