Poppy Don't Preach

This was the sports section cover of the Indianapolis Star from Friday morning. A day late for an April Fool’s joke, but the newspaper from Central Indiana wasn’t kidding. They actually thought that depicting Duke’s basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, in this manner would be a great way to stir up more interest in the Final Four weekend at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Fair to say it stirred up something. After further review, the Indy Star pulled the artwork “when we realized it didn’t meet our standards," said their sports editor.

What standard was that guys, wrong color crayon?

The newspaper was also quick to point out that the illustration only appeared in 30,000 copies before being pulled. As if their declining circulation was the issue at stake and not their judgment call or even the ridiculous-looking artwork.

"How could a newspaper do that?” Mike Krzyzewski said on Friday. “That's like somebody doodled. Actually, I thought I looked better. But it was kind of juvenile. Not kind of. Just juvenile. And my seven grandkids didn't enjoy looking at it. 'It's not Poppy.'

No, the silly drawing over the photograph is not the way Poppy looks, as Mike Krzyzewski’s grandchildren can clearly see. But there will come a day (if it hasn’t happened already) that those same kids will learn their grandfather doesn’t always speak the same as their accustomed to hearing, either.

Ask anyone who has ever sat near a Duke Blue Devils bench during a game. They’ll tell you how Coach K isn’t shy to use four-letter words that end with the same one his last name begins with. Even more so than your typical college basketball coach. For his grandchildren who aren’t old enough to attend games and yet to have discovered YouTube, is this ‘Poppy’??