Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

                            Matt Dulin    Barrett Goldsmith    Zach Lee 
                Jim Parsons            Christian Schmidt           Blake Whitaker

Don't speak

Most people probably wouldn't think that the athletic merits of a woman who just claimed she was raped would be a hot topic for discussion. But then, most people probably don't know Gary Barnett.

Barnett, the head coach of the Colorado University football team, said that Katie Hnida, a former kicker on the team, wasn't a very good player. Hnida recently told Sports Illustrated that she was assaulted by a teammate in 2000.

"It was obvious Katie was not very good. She was awful. Katie was not only a girl, she was terrible. OK? There's no other way to say it," Barnett said Wednesday.

Barnett made these comments amid a swirl of scandals at Colorado. Boulder police said Thursday they were investigating seven allegations of rape against football players. There have also been allegations of recruiting parties with alcohol, sex and strippers.

CU President Elizabeth Hoffman promptly put Barnett on administrative leave pending an investigation, describing Barnett's comments as "extremely inappropriate and insensitive."

But Barnett didn't stop there. Wednesday, he made an attempt at apologizing. Instead of taking responsibility for his remarks, Barnett said reporters took what he said out of context or misinterpreted it.

Let's see: "Katie was not very good. She was awful."

No, Gary. Not sure how that could be taken out of context.

College athletics has moved into a new era. With the salaries they make and the amount of time they spend with the media, coaches have to know what to say and what not to say. Barnett's best course of action would have been not to comment on Hnida's allegations.

Of course, some people might think any decent human being, not just a college football coach, wouldn't even think such things, much less say them.

But those people don't know Gary Barnett.