The Josh Innes Show - Should NCAA Coaches Force Players To Register To Vote?

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

I read that Brian Kelly, head coach of LSU, said all of his players will be registered to vote. This leads me to believe they were forced to do so. I don't believe anyone in that situation should be obligated to do this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The following was recorded from inside an ice plunge. Ah! Woo! Okay. All right. When a Coors Light is cold enough, the mountains on the can turn blue. So the next time you want a cold lager, cold filter, cold package Coors Light, just wait until those glorious mountains on the can turn blue.

It's easy to say that fast when you're freezing cold. Well, hello, Jamokes. How are you on this Monday? Fresh off lots of booze this weekend, lots of football this weekend, and a doubleheader tonight. All right, that's awesome. Great.

More opportunity to throw down some bets on those games tonight. Won't be long until we have, I'm fairly certain we're going to get to that point where there's Tuesday and Wednesday football as well, and then I'll just be a degenerate all week. But I've got baseball playoffs tomorrow too. So I saw some stuff that I find intriguing. First off, I saw, and this is random that I saw this, but a friend of mine who works in TV in Baton Rouge named Jacques, Jacques Doucette. And he's a good dude. I've known him for a hundred years. Big Sammy Hagar Van Halen guy. So he actually used

to have a cover band, and this was many moons ago, 15, 16 years ago, maybe longer, had a cover band called Soundbite, and they did some Van Hagar stuff. Big Van Hagar guy, 5150, OU812, for unlawful carnal knowledge, balance, big, big, now I sound like Trump, huge, big Van Hagar guy. So we bond over that. But he covers all the Louisiana sports. And I just saw a random tweet of his pop up from, I guess this was after the game on Saturday when LSU beat South Alabama. And the tweet said, Brian Kelly said all of his players will be registered to vote on Monday. And I don't know if this is something that he forces them to do. I'm not positive on this.

But if he's forcing his players to register to vote, like if that's a rule, like you must register to vote. I think that's kind of shitty. Like, I think that should be something you're able to choose on your own, right? Same way I wouldn't want to take a job somewhere. And that job required me to do certain things that are personal things that I do not want to do or be forced to do. As you know, if you've listened to me for any amount of time, I choose not to vote because I think voting is a waste of time because now we're just seeing two cults fight against each other. Nobody really cares about the issues. It's just us versus them, the way people view it.

So it's like sports or anything else. It's all just bullshit. So I don't fuck with it. I don't bother with it. I don't take the time to do it because I don't believe anything's going to change. I think we're all full of shit. So I choose not to do it. But, and I don't care if you do, if you want to vote, do whatever you want to do.

You want to register to vote you want to go vote you want to go vote for Trump or Kamala or third party which lol you're wasting your vote because we're in a rigged system where that somehow only two people somehow we're in a world where there's only two people allegedly qualified enough to run this place it's all bogus everything about it's bogus but um and look i'm not telling you that there are better systems elsewhere i'm not savvy enough to know all of those things because i'm not a political person all i know is we're allegedly in the greatest country in the world yet somehow we can only have two dipshits one of which one of the two dipshits wasn't even nominated to be on the to be president or to be uh you know on the the card yet somehow that's the case. It's all bogus. It's all bullshit. We're

a clown show. But I don't want to be forced into doing that. We talk about people's personal choices all the time, right? Like, stay out of my uterus and all this other shit that we hear from people all the time about how it's my body, my choice, or stay out of my personal business. Well, if I'm playing football at LSU, I don't want to be forced to register to vote. Now, the argument might be, well, you can be forced to register, but you don't have to actually vote. It doesn't matter. It's a personal preference thing. If I don't want to register to vote because I know I have no interest in voting, because I know that no elections are going to help me out at all then why would I care and nobody wants anybody to truly

be helped out because the only people who can be successful in politics are those who are speaking to an oppressed group or a group of people who feel like they're not getting what they deserve so if these people start getting what they deserve on both sides and they start getting what they think is right then what will they bitch about anymore? And then they won't need these politicians anymore. So nobody actually wants to make you happy and nobody actually wants to make you successful. They want to keep you down so you are dependent upon them. It is a scam. This whole thing is a scam. So the idea that a football coach is like, well, it's our civic duty. I got to make sure that our players go out and registered to vote. Look, if I'm like the starting quarterback of LSU and I know you need me and I

