The sordid tale of LSU football, the Louisiana governor and a years-long feud

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They say history has a way of repeating itself.

Shrug all you want at this overused phrase. But there’s plenty of documented evidence to prove this life of ours is nothing but a circle.

Round and round we go.

This week, in south Louisiana, where the state’s key political figures have been for decades uncomfortably intertwined with the state’s flagship football program, history is on replay.

By now, you’ve either heard about or seen the news conference of Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry publicly eviscerating the sitting athletic director of Louisiana State University.

Behind a podium in the Louisiana Capitol, Landry, a brash and big-talking Republican, chided Scott Woodward for signing a “terrible” contract with now-fired coach Brian Kelly; bemoaned the $53 million buyout now left for the state’s public school to pay; announced that Woodward, in fact, will not be hiring the next football coach; and suggested LSU will never again agree to such a contract while the school actively searches for its next coach in a market where such contracts are quite common.

The entire scene seemed carved from a skit, ripped from the pages of some sort of Louisiana comic book: the guvnah, flanked by his lieutenants in the hall of Louisiana’s capitol building, his words coated in a fiery Cajun twang, berating one of the state’s most prominent public employees who, as of this point, does remain employed.

If you wish to know how the college sports world received this public verbal flogging, look no further than the text messages and phone calls that flooded to this writer from noteworthy folks within the industry.

They were left amazed, shell-shocked and in real, honest-to-God disbelief.

Is this fake?

It’s all too real.

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Hours after LSU athletic administrators began down the path of firing Kelly, Landry gathered board members, donors and select university administrators at the Louisiana governor’s mansion to formally authorize the firing of Kelly. Despite several members of LSU’s athletic administrative staff attending, Woodward was not one of them, perhaps not invited considering the next fact in this story.

While at the gathering Sunday evening, sources told Yahoo Sports that Landry strongly suggested to those present he wanted Woodward fired.

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Much more ...