So Sorry....Not!

Yea, one of my least favorite people - Bill Byrne, Texas A&M's Athletic Director - was in the news.....again.

Seems everyone has an opinion on the Aggies leaving or staying with the Big 12 and one of them upset our highly paid AD with their comments.  From the Eagle: A profane e-mail to Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne prompted him to respond with an angry voice mail.

"Someone who has the guts to write something like that needs to have his [expletive] kicked," the 65-year-old Byrne said in the call, which was posted on Youtube.com. Byrne later issued a 1,700-word statement defending the Aggies' decision to stay in the Big 12 and apologized for the outburst.

Now we all lose our tempers, but someone making the salary that Mr. Byrne's makes should have learned over 45 years of being an adult how to keep it to himself.  But stuff happens and people lash out, so if an apology was needed, it's good to see that he owned up to it.  Well at least that's what the paper says he did.

"After reading over 200 similar e-mails the other night, I finally had one set me off and I called the writer. I'm a very competitive person and like many of you, I was raised not to back down when challenged. I've also got a bit of an Irish temper which came across in my voicemail. I regretted what I said as soon as I hung up. I should have been above that, and I made a mistake. For those of you who were offended by my response, I apologize, and I assure you that it will not happen again," Byrne wrote.

You see, it's not an apology when you state "for those of you who were offended."  You either did the offense or you did not.  How I feel about it has nothing to do with whether or not an apology is appropriate.  If you were truly sorry for your actions you would have just said "....and I made a mistake for which I apologize.

By this statement you are not sorry, only sorry that it ended up on YouTube.  It is tantamount to when as a kid your mom tells you to apologize to your brother for hitting him.  I'm sorry comes out of your mouth but without your mom standing behind you - or YouTube in this case - an apology would never had been forthcoming.

And that's why you are still one of my least favorite people.  Consider this a challenge to your not-so-sincere hands-caught-in-the-cookie-jar apology.  I'm calling you on it.