"Memory Lane up in the headlights,
It's got me reminiscin' on them good times."
Dirt Road Anthem
(Jason Aldean 2011)
Could Notre Dame and Alabama play for a national title this season?
It's still doubtful (mainly because ND probably will not win out), but the Irish and Tide have me reminiscing on them good times - of December 1973.
That New Year's Eve, those two teams played what was - and remains - my favorite college football game (just edging out the great Nebraska-Oklahoma 1971 Thanksgiving Day classic). A crowd of over 85,000 filled old Tulane Stadium in New Orleans and saw two unbeaten teams battle to the final whistle with Notre Dame pulling out a 24-23 victory and laying claim to the National Championship. (A note on rankings in 1973: the UPI or "Coaches poll" still announced its champion at the end of the regular season - and ranked Bama #1 with the Irish #4; the more popular Associated Press (AP) or "Writers poll" waited until after the bowls and named ND champion). The UPI started holding its final ballot after the bowls the very next season.
Even though I was a Georgia boy, not a Catholic, and had never been north of Kentucky best I can remember (other than being born in Dover, Delaware, and living there a few weeks courtesy of the US Air Force), the Irish held a special place in my sporting soul (still do). Thank the great Lindsey Nelson for that affection. Like scores of thousands of others, I watched and loved the old Notre Dame football replays on Sunday mornings featuring the plaid-clad Nelson and the Golden Boy Paul Hornung. Those of you who don't remember pre-ESPN days should realize most Saturdays offered only one college football telecast, with the occasional national-regional double feature. So, the team I got to see the most on that old Zenith was Notre Dame ... and the Irish always seemed to be ahead by forty points as Nelson switched to further action, his signature line. (An aside - years later I would date a pretty girl at Georgia a couple of times - named Lindsey Nelson! A few years after that, in grad school at Tennessee, I got to meet the real deal when Mr. Nelson spoke to a sport history class - he lived on a bluff over the Tennessee River - what a man).
The fact that a whole slew of my cousins and an uncle or two ate, drank, and slept Alabama football also had my adrenaline flowing for the '73 Sugar Bowl. If my (admittedly fading) memory serves me, I made a long-distance call to the Heart of Dixie to gloat just minutes after Irish QB Tom Clements calmly hit TE Robin Weber with a long-pass from the ND end zone to ice the game. Long-distance calls were nothing to take lightly in those days, but my mother let me have my fun. I don't think any other football score has ever been so much fun since.
Aside from personal interests, the game held broad national implications too. The two schools had never met on the football field. Many southern football fans, and Alabama fans in particular, chafed at what they saw as preferential treatment in the polls for Notre Dame. More people in northern cities, more television and newspaper exposure, more northern sportswriters with big-city biases, all those factors rubbed Bama and other southern fans raw. And there was 1966 of course. That season the Irish were voted national champs after finishing the season with a 9-0-1 record that included a tie at #2 Michigan State in the next to last game of the year. Alabama finished 10-0 (and then won the Sugar Bowl over Nebraska), but still finished #3 in both polls. Want to start a fight in Alabama? Bring up that vote.
While the ND-State tie is long-remembered, the fact that the Irish won at Oklahoma and then crushed USC 51-0 in the season finale is often overlooked. Guess where Notre Dame plays this weekend? Guess where the Irish finish the season? Yes and yes ... Oklahoma and USC.
I don't think it will happen. I doubt the Irish can handle the Sooners on the road this weekend. I question whether ND will be able to stave off the future NFL squad at the LA Coliseum. They are too young, too fragile, too accustomed to losing big games the past decade or so.
But, oh just savoring the possibility for one more week ... the Irish got me reminiscing on them good times.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Back to Campus - Welcome to the 2012 College Football Season
Welcome back to campus (and The Campus Game!) and the kickoff of the college football year.
The best and briefest sport season on the American calendar opened with a five-day football feast … and after the first Saturday, college football 2012 looks a whole lot like a replay of 2011. These “Cliff’s Notes” summarize my review of toe meeting leather on weekend one across the nation.
Head of the Class
Three teams stood out to me in these initial games:
Alabama … the Crimson Tide program remains on a different level. In crunching Michigan 41-14, Bama dominated all phases of the game. The offensive line looks absolutely nasty and should be the nation’s best. That group paved the path for freshman T.J. Yeldon to establish himself (after only one game) as Alabama’s best running back, even though junior Eddie Lacy and Dee Hart (another frosh) are certainly serviceable. Yeldon is just different – and so is the Crimson Tide. Until somebody proves otherwise, Nick Saban’s squad remains the valedictorian of not only the SEC, but also the entire country.
USC … this is the most polished team in America. Senior QB Matt Barkley could just as easily be tossing touchdowns for an NFL team next week as throwing them for the Trojans (he hit Marqise Lee for a 75-yard TD on SC’s opening offensive play of the season Saturday night against Hawaii in a 49-10 victory). Barkley leads a balanced attack that features all-star receivers Lee and Robert Woods, and the Trojans make up for depth issues with pure talent. My preseason prediction for the BCS title game was USC-Oklahoma, but I’d really like to see Lane Kiffin and company take on Saban and the Tide.
Oregon … yes, a good, physical defense would probably stifle the Ducks, and their pinball wizard style of offense can result in a “tilt” if they fall behind in down and distance for any given series. But, boy does Oregon have speed and play fast. New QB Marcus Mariota led a dazzling Duck raid on Arkansas State when Oregon blazed to 50 points in the first quarter and a half of the game. I truly believe Oregon could have fairly easily posted triple-digits on A-State had not Chip Kelly called off his flock and settled for a very misleading 57-34 win. While I favor defense and physicality, you best believe the professor will be hunkered down to watch USC play Oregon (both times – they’ll meet in the PAC-12 title game too).
A Good Start
Fans of these programs should feel pretty good after opening week:
Tennessee: While it’s just one game, the Vols might finally be on the march back to contender status. They sure showed a lot of speed and talent in a nice 35-21 thumping of well-thought-of NC State. Junior college WR transfer Cordarrelle Patterson electrified a pro-Big Orange Friday night Georgia Dome crowd with two long touchdowns (a 41-yard catch and a 67-yard run) and QB Tyler Bray looked like the gunslinger he is in whipping the ball around for 333 yards and two TDs with no interceptions. The Vols also looked fast on defense, with sophomore LB Curt Maggitt showing star potential. The Vols are far from a finished product, but Derek Dooley and his young team may grow up this season.
