Maybe LSU Fans Should Try Telemarketing With Greg McElroy

On the heels of acquiring Tim Tebow's phone number in 2007 (and winning), taking Knowshon Moreno and AJ Green's numbers in 2008 (and losing), snagging John Parker Wilson's digits last year (and losing), and getting in touch with backup John Brantley this year (and, uh, losing), LSU fans are trying the same trick with Alabama's Greg McElroy, seemingly.

It appears that LSU students and fans are living up to their reputation and appear to be targeting Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy (and probably a few other Tide players) with cell phone calls and text messages on a big game week.

"I think Greg had some blocked calls today," Crimson Tide linebacker Cory Reamer said after practice today. "I don't know what that was about, but my phone has not rang (sic), thank goodness. I won't be changing my number this year."

Look, the combined score of the four games that these shenanigans have preceded so far is 116-84 in favor of the "Tiger Bait," and LSU's 1-3 in those games, so it's not as if this has been highly successful. In this incredibly irresponsible linkage based on a tiny sample size, phoning players actually seems to have a negative effect on the other team, as long as its secondary isn't staffed by Jacques Rickerson.

If so, why not go from leaving harassing messages to throwing opponents off their game with the unexpected? Leave mock telemarketing messages. Text factoids about Three's Company. Make the players laugh instead of rolling their eyes. Kill 'em with kindness. Switch it up. Make Cory Reamer wish he had had his number swiped.

It would be the sort of subtle subterfuge that might actually disrupt a player's preparation, rather than the vitriol, through the phone or in a stadium, that probably sounds the same and is easy to dismiss. And it would be clever. I like cleverness.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.