I love when athletes hold certain grudges against harmless media people. It’s even funnier when that person is the crazy, and usually random, Lou Holtz. Ex-NFLer Jason Peter has a bit of a grudge against Lou and he’s pulling no punches in his new book. From the South Bend Tribune via The Wiz of Odds….
Twelve years after he last paced the Notre Dame sideline, former Irish coach Lou Holtz still tends to inspire strong feelings in the people whose lives he crossed, even momentarily.
That list certainly includes former University of Nebraska football star turned author Jason Peter, who saves some of the strongest profanity-laced vitriol in his new book “Hero of the Underground,” for Holtz.
“I still wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to spit in Lou Holtz’s (bleeping) face,” Peter writes in the book, which hit bookshelves on July 8. “Each Saturday in the fall when Holtz makes his jovial, dumb … remarks on ESPN, I hope he knows that there’s at least one family on the other side of the screen, the Peter family, that knows what a — — — he really is.”
The reason for the grudge stems from Lou Holtz not ever calling Peter’s brother after the ND recruit suffered a broken neck in a freak pool accident. The bother, Damien, even attended Notre Dame and was ignored by coaches and teammates. He recovered and then transfered to Nebraska. Everything turned out good for Damien, but that doesn’t mean that Jason is okay with it….
“My fingers start to tense up and I get that feeling through my body, even after all these years have passed, when I see him on TV,” Jason Peter said in a phone interview Thursday. “When I hear people talking about him, something goes off in my head. I carry so much anger over that and I don’t know what it would take or if there’s anything that can be done to make it OK.
“Out of the entire book, with all the stories that are in there, all the different phases of my life, the toughest chapter for me to write and for me to read is the part about Damian breaking his neck and the fact that Holtz never called him.”
That’s some hate right there. I also really wonder what (blank)(blank)(blank) actually is. If anyone has any guesses feel free to leave them in the comments, but I’m going with “Stupid Dummy Head”.
Author scorns Holtz (South Bend Tribune)
Reporters’ Notebooks (The Wizard of Odds)
