Thursday, November 10, 2011
"The Shame Of College Sports"
Say it ain't so, Joe.
The winningest coach in college football history is out, following the exposure of what amounted to a 13-year institutional cover-up at Penn State of alleged serial pedophile, defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. (Gory grand jury details can be read here. And FAIR WARNING: This is truly ugly stuff.) So, students end up rioting in Happy Valley because of Paterno's instant dismissal. Really, kids? You planning on purchasing "Rioters 4 Pederasts"?
And, oh yeah, the whole thing could end up even worse. How, well, there's a former district attorney -- who didn't prosecute Sanduskey when allegations were first raised in 1998; a few years later, he disappeared and had his laptop hard drive destroyed. Odd coincidence or, God help us, a suggestion that this cover-up might even go there?
The title of this post was borrowed from a recent cover article in The Atlantic magazine, written by Pulitzer-prize winning historian Taylor Branch. He, of course, is famous for his trilogy of books looking at the civil rights era.
Branch's article focuses more on the NCAA's role in big-time college athletics, the impact of television contracts and raises the question of whether student athletes should get more compensation for their on-field exploits.
But it is germane to the current Penn State saga because it zeroes in on how huge and, arguably, corrupt an industry college sports has become -- and football in particular (not gainsaying the NCAA billion-dollar "March Madness" contract). It so huge that it is understandable why a giant football program like Penn State would engage in a 14-year coverup of heinous crimes committed by a member of its football staff.
How times have changed. Just two years ago, the debate going on was whether Paterno's closest rival in victories -- Bobby Bowden -- should have 12 wins vacated because of a cheating scandal. If that were to happen, Bowden would have had no chance to retire with the victory prize. As it happened, Bowden was forced out -- because the team started underperfoming on the field (those wins were vacated) and the point became moot.
This story, however, is on a whole other level. It's not about recruitment violations or kids getting cars from boosters or trading game shirts for tattoos. This is about at least nine young boys being abused -- raped -- by a defensive coordinator of the football team. And it seems clear that people at the top knew -- not in 2002 when graduate assistant Mike McQueary walked in on by-then-former coach Sandusky raping a kid in the showers -- but in 1998. That was when, it appears, Sandusky was forced out of his job -- but still allowed access to the college's athletic facilities!
As others have noted, the much-ballyhooed Big Ten Network -- bringing in millions in revenue and giving the conference even more pull with the NCAA -- has avoided this story like the plague. That's the problem with today's college athletics: The institutions want the money, influence and the benefits that come with a large athletics department -- a volatile brew that is sowing chaos and multiple conference hopping (ya thought, Boise, Idaho, was out west? Ha! Turns out it's in -- or will be -- the Big East!) But what about the responsibility? That's something quite different.
As Branch shows, the institutions have no qualms taking advantage of young student athletes (a phrase, Branch notes, created to help indemnify schools against worker's compensation claims brought by injured players). Now, it seems, that same CYA mentality seemingly extends even to not caring about the lives of really young people who not only aren't athletes -- but are actual pre-adolescent victims of a sexual predator who was allowed to use his current and former workplace as his own "playing field" (or, dare I say it, "happy valley").
Shame indeed.
***UPDATED AND EDITED SINCE INITIAL POSTING
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The winningest coach in college football history is out, following the exposure of what amounted to a 13-year institutional cover-up at Penn State of alleged serial pedophile, defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. (Gory grand jury details can be read here. And FAIR WARNING: This is truly ugly stuff.) So, students end up rioting in Happy Valley because of Paterno's instant dismissal. Really, kids? You planning on purchasing "Rioters 4 Pederasts"?
And, oh yeah, the whole thing could end up even worse. How, well, there's a former district attorney -- who didn't prosecute Sanduskey when allegations were first raised in 1998; a few years later, he disappeared and had his laptop hard drive destroyed. Odd coincidence or, God help us, a suggestion that this cover-up might even go there?
The title of this post was borrowed from a recent cover article in The Atlantic magazine, written by Pulitzer-prize winning historian Taylor Branch. He, of course, is famous for his trilogy of books looking at the civil rights era.
Branch's article focuses more on the NCAA's role in big-time college athletics, the impact of television contracts and raises the question of whether student athletes should get more compensation for their on-field exploits.
But it is germane to the current Penn State saga because it zeroes in on how huge and, arguably, corrupt an industry college sports has become -- and football in particular (not gainsaying the NCAA billion-dollar "March Madness" contract). It so huge that it is understandable why a giant football program like Penn State would engage in a 14-year coverup of heinous crimes committed by a member of its football staff.
How times have changed. Just two years ago, the debate going on was whether Paterno's closest rival in victories -- Bobby Bowden -- should have 12 wins vacated because of a cheating scandal. If that were to happen, Bowden would have had no chance to retire with the victory prize. As it happened, Bowden was forced out -- because the team started underperfoming on the field (those wins were vacated) and the point became moot.
