George graduated from and played football at the University of Illinois. He has three sisters and two brothers who live in Illinois. He tries to get back at least once per year to visit family. He was a three-sport star at Collinsville (Ill.) High.
And the University of Illinois just fired its athletic director.
So George was laughing, maybe because he knows he's a popular man with some influential folks in east central Illinois, just as he was a wanted man when CU smartly plucked him from a top-shelf gig with the Texas Rangers in 2013.
And he knew where I was going with the home query: If Illinois approaches George about its AD job, what would be his level of interest?
"Look, my focus is on what we're doing here. It's way too early for me to be making any comments about that," he said. "I'm happy doing what we're doing and we're doing some really good things here. You've seen it. I'm focused on what we're doing here, not on what's going on in Champaign, Illinois."
Rick George