MAC Teams: The professor holds a soft spot for the MAC, and the underrated conference played several nice games. Ohio beat Penn State at Beaver Stadium, notching a win for Frank Solich in a highly publicized pairing. Northern Illinois played Iowa to within a point on the road, Toledo took Arizona to overtime in Tucson, Buffalo rang up 23 points against highly-rated Georgia between the hedges, and Bowling Green scrapped with Florida at the Swamp before falling 27-14. Kudos to the Mid-American.
Notre Dame: The Irish finally started a season without moving as if in a fog. Maybe it was the trip to Ireland that lifted ND’s spirits, perhaps it was a Navy squad that might be the worst team the Domers play all season, or possibly it was the calming influence of QB Everett Golson or the upgraded size and power of the lines. Whatever. Irish fans will take it after dismal starts in Brian Kelly’s first two seasons.
Ohio State: No need to get too excited yet, but next year – oh yes. Urban Meyer has a perfect QB for his system in Braxton Miller and the bowl ban this season will provide Meyer and his charges with all the anger and edge needed to be a real threat next year. The Bucks may be the B1G’s best team before this season is over (but probably not). Won’t be long though.
Of Concern
Fans of these squads might call for some extra tutoring or time in study hall because they did not impress the first weekend:
Penn State: No need to say more about this situation. While normally a Nittany Lion fan, I took a wee bit of guilty pleasure in seeing PSU take a kick to the gut from a MAC school – mainly because of the shameful way the trustees buckled to the Freeh Report and turned on Joe Paterno. Billy O’Brien is a class act, but he and Lions fans are in for a tough year.
Florida: The Gators looked awfully ragged in their opening win over Bowling Green. While the game was never in doubt (a slight improvement over some of their performances last year), the sloppy penalties and sluggish offense is very reminiscent of Will Muschamp’s first season in Gainesville. The Gators have too much talent to look so fragile.
Savannah State: OK – nobody even knows them, but what was the AD doing scheduling Oklahoma State (84-0) and FSU to open the season? $375K, which is the payout for the Stillwater scalping, is not sufficient for the beating this team took. Hope Jimbo Fisher is feeling charitable next weekend in Tallahassee or there may not be a SSU Tiger team to pull for the last ten weeks of the season.
Enjoy the Labor Day matchup of Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech!
Monday, July 23, 2012
Drama, Tragedy, and Sport - Forty Septembers Ago
Forty Septembers ago, sport and politics intersected on an international stage, resulting in drama and tragedy unmatched before or since.
The 1972 Summer Olympics were supposed to mark Germany's ultimate return to prominence one score and seven years after the end of World War II. At least that was the plan for republican and free West Germany - Deutschland was still divided, East Germany a Soviet satellite trapped behind the Iron Curtain.
The Games had last been held in Germany in 1936. Adolph Hitler sought to use those Olympics as a showcase to demonstrate the competence of his ruling national socialist party. Now often called the "Nazi Olympics," the Berlin Games were successful in an overall sense ... filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl and games organizer Carl Diem creating one of the first true sporting spectacles; the great American sprinter Jesse Owens (the most famous of a bevy of African American athletes) shattering any notions of Aryan supremacy by winning four gold medals.
As the '72 Games approached, the West Germans wanted no links to the aggressive, militaristic history many people around the globe associated with the Germany of WWI and WWII, and they certainly sought to avoid connection with 1936 Berlin.
The Munich Olympics were to be the "Happy Games."
Security personnel carried no visible weapons, even dressed in soft pastel colors. This laxity proved tragic.
In the early morning hours of September 5th, during the second week of the Games, Palestinian terrorists dressed as athletes scaled a fence and entered the Olympic Village. The eight terrorists broke into apartments housing Israeli athletes and coaches. They immediately killed two of them, and took nine hostages. After nearly 18 hours of negotiations - played out on television - a bus ferried the terrorists and their hostages to the NATO air base at Furstenfeldbrook. There a poorly planned attempt to free the hostages by German authorities resulted in the murder of the remaining nine Israeli hostages, the deaths of a German policeman caught in the crossfire and five of the terrorists, and the capture of the remaining three terrorists (who would be released in a prisoner exchange by the West Germans within weeks).
After a one-day period of grieving, IOC President Avery Brundage announced "the Games must go on."
And they did.
While nothing compared to the tragedy of the massacre, other controversial events took place as well. Brundage was roundly criticized for his decision to continue the games after only 24 hours. Controversial calls at the end of the gold medal basketball game allowed the Soviet Union to prevail over a U.S. team that had never lost in Olympic basketball competition; the Americans refused the silver medals (which sit even today in a vault at IOC headquarters in Lausanne). U.S. sprinters were given an old schedule by their coach and the 100 meter favorite (Eddie Hart) never even made it to his preliminary heats (having to settle for gold in the 4x100 relay). American swimmer Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals (a record that would stand until Michael Phelps won 8 in 2008) but left the Games immediately after completing his event (the Jewish Spitz uncomfortable staying in Munich).
Altogether, the Olympic Movement would not truly recover from these events until the 1992 Barcelona Games (1976 Montreal Games faced boycotts and financial problems; 1980 Moscow Games saw an American-led boycott by western nations; 1984 LA Games saw a tit-for-tat boycott by the Soviets and eastern-bloc nations; the 1988 Seoul Games were marred by the Ben Johnson steroid scandal and controversial judging).
At the same time the 1972 Olympics captivated the world's attention, two nations played out their own international drama on the ice.
Canada and the Soviet Union competed against each other in eight games, starting on September 2nd with four games played in four cities across Canada, and ending on September 28th after four games played in Moscow.
The "Summit Series" never garnered as much attention as the 1972 Munich Olympics, but the hockey was riveting, with Cold War tensions spilling onto the rink nearly a decade before the United States would win the "Miracle on Ice" at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY.
Most hockey aficionados - fans, experts, and players alike - expected the mighty team of Canadians to dominate the Soviets. Canada is considered the historical home of ice hockey, the game originating there in the 1800s and the first official match taking place in 1875. Open professionals from the NHL, which comprised the roster of team Canada, could not compete in the Olympics at the time, so this series was the first true opportunity for the pros from Canada to take on the Soviets, a team comprised of Russians who had dominated international amateur hockey for a couple of decades (the Russians were "amateur" in name only; they played hockey for a living).
