The Official Hammer & Rails Apology to Dan Dakich

We here at Hammer & Rails are held to the highest of journalistic standards. That is why SB Nation carefully selects it site managers and we go through rigorous training before we are put in our place. As a site manager of over 6 years, we take this responsibility seriously, so it is with great humility that we apologize for adding "deal" to yesterday's post from Dan Dakich concerning the recruiting of Caleb Swanigan. Sure, adding the word "deal" did not add or subtract anything to the article or title for anyone with a shred of common sense or the ability to actually read the article itself, but clearly we deeply misrepresented Mr. Dakich implying that a "deal" was in place between Purdue and the young Mr. Swanigan.

Mr. Dakich continued to insist that it was "5 word tweet that you couldn't decipher/quote accurately=dumb" (quoted verbatim again so I avoid misinterpreting). There is also this:

@CountryBoiler didn't blast fans..websites and those that can't decipher a 5 word tweet

— Dan Dakich (@dandakich) May 8, 2015

And this:

Purdue fans never disappoint ..Give them GREAT NEWS and they twist it..amazing but not surprising

— Dan Dakich (@dandakich) May 8, 2015

So, what can we tell from these five words and only five words:

"Swanigan to Purdue is done"

1. Swanigan was traveling to the Purdue University campus and is done traveling.

2. There is no chance whatsoever he is attending, hence any potential agreement is "done"

3. To quote Bill Clinton, It depends on what your definition of "is" is.

So yes, we saw a five word tweet from an ESPN analyst and talk radio host in Indianapolis that has far, far more credibility than any of us here and he is an analyst that we respect for what he does during his ESPN coverage of college basketball (despite being an IU grad). We reported it with the word "deal" in the headline that 95% of people would ignore, all while the content of the article CLEARLY and EXPLICITLY stated that nothing was official and we QUOTE DAN DAKICH VERBATIM, and Mr. Dakich took umbrage that he was "mis-quoted" in the headline (nevermind that the headline did not use all five magical words).

Hey fool.."adding a single word" negates "verbatim" https://t.co/tcbVscvUzA

— Dan Dakich (@dandakich) May 8, 2015

Far be it for us to misquote and misinterpret Mr. Dakich, especially when he later said he was, quote, "Give them some GREAT NEWS". We apologize that we interpreted this to mean that Mr. Swanigan would be committing to Purdue University to play basketball in exchange for scholarship aid.

We apologize that we quote you verbatim in the post, but not the title:

Finally, we apologize for starting the stupidest and most ridiculous argument in the history of talk radio, blogging, media, and possibly the history of the world.