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Volume 70, Issue 97,
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Sports Coach's trial seems to fit dynamic Corruption in pros seeps down to college, where bad behavior abounds Off the Wall Tom Carpenter "Having people stare at you like you're a zoo animal," he said. "I was used to being seen in public, but this was foreign ... I was being likened to Pete Rose, this guy who was gambling. It never, ever seemed accurate or fair." How wickedly delightful to hear Rick Neuheisel, the former Washington Husky football coach dismissed for "dishonesty" according to former Husky Athletic Director Barbara Hedges, tearfully distance himself and his gambling activities from the betting habits of the disgraced Pete Rose during testimony in Neuheisel's wrongful termination suit against the University of Washington. When a defense chooses to equivocate with a plea of mea culpa, but not as culpa as Pete Rose, two things are assured: Neuheisel's muckraking won't prevent his case from collapsing under the weight of all the mustard that hotdog's carrying; and Pete Rose, to his ignominy, continues to be reviled as a pariah by fans for betting on Major League Baseball games while he managed the Cincinnati Reds. Modeling is one way that behavior is learned. The lies and cover-ups perpetuated in professional sports to veil illegal activities trickle down to the college and high school ranks. Neuheisel is an example of that learning behavior: shrug off responsibility for your actions by copping a plea of ignorance, and then sue. Sports pages across America have been filled in recent months with stories about college coaches padding their résumés (George O'Leary at Notre Dame), drinking and hanging out at fraternity houses (Iowa State coach Larry Eustachy resigned after photos popped up showing him drinking with students and kissing women at a college party) and having fun in topless bars (Mike Price was dismissed before he coached a single game at Alabama for spending hundreds of dollars at a topless bar in Pensacola, Fla., and being discovered with three women in his motel room). The "boys will be boys" stories were complemented with sordid tales of coaches downplaying rape charges against student athletes (the entire chain of command at the Air Force Academy and Gary Barnett at Colorado) and controversial judgment (Dave Bliss and athletic director Tom Stanton surrounding the murder of a Baylor basketball player, and Ron Zook at Florida confronting students at a fraternity house). Neuheisel himself left Colorado bobbing in a sea of scandal when he departed for Washington. Neuheisel claims he "bid" on basketball games, but he did not bet. No matter how Neuheisel's trial comes out, he'll get another chance down the road, though his morals are somewhat elastic, because he's personable and young. Not so for Rose. Unless MLB Commissioner Bud Seli5 reinstates him by late November, the Hall of Fame has no plans to place Rose on the 2006 ballot, which would be his final chance for consideration by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. What a legacy. Lucky for Neuheisel, Rose, justly or unjustly, is the measuring stick of corruption in 21st century sports. Send comments to dcsports@mail.uh.edu |
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