On September 2nd, the Soviets stunned the Canadians with a 7-3 victory in the first game, overcoming a quick goal by Phil Esposito with flashy speed and precision on offense, especially from forward Valeri Kharlamov who scored twice and would become the USSR star of the series (along with goaltender Vladislav Tretiak). Canada came back to win Game Two on September 4th in Toronto (the same night the Olympic Village in Munich fell into peaceful slumber - hours before the terrorist attack), and the teams played to a tie in Winnipeg on September 6th.
When the Soviets prevailed 5-3 on September 8th in Vancouver, and then 5-4 two weeks later in Moscow, the USSR held a 3-1-1 lead in the competition. Team Canada would need to win the three remaining games - all in Moscow - to salvage the series.
And they did.
In one of those remarkable turnarounds that happen only in sport, Canada eked out a 3-2 win in Game 5 with Paul Henderson (remember the name) scoring the clincher. In Game 6, the great Esposito willed Canada to another clutch victory by scoring two goals, with Henderson again punching in the game-winner in the 4-3 final.
In the last game, Canada trailed 5-3 in the third period but surged to a 6-5 thrilling win when Esposito scored two more goals and Henderson - yes that man again - slammed in a rebound with seconds remaining to secure the Summit Series.
The 1972 Munich Olympics.
The 1972 Summit Series.
These overlapping competitions forty Septembers ago provided simultaneous examples of tragedy and drama, sport and politics, seen neither before or since.
The 1972 Summer Olympics were supposed to mark Germany's ultimate return to prominence one score and seven years after the end of World War II. At least that was the plan for republican and free West Germany - Deutschland was still divided, East Germany a Soviet satellite trapped behind the Iron Curtain.
The Games had last been held in Germany in 1936. Adolph Hitler sought to use those Olympics as a showcase to demonstrate the competence of his ruling national socialist party. Now often called the "Nazi Olympics," the Berlin Games were successful in an overall sense ... filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl and games organizer Carl Diem creating one of the first true sporting spectacles; the great American sprinter Jesse Owens (the most famous of a bevy of African American athletes) shattering any notions of Aryan supremacy by winning four gold medals.
As the '72 Games approached, the West Germans wanted no links to the aggressive, militaristic history many people around the globe associated with the Germany of WWI and WWII, and they certainly sought to avoid connection with 1936 Berlin.
The Munich Olympics were to be the "Happy Games."
Security personnel carried no visible weapons, even dressed in soft pastel colors. This laxity proved tragic.
In the early morning hours of September 5th, during the second week of the Games, Palestinian terrorists dressed as athletes scaled a fence and entered the Olympic Village. The eight terrorists broke into apartments housing Israeli athletes and coaches. They immediately killed two of them, and took nine hostages. After nearly 18 hours of negotiations - played out on television - a bus ferried the terrorists and their hostages to the NATO air base at Furstenfeldbrook. There a poorly planned attempt to free the hostages by German authorities resulted in the murder of the remaining nine Israeli hostages, the deaths of a German policeman caught in the crossfire and five of the terrorists, and the capture of the remaining three terrorists (who would be released in a prisoner exchange by the West Germans within weeks).
After a one-day period of grieving, IOC President Avery Brundage announced "the Games must go on."
And they did.
While nothing compared to the tragedy of the massacre, other controversial events took place as well. Brundage was roundly criticized for his decision to continue the games after only 24 hours. Controversial calls at the end of the gold medal basketball game allowed the Soviet Union to prevail over a U.S. team that had never lost in Olympic basketball competition; the Americans refused the silver medals (which sit even today in a vault at IOC headquarters in Lausanne). U.S. sprinters were given an old schedule by their coach and the 100 meter favorite (Eddie Hart) never even made it to his preliminary heats (having to settle for gold in the 4x100 relay). American swimmer Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals (a record that would stand until Michael Phelps won 8 in 2008) but left the Games immediately after completing his event (the Jewish Spitz uncomfortable staying in Munich).
Altogether, the Olympic Movement would not truly recover from these events until the 1992 Barcelona Games (1976 Montreal Games faced boycotts and financial problems; 1980 Moscow Games saw an American-led boycott by western nations; 1984 LA Games saw a tit-for-tat boycott by the Soviets and eastern-bloc nations; the 1988 Seoul Games were marred by the Ben Johnson steroid scandal and controversial judging).
At the same time the 1972 Olympics captivated the world's attention, two nations played out their own international drama on the ice.
Canada and the Soviet Union competed against each other in eight games, starting on September 2nd with four games played in four cities across Canada, and ending on September 28th after four games played in Moscow.
The "Summit Series" never garnered as much attention as the 1972 Munich Olympics, but the hockey was riveting, with Cold War tensions spilling onto the rink nearly a decade before the United States would win the "Miracle on Ice" at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY.
Most hockey aficionados - fans, experts, and players alike - expected the mighty team of Canadians to dominate the Soviets. Canada is considered the historical home of ice hockey, the game originating there in the 1800s and the first official match taking place in 1875. Open professionals from the NHL, which comprised the roster of team Canada, could not compete in the Olympics at the time, so this series was the first true opportunity for the pros from Canada to take on the Soviets, a team comprised of Russians who had dominated international amateur hockey for a couple of decades (the Russians were "amateur" in name only; they played hockey for a living).
On September 2nd, the Soviets stunned the Canadians with a 7-3 victory in the first game, overcoming a quick goal by Phil Esposito with flashy speed and precision on offense, especially from forward Valeri Kharlamov who scored twice and would become the USSR star of the series (along with goaltender Vladislav Tretiak). Canada came back to win Game Two on September 4th in Toronto (the same night the Olympic Village in Munich fell into peaceful slumber - hours before the terrorist attack), and the teams played to a tie in Winnipeg on September 6th.
When the Soviets prevailed 5-3 on September 8th in Vancouver, and then 5-4 two weeks later in Moscow, the USSR held a 3-1-1 lead in the competition. Team Canada would need to win the three remaining games - all in Moscow - to salvage the series.
And they did.
