Miles may be looking for QBs in Cuba

Published 7:41 am Friday, March 25, 2016

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Les Miles has been in Cuba several days now, and thus far — the State Department is holding its breath — there have been no major international incidents.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He went to the island, apparently unannounced, amid suggestions from LSU football’s very own Twitter account that: “Could he be down there auditioning to become the World’s Most Interesting Man?”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Possibly.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But he doesn’t even smoke cigars.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU is on spring break, with the football team conveniently taking a break from spring practice, so it makes sense to seek somewhere warm and sandy and palm-treed.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But this isn’t exactly Gulf Shores or the Flora-Bama.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“The secret is out,” LSU’s Twitter account said of a trip that apparently is clandestine enough that the only communication has come through social media.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Is he working for the CIA? Does he have a code name?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Should we be cranking up the Enola Gay?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Yet to be confirmed (or, interestingly, denied) is whether Miles’ venture was in any way connected to the historic trip by the Tampa Bay Rays to play the Cuban national team Tuesday.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That event prompted President Obama to make an appearance, though he and Miles were notably never spotted together in, like, the same photo.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The whole Miles trip, in fact, might have gone unnoticed if not for Mikie Mahtook, the former Tiger center fielder now playing for the Rays, who on the eve of the game spilled the beans, also via Twitter, that he was “Beyond excited. Can’t believe LSU coach Miles is going to be here to take it all in.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So there is confirmation. And Miles was at the baseball game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s not</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">LSU’s first venture into international diplomacy.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Notably, former LSU basketball coach and noted globetrotter Dale Brown was no stranger to the former Soviet Union.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Those shenanigans once prompted Alabama coach Wimp Sanderson, upon learning of Brown’s travels, to exclaim, “Oh, gosh. There goes detente!”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Fortunately, both sides managed to keep their nukes bridled until Brown could return, full of happy (and inspiring) chatter.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">So it’s likely another missile crisis can be avoided as Miles continues his goodwill, fact-finding mission.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">He is, LSU says, visiting several schools in Cuba, quite possibly in the elusive search for a passing game.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But the Miles Cuba trip is highly controversial, mainly because LSU also con</span><span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">firmed that its coach “brought dozens of soccer balls to distribute to kids.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That has led policy analysts to wonder aloud if, after a half-century-plus of a repressive communist regime, the kids of Cuba haven’t already suffered enough without adding soccer into the mix.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Perhaps the warming of relations between the two countries can survive even that.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">My first question, however was this: Who in tarnation was Miles’ interpreter?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The poor amigo no doubt quit in frustration.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Really. Is there any way to translate Les-Speak into Spanish and vice versa?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It barely fits into English.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">If the Cubans understand him, please pray that they have a want to come to Louisiana and give us a hand.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">It’s a full-time job.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Obama was the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba since Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Miles, so far as we know, is the first LSU football to set foot on the island since the immortal Edgar R. Wingard in 1907.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">That was a historic trip itself, still mentioned prominently in LSU’s media guide.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Wingard took the LSU team with him — well, 13 players anyway — and yet still managed to manhandle the University of Havana football squad.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">As with all things Cuban, tall tales ran rampant of the locals’ physical prowess, as the Cubans apparently had their way with several American service teams stationed on the island in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">But LSU somehow showed up on Christmas Day, 1907, for the Bacardi Bowl, which wasn’t really a bowl but was later trotted out as Exhibit A that there were far too many bowl games anyway.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The Tigers, 6-3 going into the game, were easy victors by a 56-0 count.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Maybe Miles went back to retrieve that trophy.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Or perhaps he was mindful that the year after Wingard visited the island, the Tigers went 10-0 in 1908.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Or better yet, maybe there’s a quarterback down there, preferably one he can get through customs on the way home.</span>

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<p class="p1">Follow Scooter Hobbs on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/ScooterAmPress">twitter.com/ScooterAmPress</a>

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