Some sports figures transcend their chosen profession and become larger-than-life figures. While such elevations are normally saved for the athlete, every so often a coach joins the fraternity; although, in the case of Les Miles, it’s something different. Miles may be one of the only coaches to become famous for the outlandish stunts he pulls — and normally succeeds at — during football games and for absolutely nothing he does off the field.
He’s not suave like Phil Jackson, pontificating about the merits of Buddha. Nor is he gregariously loud-mouthed like Rex Ryan. No, Les Miles is famous for being Les Miles, and for those awesome plays he calls. And for coaching LSU to the BCS Championship. And for eating grass during the game, like so:
So when word leaked about a viral video of Les Miles playing basketball against his children, complete with dunks and blocked shots, it’s impossible to ignore. Just ask Spencer Hall, proprietor of Every Day Should Be Saturday, the best college football blog on the market.
The video, which leads this post, is apparently something viral for Nike and Converse, which is owned by Nike. That makes sense seeing how the video’s title is “It Must Have Been The Shoes” and for the fact that Miles is wearing both Nike and some awfully famous Converse during. While the video is indeed enough to whet the most discerning appetite, there is, of course, more where that came from. LSUFreek chimes in with an awesome animated gif:
Aside: If you haven’t heard of this awesome web image artist, change that.
Other areas of genius, courtesy of the always-interesting Les Miles comes from the aforementioned Spencer Hall, who offers a humorous shot-by-shot breakdown of the magnificent video. A highlight of Hall’s post:
Everyone looks extremely uncomfortable with this arrangement except for Miles, who you’ll notice claps at home the way he does on the field: hands straight, eyes filled with glee, and with a silver turnkey rotating slowing in the middle of his back. His daughter is torn between her obligation to sing the anthem, and her burning desire to put a foot in the ass of the audience and let rip with her pitch-perfect rendition of the Nicki Minaj verse from “Monster.” Miles the Younger on the right knows her dreams, and is hoping she’ll bust a rhyme and shock the world. That’s what would make her happy. When she acquiesces to her father’s wishes, a small part of him dies as the anthem sounds in the air.
Not only is Hall’s commentary its typically funny stuff, it also includes a screenshot of Miles hanging on the rim after he dunks. That, alone, is worth the price of admission:
Hall’s accompanying text only makes things that much better:
We will make it our mission to not only go to Baton Rouge this fall, but also to get someone drunk enough to get this image of Miles dunking a basketball tattooed on their body for all eternity. We also would bet a hundred dollars cash money that Les Miles tore something in his groin doing this, and would double the bet to include Miles telling his doctor “I think I popped a cockspring, doc.”
To quote Charlie Sheen, Miles and Hall are both winning. Miles for the video and Hall for the commentary. One can only hope Miles continues down the viral video path, and if this is indeed a Nike-backed production, perhaps they should include Hall the next time they do something with Les Miles.
Also, if this is Nike, it’s pretty obvious they have a handle on this who “viral content” thing. Campaigns like Leeroy Smith and the Kobe Bryant/Aston Martin video immediately come to mind. Too bad none of them can compete with the awesomeness on display from Les Miles.