In one of those remarkable turnarounds that happen only in sport, Canada eked out a 3-2 win in Game 5 with Paul Henderson (remember the name) scoring the clincher. In Game 6, the great Esposito willed Canada to another clutch victory by scoring two goals, with Henderson again punching in the game-winner in the 4-3 final.
In the last game, Canada trailed 5-3 in the third period but surged to a 6-5 thrilling win when Esposito scored two more goals and Henderson - yes that man again - slammed in a rebound with seconds remaining to secure the Summit Series.
The 1972 Munich Olympics.
The 1972 Summit Series.
These overlapping competitions forty Septembers ago provided simultaneous examples of tragedy and drama, sport and politics, seen neither before or since.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Day of the Jackals
The jackals of American media loosed themselves fully on old Joe Paterno last week.
Whether attacking alone or as a pack, the nation's self-appointed pundits and protectors of the truth - sportswriters, sports talk radio hosts, even national network news readers who rarely deign to dirty their hands in the world of sports (unless a fresh scandal is ripe) - all of them tore away at the old man's legacy, trying to rip away any last flecks of flesh from the bare carcass of the once revered man's reputation.
On Thursday (July 12), the day the Freeh Report was made public, I spent nearly seven hours listening to talk radio while driving from north Georgia to the panhandle of Florida. The weather - alternating between cloudy gray skies and heavy downpours of rain - aptly fit the mood generated by the report. Starting with the Atlanta stations in the morning, switching to national big hitters during lunch, finding a small-town south Alabama program at mid-day, and finishing up with the ubiquitous Paul Finebaum in late afternoon ... virtually all the conversation focused on the Freeh Report and what it said about Paterno.
While recognizing the sickening and horrific nature of the crimes committed by the serial pedophile Jerry Sandusky, the comments I heard from hosts and their guests (not the callers so much - they were much more measured) about Paterno still felt too ugly, too hateful and hate-filled, opinions toppling out in near unanimous chorus with little room for nuance, discussion or reflection, the obligatory condolensces occasionally cast toward the victims seeming incidental, even empty. Almost all the vitriol spewed straight at Joseph Vincent Paterno. By the end of the ride, had I not known better, Paterno could have been the molester instead of Sandusky.
The jackals proposed an array of penalties for the dead man. Remove the statue from Penn State's campus. Strip Paterno of his wins from 2001 forward. Take his family's pension. Put the football program on probation for a year, two years, five years, or just shut it down permanently.
Unfortunately, none - NONE - of the hosts, guests, or callers had read the Freeh Report that day. None of them had read the report. Let that register. They couldn't have read the full report because it was released only that morning. The findings run one hundred and forty-four pages (144) in length, with another hundred and twenty-three pages (123) of end notes and addendums, for the oft-cited (and somewhat misleading) total of two hundred and sixty-seven (267) pages. I know the count - I read every word on every page ... all of them ... again and again before sitting down to the keyboard.
In their rush to judgment, the jackals had to be first, had to be loudest, had to outshout everyone to make sure they were heard, or their websites got the most clicks, or their editors could preen and publicize their appearances on ESPN, Finebaum, Rome, Yahoo, and the rest.
[As an irritating example - Christine Brennan of the Washington Post (whom I usually admire and enjoy reading) tried to equate Paterno's legacy with that of disgraced former President Richard Nixon (the irony hopefully not lost on her of the animosity Paterno felt toward Nixon dating to 1969). In making her case, she tried to cite what she called the many positives of the Nixon years ... opening relations with China, passage of Title IX legislation, the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. Wait a minute. What? Yes, in a discussion about a terrible child abuse case, Brennan felt it appropriate to cite a court ruling that has resulted in the _______ murder/termination/killing/aborting (choose your term) of between 30 and 50 million unborn American babies - again, while discussing a child predator case. That's in poor taste. For good measure, Brennan - in arguing for the termination of the PSU football program - proclaimed how much she loved, loved, loved, loved college football, especially Penn State and recalled watching the famous 1973 Alabama-Penn State Sugar Bowl. Ummm ... Christine, as every Finebaum listener probably knew, Alabama played (and lost to) Notre Dame in the 1973 Sugar Bowl. She meant the 1978 game, but the sloppiness is indicative of the work done by media that day. I lost a lot of respect for Ms. Brennan on that drive.]
So, the excesses of the jackals aside, what about the Freeh Report? Here is my personal opinion of the Freeh findings:
* Louis Freeh and his the Special Investigative Counsel (SIC - the group that conducted the inquiry and developed the report) draw stronger conclusions about the role of Joe Paterno "covering up" the scandal than their own evidence warrants.
* The SIC purposefully emphasizes information most damaging to Paterno (through wording, their own italicized font, etc). I found this curious.
* While the SIC boasts of examining more than 3.5 million "electronic data and documents," three emails refer to Joe Paterno. Read that again ... three emails reference any involvement of Joe Paterno. (See Exhibits 2A, 2C, and 2F)
* Of those three emails, only one (2F) indicates any information that might be construed as damaging to Paterno. More in a minute on the emails.
* The SIC falls into a trap of looking at evidence with the advantage of hindsight (they should have had historians on the team). Freeh and his investigators already knew that Sandusky was a pervert and monster ... Paterno, PSU President Graham Spanier, Vice President for Business and Finance Gary Schultz, and Athletic Director Tim Curley did not know in 1998 and could have only suspected so in 2001.
* Those who believe Paterno would face or be convicted of criminal conduct as a result of this report are - again, in my opinion, wrong. I don't see the evidence in this report to make that claim.
Were the four primary leaders at Penn State without blame or fault in letting Sandusky's reign continue for a decade or more? Absolutely not ... but to condemn them based on the Freeh Report is premature.
Allow me to close using the method of the SIC ... here is my own executive summary:
* Freeh's conjecture that Spanier, Schultz, Curley, and Paterno "covered up" the Sandusky case to protect the institution and their jobs is just that - conjecture. None of the emails or other supporting documents (that I can find) support that claim. It seems more likely to me that the men were overly sensitive to Sandusky's feelings (that seems foolish now, but again they were acting without knowing what we do now), and completely unaware and inept in recognizing how to handle suspected child abuse situations.
