Man in Black Shirt Does Interview Explaining He's Ed Orgeron's Fan in the 'Sissy Blue Shirt'
Ed Orgeron spoke some famous last words on Saturday when someone captured video of him telling a UCLA fan, "bring your ass on, in your sissy blue shirt," ahead of LSU's 11-point loss to Chip Kelly and unranked UCLA. The Los Angeles Times apparently caught up with the fan Orgeron was addressing in the viral clip and, well, it will leave you with more questions than answers.
David Witzling, the fan who the LA Times spoke with, wasn't even wearing a blue shirt, which makes his claim that he was the one Orgeron was talking to quite confusing, but he kind of has an explanation for that. Via LAT:
Witzling told The Times that he interpreted Orgeron’s words as a jab at Bruin Nation considering his shirt wasn’t blue, nor sissy, and the only people nearby clad in that color were his children.
The Witzling family provided video to the LA Times where you can hear the Man in Black reminding Orgeron about something he said during his last game coaching USC back in 2013 and it was apparently such an incredible burn that Orgeron wasn't just taken aback; he was upset. From The Times:
“Coach Orgeron, how are you doing?” Witzling begins, drawing an acknowledgement from the coach as well as a thumbs up. “We’re going to lock those gates and we’re going to beat you down. Remember ‘SC?”
Orgeron’s demeanor changes in an instant, the coach disparaging Witzling’s shirt as a Louisiana state trooper accompanying the coach flexes his right arm and taps his massive bicep.
Watching the viral video, I'm not sure "demeanor changes in an instant" is an accurate depiction of what happened there, but that's how this guy sees it. (Though the cop flexing and patting his bicep is very funny.) In fact, he thought Orgeron was literally upset by this exchange.
"Did he say that?” asked Witzling’s daughter, Natalie. “Was he really, like, upset?”
“Yeah, of course,” David Witzling says with a chuckle.
“He uses his own slang and he’s original to Louisiana, so he speaks in his own way,” Witzling said, “but my interpretation, and if you look at what he said, he’s basically telling me to fight him right there and then. So it’s nice that you can get under their skin as a fan.”
This is what we call an unreliable narrator. Despite visual evidence that almost none of this happened besides Orgeron talking trash to someone in a blue shirt, we're being told he actually wanted to fight a fan as if it were the first time in 40 years as a player and coach anyone has ever shouted something at him. Hopefully someone with another angle on this exchange will step forward and clear things up. Short of that, another person who did not wear a blue shirt trying to take credit would also be great.