This story, however, is on a whole other level. It's not about recruitment violations or kids getting cars from boosters or trading game shirts for tattoos. This is about at least nine young boys being abused -- raped -- by a defensive coordinator of the football team. And it seems clear that people at the top knew -- not in 2002 when graduate assistant Mike McQueary walked in on by-then-former coach Sandusky raping a kid in the showers -- but in 1998. That was when, it appears, Sandusky was forced out of his job -- but still allowed access to the college's athletic facilities!
As others have noted, the much-ballyhooed Big Ten Network -- bringing in millions in revenue and giving the conference even more pull with the NCAA -- has avoided this story like the plague. That's the problem with today's college athletics: The institutions want the money, influence and the benefits that come with a large athletics department -- a volatile brew that is sowing chaos and multiple conference hopping (ya thought, Boise, Idaho, was out west? Ha! Turns out it's in -- or will be -- the Big East!) But what about the responsibility? That's something quite different.
As Branch shows, the institutions have no qualms taking advantage of young student athletes (a phrase, Branch notes, created to help indemnify schools against worker's compensation claims brought by injured players). Now, it seems, that same CYA mentality seemingly extends even to not caring about the lives of really young people who not only aren't athletes -- but are actual pre-adolescent victims of a sexual predator who was allowed to use his current and former workplace as his own "playing field" (or, dare I say it, "happy valley").
Shame indeed.
***UPDATED AND EDITED SINCE INITIAL POSTING
Labels: Joe Paterno, NCAA, Penn State, Taylor Branch
Monday, March 07, 2011
The Oozing Corruption That Is College Sports
Last December, news broke that five members of the Ohio State football team -- including quarterback Terrelle Pryor were found to have sold game-worn clothing, trophies, championship rings and other paraphrenalia on the Internet. Some items were traded for personal tattoos. For any other Ohio State student, this wouldn't have been a big deal, since the items belonged to the students!
Alas, being a scholarship athlete means that you are something akin to an indentured servant: Things that are "given" to you or that you win for your exploits? You're actually only "renting" them from the school until graduation. If you sell them before then, you run afoul of NCAA regulations stating that the athletes can't unduly "profit" from their special status on campus. (So, to be a Division 1 scholarship athlete is, ironically, to have both a higher profile, but less rights than the average student. Pryor, by the way, admitted to selling his items on eBay to help raise money for his mom.)
In any event, OSU announced that they were shocked -- simply shocked!! -- that this had been going on. The NCAA declared that the students would be suspended for five games next year -- but they could play in the January 2nd Sugar Bowl. Head coach Jim Tressel sternly told the five players that -- if they wanted to play in the bowl game -- they had to promise they would return to OSU next year to serve their punishment. In other words, they had to swear they weren't going pro.
Many observers were ticked off that the players weren't automatically suspended for the bowl game. Others thought the image of a head coach essentially blackmailing his players to return next year appeared somewhat, well, unseemly. Anyway, OSU won the Sugar Bowl.
Monday evening, the proverbial other shoe dropped. Yahoo! Sports reports that Tressel apparently knew about the gear scheme -- nearly a year ago:
Before this latest news came out, Tressel just looked like a jerk blackmailing students to play the game. Now, instead of blackmail, this looks more like, oh, conspiracy. If Tressel knew, didn't tell his boss or anyone else at the university -- and then went through this whole BS of acting like a good stern disciplinarian -- that suggests he cut a deal with the five players, told them to dummy up and play cool so nothing bigger would come down.
As they say in politics, it's not the crime; it's the coverup. Tressel could -- and arguably should -- lose his job over this. Ohio State is looking at some tough sanctions.
Pryor and company may as well turn pro at this point.
And, oh, for those keeping track, both BCS Championship Game teams -- Auburn Tigers and Oregon Ducks -- are operating under the cloud of prospective investigations. And now, it appears that the storied OSU Buckeyes may have been caught acting, well, less-than-candid.
Here's an idea: Figure out a system that pays the big-program student-athletes compensation slightly more commensurate with the millions that they're bringing in. Or give them the same rights that ordinary students have -- getting a part-time job, selling their own property, etc.
Otherwise, expect the slimy cartel that is the NCAA to infect even more premier programs -- as well as the students and, yes, their parents as well.
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Alas, being a scholarship athlete means that you are something akin to an indentured servant: Things that are "given" to you or that you win for your exploits? You're actually only "renting" them from the school until graduation. If you sell them before then, you run afoul of NCAA regulations stating that the athletes can't unduly "profit" from their special status on campus. (So, to be a Division 1 scholarship athlete is, ironically, to have both a higher profile, but less rights than the average student. Pryor, by the way, admitted to selling his items on eBay to help raise money for his mom.)
In any event, OSU announced that they were shocked -- simply shocked!! -- that this had been going on. The NCAA declared that the students would be suspended for five games next year -- but they could play in the January 2nd Sugar Bowl. Head coach Jim Tressel sternly told the five players that -- if they wanted to play in the bowl game -- they had to promise they would return to OSU next year to serve their punishment. In other words, they had to swear they weren't going pro.