* There was absolutely no inappropriate conduct by Joe Paterno in 1998. State College police and the Department of Public Welfare investigated a complaint against Sandusky between May 4-May 30 before concluding that no crime had taken place (read the full report if you want the details of the accusation - my focus is on Paterno and his actions). The District Attorney declined to prosecute Sandusky. On May 4th, AD Curley responded to a Schultz email by noting that he had "touched base" with Paterno. Eight days later he asked for an update from Schultz, mentioning Paterno was "anxious" to know of any news. That's the last time Paterno is mentioned. It seems reasonable to me for Paterno and Curley to want to know more information ... again, there is no evidence to suggest they knew he was a predator.
* The worst part of the report for Paterno was an email Curley sent in 2001 (Exhibit 2F) that suggests (my emphasis added) Paterno might have (my emphasis added) changed the direction of the University's response to the 2001 incident that eventually broke the case nearly a decade later. See how we can influence opinion by adding an emphasis here or there (Freeh always used this strategy to make Paterno look as bad as possible - in my opinion). Again, we benefit from hindsight and current knowledge, but the Penn State leaders - including Paterno - made a series of misjudgments in handling this allegation against Sandusky. I'll spare the details (again I encourage you to actually read the report), but any number of people could have stopped Sandusky at this point. Mike McQueary doesn't know what he saw based on his conflicting comments of the time and should have went straight to the police (instead of calling his father, waiting overnight to alert Paterno and then being vague in his story); Paterno should have called Curley immediately instead of waiting overnight; the list goes on. None of them called the police as they should have done and were required to do by law. Poor - and tragic - mistakes.
* Blaming Paterno and the football "culture" at Penn State for personal cowardice is taking the easy way out for Freeh. Two people actually saw Sandusky committing crimes - a janitor in 2000 and Mike McQueary in 2001 - neither went to the police. That Penn State janitor reported seeing Sandusky assaulting a child in late 2000 (in the same shower as the 1998 case), informed two other custodians, but all three failed to notify anyone else - reportedly for fear of losing their jobs. The SIC repeatedly takes the four senior leaders at Penn State to task about not informing authorities, but why are these men not held to the same standard? Because they don't make as much money or wield as much power, they shouldn't be expected to report what the witness claimed (a decade later) was worse than anything he saw in Korea? Unlike this man, Paterno and the others were not witnesses. The same for McQueary. He obviously panicked, grew flustered, and couldn't think straight that night in 2001 when he walked into the Lasch Building and saw Sandusky. He should have stopped what was taking place and called the police. It's what any of us would (or should) have done. Blaming Paterno for the personal cowardice or mistakes of these men is not right.
The sickening saga at Penn State carried out for more than a decade (and probably longer). It was tragic for the many victims of a monster. It is merely sad for Joe Paterno, a man who stood alongside John Wooden, Dean Smith, Pat Summitt, and others as one of the true leaders of intercollegiate sport in America.
Like Joe said, he should have done more. Now the jackals have moved in to devour his remains.
[Click to view the full Freeh Report]
Whether attacking alone or as a pack, the nation's self-appointed pundits and protectors of the truth - sportswriters, sports talk radio hosts, even national network news readers who rarely deign to dirty their hands in the world of sports (unless a fresh scandal is ripe) - all of them tore away at the old man's legacy, trying to rip away any last flecks of flesh from the bare carcass of the once revered man's reputation.
On Thursday (July 12), the day the Freeh Report was made public, I spent nearly seven hours listening to talk radio while driving from north Georgia to the panhandle of Florida. The weather - alternating between cloudy gray skies and heavy downpours of rain - aptly fit the mood generated by the report. Starting with the Atlanta stations in the morning, switching to national big hitters during lunch, finding a small-town south Alabama program at mid-day, and finishing up with the ubiquitous Paul Finebaum in late afternoon ... virtually all the conversation focused on the Freeh Report and what it said about Paterno.
While recognizing the sickening and horrific nature of the crimes committed by the serial pedophile Jerry Sandusky, the comments I heard from hosts and their guests (not the callers so much - they were much more measured) about Paterno still felt too ugly, too hateful and hate-filled, opinions toppling out in near unanimous chorus with little room for nuance, discussion or reflection, the obligatory condolensces occasionally cast toward the victims seeming incidental, even empty. Almost all the vitriol spewed straight at Joseph Vincent Paterno. By the end of the ride, had I not known better, Paterno could have been the molester instead of Sandusky.
The jackals proposed an array of penalties for the dead man. Remove the statue from Penn State's campus. Strip Paterno of his wins from 2001 forward. Take his family's pension. Put the football program on probation for a year, two years, five years, or just shut it down permanently.
Unfortunately, none - NONE - of the hosts, guests, or callers had read the Freeh Report that day. None of them had read the report. Let that register. They couldn't have read the full report because it was released only that morning. The findings run one hundred and forty-four pages (144) in length, with another hundred and twenty-three pages (123) of end notes and addendums, for the oft-cited (and somewhat misleading) total of two hundred and sixty-seven (267) pages. I know the count - I read every word on every page ... all of them ... again and again before sitting down to the keyboard.
In their rush to judgment, the jackals had to be first, had to be loudest, had to outshout everyone to make sure they were heard, or their websites got the most clicks, or their editors could preen and publicize their appearances on ESPN, Finebaum, Rome, Yahoo, and the rest.
[As an irritating example - Christine Brennan of the Washington Post (whom I usually admire and enjoy reading) tried to equate Paterno's legacy with that of disgraced former President Richard Nixon (the irony hopefully not lost on her of the animosity Paterno felt toward Nixon dating to 1969). In making her case, she tried to cite what she called the many positives of the Nixon years ... opening relations with China, passage of Title IX legislation, the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. Wait a minute. What? Yes, in a discussion about a terrible child abuse case, Brennan felt it appropriate to cite a court ruling that has resulted in the _______ murder/termination/killing/aborting (choose your term) of between 30 and 50 million unborn American babies - again, while discussing a child predator case. That's in poor taste. For good measure, Brennan - in arguing for the termination of the PSU football program - proclaimed how much she loved, loved, loved, loved college football, especially Penn State and recalled watching the famous 1973 Alabama-Penn State Sugar Bowl. Ummm ... Christine, as every Finebaum listener probably knew, Alabama played (and lost to) Notre Dame in the 1973 Sugar Bowl. She meant the 1978 game, but the sloppiness is indicative of the work done by media that day. I lost a lot of respect for Ms. Brennan on that drive.]
