Hugh Freeze resigned from his position as University of Mississippi’s head football coach yesterday. Freeze and Ole Miss have been under NCAA investigation for a number of (alleged) violations intended to get top flight recruits to sign with the Rebels.
Until Thursday, Freeze and Mississippi stood together in fighting the allegations. However, this changed when it was discovered that Freeze made a call – from his University-issued cell phone – to a number associated with an escort service. The call lasted just one minute, but it was enough to force Freeze to resign.
In an interview with Yahoo! Sports, Freeze said “I was in an 813 area code and that was a 313 number, I think that might have been a misdial. I don’t think there was even a conversation. There’s nothing to it.” In a statement issued last night, Freeze continued that same theme, saying “As for the call itself, I have no recollection of the incident. It was clearly a pocket dial. There is nothing else to say about that.”
The “pocket dial” defense was met with a lot of ridicule from media and fans, and deservedly so. I mean, what are the odds that a call could unintentionally end up going to an adult service provider?
Well, I can say unequivocally: It happens.
* * *
Last year, I was scheduling a meeting for work. I sent out the meeting invite and included my conference call number. But I accidentally transposed two digits in the phone number.
Instead of sending ###-###-2983, I sent ###-###-2893. A simple, harmless mistake, right? Maybe, except that 2893 number belongs to the “Hot Ladies Hotline”*
*I wish I was making that up.
Five minutes after the call is supposed to start, I’m sitting on the phone by myself wondering where everybody is at (I had the correct number saved in my phone). That’s when I get an IM from a co-worker saying “Um…I don’t think you sent out the right number. Or did you???” That’s when I realized I had sent the number for a phone sex line to eleven people.
Fortunately, a) all of the recipients were co-workers, b) they’re all guys, and c) none of them were offended enough to report me to HR. Everybody had a good laugh at my expense, and an otherwise routine Wednesday was spiced up.
So Hugh Freeze, if you say this one minute call to an escort service was an honest mistake, I’ll believe you. It happens. I know.
But…
I only made that mistake once. My suspicion is that you have “pocket dialed” this – or other similar numbers – multiple times over the years.
If so, you’re on your own.
Feit Can Write 