This is one political football that needs to be dropped

ATLANTA — Sam Pittman's new hip got its first big test when he really leaned into making sure his point was heard and understood clearly, even by politicians and money men casually listening at home.

His answer is no. And if anyone asks again, it's no and will remain no even after he's retired to his pontoon boat down on the lake in Hot Springs.
No.

Much like many of the Arkansas coaches before him, Pittman has been waiting to throw off this War Memorial Stadium albatross. Getting to coach at least one season without it hindering recruiting or lowering player morale by having to load up to go play in a run down facility with half the usual number or Razorbacks fans is about as much motivation to put together a winning season as anything else for Pittman.

So, when asked about playing Arkansas State at War Memorial Stadium in the future, he wasted no breath or body langauge on conveying everything except an emphatic no on anything outside of Razorback Stadium.

"No," Pittman interrupted the second he heard the word Little Rock in a question about future games between Arkansas and Arkansas State. He then shook his head uncontrollably while the question finished as he uttered no more times.

"No, no, naw," Pittman continued. "I want to play them in Fayetteville. That's what I want to do.

"You asked me what I want," Pittman said. "If we're gonna play Arkansas State, we're gonna play them at home."

This further solidified the continuous tip toward Little Rock feeling more and more like an inconvenient road game over the years for the players and staff. It's just not the bright lights of Razorback Stadium with close to 80,000 losing their minds while players prepare for the game in familiar settings such as their own bed, locker room and field.

Multiple times Pittman emphasized that the contract to play in War Memorial Stadium is up. It was abundantly clear that he felt the Arkansas Razorbacks had served their time and there was no way the program wants to find itself locked in that facility for another Saturday afternoon or Thursday evening.

However, there was a wild card Pittman did mention over which he has no control — local politicians.

"Right now, under contract, we're in our last year at Little Rock," Pittman said. "Now, whatever the governor [Sarah Huckabee-Sanders] decides, that's what she decides, but right now we're in our last year at Little Rock, so it'd either have to be there or here and I'm not really interested in going over there and playing."

Now, as everyone has seen over the years, the right political donor with enough political campain capital available to hand over can make just about anything happen, even if it's not necessarily in a candidate's best interest.

However, surely this political football (quite literally), it too hot to try to carry across the goal line for anyone in local politics right now Interfering with the ability of the Arkansas football program to put its best foot forward for once after years of coaches giving up valuable recruiting opportunities for off-campus home games would be political suicide.

Even if Little Rock does end up being 100% off the table, forcing a home and home series would take away another prime recruiting weekend that has the potential for a game to take place at a convenient time for recruits every other year. That hurts the program and continues the competitive disadvantage fans have asked coaches to simply swallow and deal with over the years while they rail away at them without consideration of the situation.

Even from a scheduling standpoint, people look over at the Missouri schedule where the Tigers don't leave Columbia until mid-March and scoff at how much easier that must be. However, that could be Arkansas if people will stop trying to find ways to hamper the program and make life against an already difficult schedule even harder.

If a politician seizes on this and tries to force Arkansas to play in Little Rock or Jonesboro in the future, that is going to trigger an automatic primary. It immediately becomes a single issue race with little doubt of the outcome.

There's one thing both the right and left can agree upon in this state and it's "Thou shalt not do harm to the potential success of the Razorbacks." It will get hammered in ad after ad to the point people will start thinking the politician trying to force this on the Hogs is a secret Texas Longhorn.

And even if the politician decides to back off and say "My bad. I'm not gonna do that. It was a terrible idea. I don't know what I was thinking," it's too late. The damage is already done.

The opposition simply has to ask Arkansas fans whether its worth risking a magical run to the playoffs to trust a politician has truly had a change of heart and isn't just saying what's needed to get elected only to turn on the Hogs and drag them back into a disadvantage.

So, for any politicians and political influencers with money burning your pockets, for once, listen to Pittman. The answer is no.

The people of this state deserve a fair shot at pursuing their dreams in regard to the football program, and for many reasons, multiple home games away from Razorback Stadium included, they've not had that. Whatever personal gain you think you're getting, it's not worth the sacrifice of the greater good.

Don't do it.
No. No. Never. Naw.