So, the excesses of the jackals aside, what about the Freeh Report? Here is my personal opinion of the Freeh findings:
* Louis Freeh and his the Special Investigative Counsel (SIC - the group that conducted the inquiry and developed the report) draw stronger conclusions about the role of Joe Paterno "covering up" the scandal than their own evidence warrants.
* The SIC purposefully emphasizes information most damaging to Paterno (through wording, their own italicized font, etc). I found this curious.
* While the SIC boasts of examining more than 3.5 million "electronic data and documents," three emails refer to Joe Paterno. Read that again ... three emails reference any involvement of Joe Paterno. (See Exhibits 2A, 2C, and 2F)
* Of those three emails, only one (2F) indicates any information that might be construed as damaging to Paterno. More in a minute on the emails.
* The SIC falls into a trap of looking at evidence with the advantage of hindsight (they should have had historians on the team). Freeh and his investigators already knew that Sandusky was a pervert and monster ... Paterno, PSU President Graham Spanier, Vice President for Business and Finance Gary Schultz, and Athletic Director Tim Curley did not know in 1998 and could have only suspected so in 2001.
* Those who believe Paterno would face or be convicted of criminal conduct as a result of this report are - again, in my opinion, wrong. I don't see the evidence in this report to make that claim.
Were the four primary leaders at Penn State without blame or fault in letting Sandusky's reign continue for a decade or more? Absolutely not ... but to condemn them based on the Freeh Report is premature.
Allow me to close using the method of the SIC ... here is my own executive summary:
* Freeh's conjecture that Spanier, Schultz, Curley, and Paterno "covered up" the Sandusky case to protect the institution and their jobs is just that - conjecture. None of the emails or other supporting documents (that I can find) support that claim. It seems more likely to me that the men were overly sensitive to Sandusky's feelings (that seems foolish now, but again they were acting without knowing what we do now), and completely unaware and inept in recognizing how to handle suspected child abuse situations.
* There was absolutely no inappropriate conduct by Joe Paterno in 1998. State College police and the Department of Public Welfare investigated a complaint against Sandusky between May 4-May 30 before concluding that no crime had taken place (read the full report if you want the details of the accusation - my focus is on Paterno and his actions). The District Attorney declined to prosecute Sandusky. On May 4th, AD Curley responded to a Schultz email by noting that he had "touched base" with Paterno. Eight days later he asked for an update from Schultz, mentioning Paterno was "anxious" to know of any news. That's the last time Paterno is mentioned. It seems reasonable to me for Paterno and Curley to want to know more information ... again, there is no evidence to suggest they knew he was a predator.
* The worst part of the report for Paterno was an email Curley sent in 2001 (Exhibit 2F) that suggests (my emphasis added) Paterno might have (my emphasis added) changed the direction of the University's response to the 2001 incident that eventually broke the case nearly a decade later. See how we can influence opinion by adding an emphasis here or there (Freeh always used this strategy to make Paterno look as bad as possible - in my opinion). Again, we benefit from hindsight and current knowledge, but the Penn State leaders - including Paterno - made a series of misjudgments in handling this allegation against Sandusky. I'll spare the details (again I encourage you to actually read the report), but any number of people could have stopped Sandusky at this point. Mike McQueary doesn't know what he saw based on his conflicting comments of the time and should have went straight to the police (instead of calling his father, waiting overnight to alert Paterno and then being vague in his story); Paterno should have called Curley immediately instead of waiting overnight; the list goes on. None of them called the police as they should have done and were required to do by law. Poor - and tragic - mistakes.
* Blaming Paterno and the football "culture" at Penn State for personal cowardice is taking the easy way out for Freeh. Two people actually saw Sandusky committing crimes - a janitor in 2000 and Mike McQueary in 2001 - neither went to the police. That Penn State janitor reported seeing Sandusky assaulting a child in late 2000 (in the same shower as the 1998 case), informed two other custodians, but all three failed to notify anyone else - reportedly for fear of losing their jobs. The SIC repeatedly takes the four senior leaders at Penn State to task about not informing authorities, but why are these men not held to the same standard? Because they don't make as much money or wield as much power, they shouldn't be expected to report what the witness claimed (a decade later) was worse than anything he saw in Korea? Unlike this man, Paterno and the others were not witnesses. The same for McQueary. He obviously panicked, grew flustered, and couldn't think straight that night in 2001 when he walked into the Lasch Building and saw Sandusky. He should have stopped what was taking place and called the police. It's what any of us would (or should) have done. Blaming Paterno for the personal cowardice or mistakes of these men is not right.
The sickening saga at Penn State carried out for more than a decade (and probably longer). It was tragic for the many victims of a monster. It is merely sad for Joe Paterno, a man who stood alongside John Wooden, Dean Smith, Pat Summitt, and others as one of the true leaders of intercollegiate sport in America.
Like Joe said, he should have done more. Now the jackals have moved in to devour his remains.
[Click to view the full Freeh Report]
Thursday, June 7, 2012
An Uncloudy Day
The Campus Game is now hosted at http://thecampusgame.com/
Please visit to read "An Uncloudy Day"
Thanks!
Please visit to read "An Uncloudy Day"
Thanks!
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Driving the Train
With the resignation of Big East commissioner John Marinatto setting off yet one more round of discussion about college athletic conference realignment, here is a simple statement to keep in mind on the topic.
Football and television are the sources powering this train.
Football is king of the campus. Since the beginnings of American intercollegiate athletics in 1852, a crew (rowing) race between Harvard and Yale, no sport has reigned supreme like football does today. The campus game generates more interest, more money, and exerts more influence than any college sport has at any time since those rowers paddled on Lake Winniepesaukee a century and three score years ago.
Conference Realignment
Television is the locomotive to college football's coal. With an ever-increasing number of networks seeking to fill programming hours with college sports - especially football - rights fees have exploded in the past five years. Schools in the SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and others collect in the neighborhood of $15-20 million annually from TV contracts. That's a nice neighborhood.
Television money also comes into play for post-season games. The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was only devised to determine which two teams should play for the national title, but - due to conference tie-ins among the big six conferences and the major bowls, access to the so-called BCS bowls (much like membership in lucrative conferences) has become a common crusade for college athletic directors. For the past year, institutions across the nation have been trying to maneuver their football programs into conferences that assure huge television revenues and access to big-money BCS post-season football games.