don't want to vote, I'm like, listen, coach, fuck you. I'm not doing that. You want to bench me? I throw for 400 yards a game. Go ahead and bench me and risk losing your $10 million a year job because you're trying to force me to register to vote. Now, again, I don't know if he's forcing them to do it or not, but the idea that it's a commentary at a press conference like after you play South Alabama and it's hey my players are going to be registered to vote one I don't give a shit that your players are registered to vote two I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 18 year old kids who are playing college football probably aren't the most well-versed people on this shit anyway because no one really is everybody's in a cult like no matter what kamala says a whole group of people are just going to be with and they don't

care what other information's out there they're in that cult there's another group of people who are in the trump cult but like people talk here's what i find funny right so college football players when it comes to making money and decisions they make all the people in the media and the fans call them kids. They say, well, these kids, they're young kids and that they should be held to a different standard than the adults who coach them. Right. Yet somehow we think these dudes are mature enough when they're focused allegedly on school and football and everything else that they're well-versed in the politics of the day. Give me a fucking break. When when i was 18 years old i couldn't give two fucks about politics just like i couldn't give two fucks about politics now so like the idea that like this matters it's so preposterous like i don't understand why anybody

would care if the football team is voting or registered to vote nor do i think they should be forced to register to vote it's the same same, like to me, politics is like religion now. There's really no difference between the two. I view most religions, look, if you're religious, I'm not judging you. If you believe in a higher power, rock on. But religions are essentially cults and political parties are essentially cults. That's what we're dealing with right now. They have become weird, cultish. I don't care what bad thing my candidate does. I'm going to vote for them anyway because they're on my side of things. It's cults. It's all cults. So if we're at a public university or a business

and they say, well, you can't force someone to pray or you can't force someone to have a religion, you can't force someone to do anything based around religion, then why should you be forced or why should you be allowed to force players to register to vote? And again, I don't know if he's forcing them to. I don't know if he's just grandstanding. I don't know if he's just full of shit. I don't know the context of why this answer came up. I don't know what the question was. I don't know if somebody at the press conference was like, hey, are your players going to vote? And then yes, they're all going to be registered to vote. Well, the only way to know that they're all registered to vote is because you forced them to be registered to vote. And the idea that you're

forcing college athletes to go out and register to vote, which I get isn't like some great time-consuming thing, but why? That's not your job as a football coach. Your job as a football coach is to try to figure out how to fix the defense. That's your job. Your job is to figure out how to beat Ole Miss in two weeks. And by the way, this isn't like old school where like the coach is kind of a father figure and these guys are there for four years and they may not go pro,

but you've taught them life lessons, that ain't this way anymore. You know what you're dealing with now? It's big money, big contracts, NIL. This ain't the 1970s and you ain't Bear Bryant. This is all big money. The reason they're there is not because they're in love with the coach.

They're there because you're getting the biggest contract and the biggest deal to go play. It's all big money now. So it's not like you got a coach and in 20 years you're going to look back on your time with a coach and say, boy, he sure taught me about life. No, you went to LSU and you transferred four times because of money and where it could get you to the NFL. And I'm not judging you for that, but let's be real.

Let's stop living on fantasy island here where everybody seems to want to live when it's convenient for them. But if I took a job somewhere and somebody was like, hey, I'm going to force you to register to vote, I'd be like, I'm an adult. I'm a grown ass person. I can do my own shit. You shouldn't be in a position just like you can't force me to pray at work and you can't force me be in a position just like you can't force me to pray at work and you can't force me to be religious at work and you can't force me to do a bunch of other shit. You sure as fuck shouldn't be obligated or you shouldn't be in a position where you can force me to register to vote. Especially when I think that the political system here is wrecked

and it's all two colts fighting over nothing. So it's bullshit to me. Now granted, I'm the asshole who was forced to get a vaccine to keep my job at iHeart. So I mean, what the fuck do I know? I mean, but like, God, the fact that these places will force people to do shit is bonkers. And the fact that there were people that were okay with that. The fact that there were people who were like,

yep, you should be. Like there were people that would demand that you lose your job if you wouldn't get vaccinated and they were fine with it these are the same people again my body my choice and like let's abort the babies and all this shit like cool those people are the same people that were like uh hey uh make sure you uh get your vaccine or you should lose your livelihood people People are fucked, man. And I'm not picking on either side. I'm telling you, everyone is fucked.