Many observers were ticked off that the players weren't automatically suspended for the bowl game. Others thought the image of a head coach essentially blackmailing his players to return next year appeared somewhat, well, unseemly. Anyway, OSU won the Sugar Bowl.
Monday evening, the proverbial other shoe dropped. Yahoo! Sports reports that Tressel apparently knew about the gear scheme -- nearly a year ago:
According to a source, a concerned party reached out to Tressel last April, alerting the coach that memorabilia transactions had taken place between Rife and a handful of Buckeyes players, including Pryor. The selling of items violates NCAA eligibility rules. The source said Tressel was troubled by the information, and the coach indicated that he would investigate the matter and take appropriate action.These are all, of course, just "allegations." Yeah, right. I actually believe every word of it. Which means that Tressel basically lied to the world last December and January, acting like he was as surprised as anyone that his players had acted improperly. Nope, he allegedly knew from the very beginning of the season. Nonetheless, he goes through with the charade of "punishing" the guys by getting them to give up their rights to turn pro and "allowing" them to play in the Sugar Bowl.
Whether the coach initiated an investigation of the accusation is unclear, but all five players remained on the field in the coming months, playing out the 2010 regular season.
After Ohio State alerted the NCAA of the memorabilia sales in early December, the NCAA’s student-athlete reinstatement staff ruled the players were banned from the first five regular-season games of 2011. The players also had to repay the improper benefits gained – $2,500 for Pryor, $1,505 for Thomas, $1,250 for Posey, $1,150 for Herron and $1,000 for Adams. Linebacker Jordan Whiting also had to pay $150 to a charity for receiving a discounted tattoo.
Before this latest news came out, Tressel just looked like a jerk blackmailing students to play the game. Now, instead of blackmail, this looks more like, oh, conspiracy. If Tressel knew, didn't tell his boss or anyone else at the university -- and then went through this whole BS of acting like a good stern disciplinarian -- that suggests he cut a deal with the five players, told them to dummy up and play cool so nothing bigger would come down.
As they say in politics, it's not the crime; it's the coverup. Tressel could -- and arguably should -- lose his job over this. Ohio State is looking at some tough sanctions.
Pryor and company may as well turn pro at this point.
And, oh, for those keeping track, both BCS Championship Game teams -- Auburn Tigers and Oregon Ducks -- are operating under the cloud of prospective investigations. And now, it appears that the storied OSU Buckeyes may have been caught acting, well, less-than-candid.
Here's an idea: Figure out a system that pays the big-program student-athletes compensation slightly more commensurate with the millions that they're bringing in. Or give them the same rights that ordinary students have -- getting a part-time job, selling their own property, etc.
Otherwise, expect the slimy cartel that is the NCAA to infect even more premier programs -- as well as the students and, yes, their parents as well.
Labels: Jim Tressel, NCAA, Ohio State University
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Fall Of The House of Troy
After two national championships (one shared) and losing another by a hair, USC's Pete Carroll has decided to head back to the NFL. He's apparently reached an agreement in principle with the Seattle Seahawks. Carroll's previous pro stays -- with the Jets and Patriots in the '90s -- weren't much to write home over.
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Considering USC's rather mediocre (for them) '09 season, one might think that Carroll just came to the conclusion that there were no more mountains for him to climb. Why bother rebuilding the program, just so it can conquer the Pac-10 again? Are there more possible championships in the offing? Maybe not -- the SEC looks like it will be dominant for several more years (Alabama, in particular).
But is there perhaps something else going on? Is it possible Carroll is getting out of town before the school and his program get completely taken apart by NCAA penalties?
Could be.
Shortly before the Carroll rumors began surfacing, USC announced that it was punishing itself for apparent NCAA violations involving former basketball player O.J. Mayo (currently with the NBA's . The school agreed to keep itself out of any postseason games -- including both the conference and NCAA tournaments -- among other self-imposed penalties. Its former coach, Tim Floyd, resigned after admitting that he helped steer money to the man who helped USC recruit Mayo.
What does this have to do with Carroll?
Well, in addition to the Mayo scandal, the NCAA has been investigating -- for more than three years now! -- allegations involving former Trojan Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush and his relationship with various marketing agents. In fact, there are some rumors that the school decided to bring the hammer down on the basketball program in the hopes that the NCAA doesn't do major damage to the extremely profitable football operation.
What are the odds that Carroll is seeing the writing on the wall? The NCAA is already preparing to strip recently retired Florida State coaching legend Bobby Bowden of 14 victories because of a cheating scandal? Think Carroll wants to still be on the USC sidelines when the NCAA decides that Reggie Bush may have been ineligible when the school won at least one of its championships? That any victories from that year may be taken away? That there might be enough evidence to suggest an administration-wide disregard for the rules?
Given that likelihood, wouldn't you take a big contract and bolt to the NFL?
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Labels: NCAA, Pete Carroll, USC
Thursday, March 15, 2007
More Fun Than The NCAAs...
...is ESPN Sports Guy Bill Simmons' running diary while watching the games with his pals (particularly beneficial given the lack of close games early on).
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Labels: college basketball, ESPN, Final Four, March Madness, NCAA, Sports Guy