Because of that scramble, we end up with geographically strange partners ... Missouri in the SEC East, West Virginia in the Texas-centric Big 12, Boise State in the Big East. The scrambling has mostly settled for the time being, but the Big East may be a tenuous group.
Future of Big East and Notre Dame
So, what does the future hold for the Big East Conference and its semi-member Notre Dame (the Irish compete in all Big East sports except football)?
The Big East has two problems and one nice hole card. Pitt, Syracuse, and West Virginia bolted the conference last year, the first two schools going to the ACC and WVU to the Big 12. To counter, Marinatto and the Big East added a mishmash of schools in an effort to maintain BCS automatic qualifying (AQ) status. In the next few years Boise State, San Diego State, and Navy are slated to join in football only, while SMU, Houston, Memphis, and Central Florida are joining in all sports. Temple is coming aboard from the MAC to give the conference eight teams this season. That wild grab for teams with little in common aggravated the Big East schools more known for basketball (Louisville, Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, etc). Those schools could leave and go back to the conference roots (the league started as a basketball conference).
The other problem comes in the recently announced plan to alter the BCS and start a four-team playoff. The AQ designation will be eliminated for all conferences, so access to the big BCS bowls is no longer assured for the new members (especially pertinent for Boise). That could mean the league splintering from two sources - basketball and football.
What is the potential trump card? Television rights.
Fortuitously, the Big East is set to negotiate a new television agreement in September. Reports are that last year the league turned down an offer similar to what the ACC landed ($155 million annually). If the Big East can score that type deal again, the grass might look a whole lot greener to schools considering jumping ship.
Where does Notre Dame come into play?
Notre Dame treasures its independent status in football and hopes for a healthy Big East to house Irish sports other than football. Supposing the Big East survives, only two factors could change ND's status. First, if the Irish television contract with NBC ever falls through, Notre Dame would need to find another network or (as a last resort) join a conference. If NBC ponies up, expect the Irish to stay situated as they are ... unless ... The other sticking point with Notre Dame involves the new BCS playoff format. Should the format be limited to conference champions only, ND would nearly be forced to move into a BCS conference. Most who have studied the issue suggest the ACC might be the landing spot, although the Big Ten makes most geographic sense. If the playoffs are open to any team ranked in the top four, the Irish would again stay independent.
Playoff
Consider me against any playoff. Period.
I know it's going to happen, but when do any of the power brokers ... from commissioners like Mike Slive, Larry Scott, and Jim Delaney, to media members who dislike the BCS (Dan Wetzel for example) think of the players? Alabama played fourteen games last year; under the new format the Tide would need to come back for one more.
So, we are going to take away a bowl trip from the four most deserving teams (think squads in the playoff will be visiting the French Quarter at the Sugar Bowl or the beach at the Rose?) and make them play one more game. Count my vote as a NAY.
When the playoff commences, the remaining questions are: which teams will be eligible to play, who will select them, and when and where will the teams play?
The best estimates seem to be:
Who ... either the top four teams (the Mike Slive model), or some combination of conference champions that have a minimum ranking (the Jim Delaney) model. Only choosing the top four teams makes sense. Limiting the field of potential teams would simply be a ploy to keep one conference (SEC anyone?) from landing two spots in the semifinals.
Who will choose ... this is a tough one. I like a committee model like the basketball selection panel, but we may just use polls.
When and where ... again, best guesses seem to be using a rotating pair of the existing BCS bowls (Fiesta, Orange, Rose, Sugar) as semifinals and playing the games on or near New Year's, then bidding out the championship to a host site and playing it a week later. A proposed revision of this model called for the semifinal host to be the bowl linked to the higher seed's conference. So, if a Big 12 team was seeded #1 and an SEC team #2, the Fiesta and Sugar Bowls would host semifinal games.
With a few long summer months between now and opening kickoff, we college football fans have to amuse ourselves with discussions like these.
Just keep in mind ... football and television ... they power the train.
Football and television are the sources powering this train.
Football is king of the campus. Since the beginnings of American intercollegiate athletics in 1852, a crew (rowing) race between Harvard and Yale, no sport has reigned supreme like football does today. The campus game generates more interest, more money, and exerts more influence than any college sport has at any time since those rowers paddled on Lake Winniepesaukee a century and three score years ago.
Conference Realignment
Television is the locomotive to college football's coal. With an ever-increasing number of networks seeking to fill programming hours with college sports - especially football - rights fees have exploded in the past five years. Schools in the SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and others collect in the neighborhood of $15-20 million annually from TV contracts. That's a nice neighborhood.
Television money also comes into play for post-season games. The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was only devised to determine which two teams should play for the national title, but - due to conference tie-ins among the big six conferences and the major bowls, access to the so-called BCS bowls (much like membership in lucrative conferences) has become a common crusade for college athletic directors. For the past year, institutions across the nation have been trying to maneuver their football programs into conferences that assure huge television revenues and access to big-money BCS post-season football games.
Because of that scramble, we end up with geographically strange partners ... Missouri in the SEC East, West Virginia in the Texas-centric Big 12, Boise State in the Big East. The scrambling has mostly settled for the time being, but the Big East may be a tenuous group.
Future of Big East and Notre Dame
So, what does the future hold for the Big East Conference and its semi-member Notre Dame (the Irish compete in all Big East sports except football)?
The Big East has two problems and one nice hole card. Pitt, Syracuse, and West Virginia bolted the conference last year, the first two schools going to the ACC and WVU to the Big 12. To counter, Marinatto and the Big East added a mishmash of schools in an effort to maintain BCS automatic qualifying (AQ) status. In the next few years Boise State, San Diego State, and Navy are slated to join in football only, while SMU, Houston, Memphis, and Central Florida are joining in all sports. Temple is coming aboard from the MAC to give the conference eight teams this season. That wild grab for teams with little in common aggravated the Big East schools more known for basketball (Louisville, Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, etc). Those schools could leave and go back to the conference roots (the league started as a basketball conference).
The other problem comes in the recently announced plan to alter the BCS and start a four-team playoff. The AQ designation will be eliminated for all conferences, so access to the big BCS bowls is no longer assured for the new members (especially pertinent for Boise). That could mean the league splintering from two sources - basketball and football.