We're all screwed. I'm not trying to be so pessimistic on this Monday, but it's reality. So when I see a story that's like, hey, LSU football players are all going to be registered to vote. I don't give a shit. But you shouldn't be forcing people to do this shit. And maybe I'm wrong. And maybe you think I'm nuts and that's totally fine. But when we're in a position where politics is what it is today, which is religion to so many people, which is cult shit, you wouldn't force someone like you wouldn't hire

someone and say, well, you're either going to be a, you're either going to be Catholic or you wouldn't force someone like you wouldn't hire someone and say well you're either going to be a you're either going to be catholic or you can't be here right you're either going to be catholic or you can't work at this facility i need you to go and convert to judaism tomorrow or you can't have this job no one's going to do that so why would you force someone to register to vote i just think it's dumb but whatever and like I feel bad for people who are super invested in politics because they all think it's going to help them in some way, and it will not. Your life is not going to change based on who the president is

and who the president isn't. None of it's going to matter for you. You know who I'd vote for? I'd start voting again if we got to a point where the... Let me share a story with you. And again, I'm not politically savvy. I know I'm not politically savvy. And you might be listening to this and you might say, boy, you're a dipshit.

And you're probably right. I don't claim to know about politics. I don't like politics. However, I do know this. That back when I was employed, I would get a paycheck every two weeks. And on one of these apps, the ADP app, I can look to see where all of my money went. So my base pay, whatever my base pay was, like before taxes, I'd see this big number and I'd go, well, that's a cool number.

And then I'd get paid. And I'd go, wow, where did so much of that go? So I'd go to the ADP app and I would see where all of my money went. And on a given week, most weeks, my paycheck would be 66%. My take home would be 66% of what the pay was. 66%. Which means I had to pay for healthcare. I had to pay for state tax. I had to pay for federal tax.

So by the time it was all said and done, I was losing a third of my money. And for what? For a country that's $35 trillion in the hole? Where's my money going and how is it helping anything? That's why I laugh when I hear people say, well, the rich should have to pay their fair share. Then what the fuck's the point of being rich? Dude, making more money, more money, more problems, man. Look, I took this job here because it was more base pay. I had more money coming here. I started getting the goddamn check and I'm like, what the fuck? I was making more money in Nashville where I was.

I had a very small because I was on the beach. I needed a job. So like my base pay in Nashville, very small compared to what it was here. It was like half of what I was getting paid here and I'm like shit what are we doing how is it that the country's 35 trillion dollars in debt yet you're taking 33 percent of my cash every two weeks assholes but that's the world right so if we can find find me someone who won't take 33 of my coin and then maybe we'll talk taxation is theft and like the way people are just like so fine with bending over and being like hey

take my money government pro-government people are weird to me like geez these people are all scammers they're all crooks they're all seemingly doing well for themselves while we're sitting here and like they're grandstanding and using all this other identity politics and the rich need to pay their fair share. Well, you know what the rich did? The rich got rich. What did you do? It's like we like celebrate the idea of trying not to get rich. So is that the argument?

Don't be rich because rich people are bad. No, I thought the ambition in life was go make as much money as you possibly couldn't be successful. Not to sit around and be like, oh, I don't know rich people. I hate rich people. Rich people are the worst. And it's weird because all these rich people fund all your politicians that you love so much. Do you think they're doing that and they're not going to get anything in return for it, dummies? Come on now. Again, I didn't mean to get into a political discussion about this. This just started with the idea that LSU football players are all going to be registered to vote, and I just don't know why that matters. Why? I'm not watching LSU football because I care who you vote for. I'm watching LSU football because I want you to win. And bigger picture, I don't want

people to be forced to do something that they're probably not that interested in. Because my guess for. I'm watching LSU football because I want you to win. And bigger picture, I don't want people to be forced to do something that they're probably not that interested in. Because my guess is that most 18, 19-year-old dudes who are trying to get laid on a Saturday night after playing a football game, the least of their concerns is, boy, I wonder, I got to make sure I'm there to vote. Because if I remember me at 18 or 19 years old, I couldn't care less about it.