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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

Dr. S will be here for you 24/7, slaving away to bring you the sports news and views you so richly deserve. Meanwhile, our raving correspondent Fester is taking Thanksgiving week off. I think the real problem is, they don’t have computers in the jail he’s visiting. Anyway, the slacker does offer some brief words of wisdom this week.

Fester sez”

Alabama is the 2002 SEC definition of physical. Men amongst boys … The Advocate’s Scott Rabalais wrote last Sunday that LSU was the only eligible school in the SEC West to control its own Atlanta destiny. Ummmm, Scotty Boy, you may want to check on the Pigs. The laziness and myopia of the Baton Rouge media never ceases to amaze Fester. … Miss. State is 0-6 in the conference for the first time since the Tech-and-Ten disaster in 1988. A 21-14 season-opening win over La. Tech was the only blemish on that slate. … Until any evidence to the contrary, Michael Vick and the Falcons own the Saints.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.