Junior wide receiver Randall Cobb

‘;
//–>

Head coach Joker Phillips

It wasn’t as short lived as 140 characters are intended to be, but finally the controversy surrounding Randall Cobb’s Twitter rant on Sunday is over after the Kentucky football leader addressed the media and apologized Tuesday for his actions.”I just want to start off by saying that I made a mistake,” Cobb said. “I did, I messed up, and I take blame for everything I said. I know it was wrong. I was wrong for the fact that I took a percentage, a small percentage of our fan base, and I lumped them all as one and made it all whole. That’s not how our fans are. That’s not how the majority – 99.9 percent of our fans are great fans, and they know that. They’ve been supporting us throughout the years. “I just took a small chunk and made it something big, and I can’t do that. I made a mistake. I’m a man, I admit my mistake, and I just want to come out and let everybody know that I’m sorry. I hope they can forgive me.”Cobb said he realized two or three minutes after he sent out a series of tweets that he made a mistake and deleted them. He immediately posted a follow-up tweet thanking the fans.”It was all my decision to take it down,” Cobb said. “I knew I was wrong in the beginning. Right after I sent it I had to take it back because I was out of character.”The last few days have served as a valuable learning lesson for Cobb and his teammates as to the power and weight their words carry as leaders and role models.”I understand that I have an inspiration to other people and I inspire other people and my words can mean a lot, but I didn’t realize they meant so much,” Cobb said. “I realize that now and it’s a lesson learned.”Cobb said the intent of the rant was to show the fans how much they mean and can affect the team.”What I wanted to get out of it was to let others realize how we can tell what’s going on,” Cobb said. “We know what’s going on. We can hear you. Regardless of whether we respond or not, we can hear you. We know what’s being said, and it hurts sometimes. It really does.”Part of Cobb’s series of tweets referred to some of the diehard UK men’s basketball fans. Cobb said he meant no disrespect to the basketball team.”They know I have more respect for them than anybody,” Cobb said. “I hang out with half those guys. I’ve been over there and talked to Coach Cal. I have so much respect for that program. I’m trying to make this program similar to that one and have a football-basketball school. That is what my intentions are and what my goals are. It had nothing to do with them.”Despite the much-publicized controversy, head coach Joker Phillips decided not to ban Twitter after a meeting with the players Monday night. “We’re going to allow them to tweet, twit or whatever you call it,” Phillips said. “We’ve just got to be smarter about it. That’s it, period.”Wide receiver La’Rod King sent out a tweet Monday night that seemed to indicate Phillips was banning his players from using the social media website and application, but Phillips said it is an important part of the players’ lives.”I tell our kids, ‘Hey, don’t quit, don’t quit, don’t quit.’ Randall is the guy that I usually go to,” Phillips said. “(I tell him), ‘Hey, don’t let this team quit. Do not let this team quit.’ Has anybody known if Randall Cobb has ever quit. Has he? Well, he gets upset if he feels like somebody else might quit on him. That was the gist of (Sunday’s message).”