Latest "Real" Reason Fraud Left: His Kids Didn't Like Pittsburgh

I know everyone's tired of hearing about Fraud, but with every passing interview that he does, more information is made public about why he left and he still ends up looking like a snake. It's actually quite funny at this point.

But in the never-ending quest to make himself look better after being a one-and-done coach for the second time, Fraud has given out new reasons as to why he had to leave Pittsburgh. In an interview with Fox Sports Arizona, he discusses various aspects of the ASU job, but the stuff we all care about is about halfway through the interview.

All three of my kids went to Pittsburgh and said, 'I don't want to live here, dad.' It wasn't because of the people. There were great people there, we worked our tail off and did some great things. I'm proud that they asked me to take over a program that had been on the front page of Sports Illustrated with the most criminalities in the country and we did some good things there, but they just didn't like it there.

Look, I have no problem if someone doesn't like Pittsburgh. Heck, there are multiple times, especially during this time of the year, that I really don't like living in the city of Pittsburgh. That jab at the end was a little classless, in my opinion.

But, and I'm assuming anyone with kids would agree with this, if I moved my family somewhere and my kids didn't like it and asked to move elsewhere, I'd say tough luck, we're here for now so you might as well make the best of it.

More of this fantastic interview after the jump.

The big question, of course, is that Fraud simply got up and left. Craig Morgan, the interviewer, asks Fraud about it.

FS Arizona: Not to beat a dead horse, but you've been criticized for not meeting with your players at Pitt to tell them you were leaving, choosing instead to inform them via text message. Can you take us through that period, step by step?

Graham: Here's how that thing went, and as I've said before, the time frame was the biggest issue there. The search firm called me that night at like 9 o'clock. My wife and I talked and prayed about it and decided we wanted to look at it. Her parents were here. It was a dream job.

Well, when I asked Pitt, they said no, they didn't want to give me permission. That's kind of unusual. That usually doesn't happen in this business, so the only way I could look at the job was to resign. I resigned my job at 10:30 at night, and Arizona State wanted me here the next morning, so there wasn't time from 10:30 at night to leaving for the airport at 6:30 the next morning to go talk to my football players. Plus, I wasn't the head football coach at the University of Pittsburgh anymore, so I didn't have the authority to do that.

Jeez, I wonder why Pitt would say no. It's not at all because you had just gotten here, oh, 11 months ago and just signed a 5-year contract worth $2 million a year. Other than that, I can't imagine why Pitt would say no (rolls eyes).

I don't understand why he's so surprised that Pitt said no. The university has received a lot of negative press over the past few months with the firing/resigning of Wannstedt, then the hiring/arrest/firing of Mike Haywood, then the SI investigation. It's not surprising that Pitt didn't want to have to go through the same questioning from the media, the same process of trying to find a new coach. So of course they said no. Anyone could have figured that out.

Now we have this gem of a quote.

FS Arizona: Does it bother you that your job hopping is a persistent topic even though people in this business leave their jobs for better opportunities all the time?

Graham: Nobody has ever asked me what kind of deal I got here versus what I had (at Pitt). Nobody's asked me what kind of commitment I had there -- half the commitment I have here. Who would not take that opportunity? Everything about this made sense if you sat down and looked at it for your family, for your future, for your finances. Everything. There was no comparison.

And then you have to remember that we wanted to be here pretty bad. That's the scariest thing I've ever done -- to resign my job. I'm not making a minimum-wage job. I took a great risk and I could have ruined my whole career. You're never going to please everybody, but when I look in the mirror every day, I know I did what was best for my family, and I've tried to do things the right way everywhere I've been.

Hmm...lack of commitment you say? As ESPN.com Big East blogger Andrea Adelson reminds us, didn't Pitt pay you just as much as Arizona State is paying now? Didn't we also let you completely remodel the football offices, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for? Wasn't it you on the whole front cover of the Pitt football media guide and your face on the Pitt student tickets? But Pitt clearly wasn't committed to you.

I will say this. Fraud has said one honest thing since he left. It was a mistake for him to come here. Ain't that the truth.

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