Saint Louis University head basketball coach Travis Ford is on the hot seat. At the very least, it is warm.
The Billikens have reached the NCAA Tournament just once in his eight seasons at the helm and lost in the first round. They are currently 7-8 through their first 15 games of the 2023/24 college basketball season.
Even if the university does not choose to fire Travis Ford, there is a large contingency of the fanbase that wants him out. Fortunately, his son has his back online!
Unfortunately, everybody found out…
Ford’s son Shane was caught running multiple fake accounts on X, formerly known as Twitter. All of the different burners would respond back to criticism of the head coach to defend his job.
‘stone cold steve austin’ was one of the accounts that was sliding into DMs.
It also stood up to negative comments about Ford’s salary and job security.
‘Sean McDonald,’ a profile that has since been deleted, was another one of the burners.
Fans started to catch on to the accounts — and their apparent owner — when they noticed that the burners shared the same phone number as Shane Ford, Travis’ son.
It was just allegations at first. Nothing was for certain.
And then Travis Ford addressed the speculation. He confirmed that Shane, a sophomore in college, was behind the accounts and offered unique perspective on the challenges that his children face while fans continue to call for his job.
I totally understand where his heart is. We obviously had a long talk about it as a family, and it’s interesting, I’ve been doing this for so long, but sometimes I get caught up into all this. It’s interesting to hear all my kid’s perspectives of how hard it can be sometimes. I think his heart was in the right place. It’s not easy, sometimes it’s hardest on your family.
— Travis Ford
Ford said that he found out what was going on as he left practice on his way to his weekly radio appearance. His wife was freaking out. Shane felt terrible.
🎙️ AUDIO: Travis Ford addresses the burner situation on his radio show segment today @KMOXSports pic.twitter.com/NGg2QkcJEx
— A10 Talk (@A10Talk) January 9, 2024
The whole #burnergate was not a great look, obviously. Especially because Shane got caught.
Ford understands that and he talked it out with his son.
At the same time, Ford doesn’t understand the online hate and offered Saint Louis fans (and haters) to talk ball with him anytime. He’s not hard to find!