The University of Kentucky’s football series with the University of Florida has taken on a peculiar twist. Last year in Gainesville, the Kentucky Wildcats snapped a 31 game losing streak to the Florida Gators. UK linebacker Kash Daniel celebrated on the visitors’ field.
AND THATS THE BOTTOM LINE! @steveaustinBSR pic.twitter.com/eq3cfstfNZ
— Kash Daniel (@KashDaniel15) September 9, 2018
This year in Lexington, the Gators won a dramatic contest over UK and a Florida player returned the gesture.
— Alex Huelsman (@alex_huelsman) September 15, 2019
Beyond Florida’s victory came an outpouring of angry Gator fans who saw Kentucky’s Kash Daniel twist the ankle of their quarterback Kyle Trask. Daniel denied any wrongdoing, but further video angles affirm Florida claims that the UK player tried to injure the the QB.
This GIF was snared before @wymt nuked the video. The images do not jibe with @KashDaniel15's explanation. https://t.co/3vM5GYQVJ4
— Terry Meiners (@terrymeiners) September 19, 2019
Kash Daniel talked to media the day before that video surfaced from WYMT, a member of the University of Kentucky sports network to televise games.
WYMT offered the clearer angle that does not jibe with Daniel’s explanation. But as pressure mounted from Kentucky fans, WYMT officials removed the video from their web site.
WYMT is a sister station to WKYT, Lexington’s flagship station for Kentucky sports programming and S.E.C. games.
The University of Kentucky is not above pressuring media to remove content it finds objectionable or embarrassing. A few years ago, The Courier Journal apologized to UK basketball coach John Calipari for using an image of the coach wearing a diaper. The newspaper explained that the illustration was provided by a contract employee and the content did not measure up to the newspaper’s standards.
This is a parody photoshop of the original Courier Journal image that riled Calipari and UK officials.
The caricature of Caipari was satire, a parody of coaches who doth protest too much. The Courier Journal runs political cartoons and other opinion oriented illustrations every day. So what really happened?
It is likely that a university athletics department administrator informed the Courier Journal that its beat writer would have vastly reduced access unless a published retraction and apology were issued. The Courier complied.
Five days after the Kentucky/Florida football game, flagship WKYT lists no archived content for the Kash Daniel video. They did run a story on Wednesday night that showed the leg twist but the narrative was centered on Kash Daniel’s denial. The story closed with Daniel telling his side of the incident, adding “End of story.”
—from the Lexington Herald Leader—
Revenues for WKYT and WYMT would take a severe hit if UK severed ties with Gray Television, the parent company of both signals. Don’t look for the Kash Daniel video to become featured content on either of their web sites.
Meanwhile, is Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau now a Kash Daniel fan?
