The saga that brought Brian Kelly from Notre Dame to LSU was wild enough. But that was before Kelly decided to show up at an LSU Tigers basketball game sporting a brand-new Southern accent.
I decided to go super investigatory. Here’s Brian Kelly saying “family” two days ago at Notre Dame… and Brian Kelly saying “family” today at LSU. Some of my best work. pic.twitter.com/JTzuIA2s2n
— Jeff Darlington (@JeffDarlington) December 3, 2021
Kelly, who hails from Boston and has spent much of his adult life working in the Midwest and Northeast, caught a lot of flack for his sudden and inexplicable Cajunification.
While LSU took on Kansas State in the Texas Bowl on Tuesday evening, Kelly stopped by the ESPN booth to talk about the state of the program before he fully takes over. As part of his appearance, he was asked about his shifting accent (and viral dance moves) and his answer ended up somehow making things weirder.
"Listen, I'm from Boston. We don't have strong accents." – Brian Kelly, who is from a different Boston from the one we all know. pic.twitter.com/GVupS5KNjR
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 5, 2022
“Whether it was dancing or I couldn’t get my accent down … listen, I’m from Boston. We don’t have strong accents,” Kelly said, asking America to forget everything that it knows about Boston.
Kelly followed that curious comment by explaining that he was simply trying to integrate himself into the LSU community.
“At the end of the day, this is really about, for me, I want to be a part of this community,” said Kelly. “I want to be a part of Louisiana. I want to really immerse myself in Louisiana and this community, and I’m so excited to be down here in Baton Rouge.”
If Kelly wins enough football games at LSU, he could talk in any accent he wants as far as Tigers fans are concerned. However, in the meantime, it’s probably best that he stop doing or discussing accents, lest he makes things any weirder than they already are.
[AA]