What is the potential trump card? Television rights.
Fortuitously, the Big East is set to negotiate a new television agreement in September. Reports are that last year the league turned down an offer similar to what the ACC landed ($155 million annually). If the Big East can score that type deal again, the grass might look a whole lot greener to schools considering jumping ship.
Where does Notre Dame come into play?
Notre Dame treasures its independent status in football and hopes for a healthy Big East to house Irish sports other than football. Supposing the Big East survives, only two factors could change ND's status. First, if the Irish television contract with NBC ever falls through, Notre Dame would need to find another network or (as a last resort) join a conference. If NBC ponies up, expect the Irish to stay situated as they are ... unless ... The other sticking point with Notre Dame involves the new BCS playoff format. Should the format be limited to conference champions only, ND would nearly be forced to move into a BCS conference. Most who have studied the issue suggest the ACC might be the landing spot, although the Big Ten makes most geographic sense. If the playoffs are open to any team ranked in the top four, the Irish would again stay independent.
Playoff
Consider me against any playoff. Period.
I know it's going to happen, but when do any of the power brokers ... from commissioners like Mike Slive, Larry Scott, and Jim Delaney, to media members who dislike the BCS (Dan Wetzel for example) think of the players? Alabama played fourteen games last year; under the new format the Tide would need to come back for one more.
So, we are going to take away a bowl trip from the four most deserving teams (think squads in the playoff will be visiting the French Quarter at the Sugar Bowl or the beach at the Rose?) and make them play one more game. Count my vote as a NAY.
When the playoff commences, the remaining questions are: which teams will be eligible to play, who will select them, and when and where will the teams play?
The best estimates seem to be:
Who ... either the top four teams (the Mike Slive model), or some combination of conference champions that have a minimum ranking (the Jim Delaney) model. Only choosing the top four teams makes sense. Limiting the field of potential teams would simply be a ploy to keep one conference (SEC anyone?) from landing two spots in the semifinals.
Who will choose ... this is a tough one. I like a committee model like the basketball selection panel, but we may just use polls.
When and where ... again, best guesses seem to be using a rotating pair of the existing BCS bowls (Fiesta, Orange, Rose, Sugar) as semifinals and playing the games on or near New Year's, then bidding out the championship to a host site and playing it a week later. A proposed revision of this model called for the semifinal host to be the bowl linked to the higher seed's conference. So, if a Big 12 team was seeded #1 and an SEC team #2, the Fiesta and Sugar Bowls would host semifinal games.
With a few long summer months between now and opening kickoff, we college football fans have to amuse ourselves with discussions like these.
Just keep in mind ... football and television ... they power the train.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Hogs (not Jeff Long) take High Road
The University of Arkansas fired head football coach Bobby Petrino yesterday.
Razorback Athletic Director Jeff Long made the announcement during an emotional press conference. Long was admirably straightforward in his remarks, clearly (and occasionally bluntly) stating the various reasons for the dismissal. Even with all Petrino's baggage and flaws (both past and immediate), the move was mildly surprising because of the coach's success in Fayetteville and a very promising 2012 season on the horizon. In the end, Petrino's sleaziness, moral corruption, and inappropriate personnel management (hiring his mistress from a pool of 150+ applicants) left the university little choice but to send the ex-Louisville, ex-Atlanta Falcon coach packing. The school may lose a few more games the next year or two, but is better off without the little man with the outsized ego.
Jeff Long handled the press conference with aplomb and is receiving quite a few accolades among college football media and fans for pulling the plug on Petrino. That acclaim makes me a bit uneasy for a couple of reasons.
First, Long was among the decision-makers that brought Petrino to Fayetteville in the first place. He had to know the risks involved. Keep in mind that Petrino, already earning an annual salary in the multi-millions as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, abandoned the NFL team in mid-season after only thirteen games. The manner in which he left was as bad as the timing ... coaching a Monday night game, secretly scampering out of town without facing his team or owner Arthur Blank, leaving a brief copied note in player lockers, showing up the next night at Arkansas doing the Wooo-Pig-Sooie chant. The lack of class and common professionalism in that departure, along with all the other underhanded behavior in Petrino's past, should have been quite a red flag for Long and the search committee at Arkansas. They knew the kind of man they were hiring and should not be shocked now to find out that Petrino is still the same sorry guy.
Second, while the firing was merited and certainly deserves applause, the bulk of the praise for that decision should be aimed far above Long's administrative level. I've been a college professor for nearly two decades (at institutions large and small) and for many of those years worked closely with the schools' athletic departments as either Faculty Athletic Representative or Athletic Council chair. Believe me, virtually no decision - and certainly not one as significant as firing the head football coach at a BCS level university - is made solely by the Athletic Director. At the very least, the university president or chancellor would be deeply involved, and (more significantly) the power brokers of the institution's trustees would need to approve a move of this magnitude.
So, while Jeff Long deserves his share of pats on the back for firing Bobby P (or his share of blame if you support the coach) ... Arkansas Chancellor David Gearhart and the university's Board of Trustees made the decision. Without question. Good for them.
Razorback Athletic Director Jeff Long made the announcement during an emotional press conference. Long was admirably straightforward in his remarks, clearly (and occasionally bluntly) stating the various reasons for the dismissal. Even with all Petrino's baggage and flaws (both past and immediate), the move was mildly surprising because of the coach's success in Fayetteville and a very promising 2012 season on the horizon. In the end, Petrino's sleaziness, moral corruption, and inappropriate personnel management (hiring his mistress from a pool of 150+ applicants) left the university little choice but to send the ex-Louisville, ex-Atlanta Falcon coach packing. The school may lose a few more games the next year or two, but is better off without the little man with the outsized ego.
Jeff Long handled the press conference with aplomb and is receiving quite a few accolades among college football media and fans for pulling the plug on Petrino. That acclaim makes me a bit uneasy for a couple of reasons.
First, Long was among the decision-makers that brought Petrino to Fayetteville in the first place. He had to know the risks involved. Keep in mind that Petrino, already earning an annual salary in the multi-millions as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, abandoned the NFL team in mid-season after only thirteen games. The manner in which he left was as bad as the timing ... coaching a Monday night game, secretly scampering out of town without facing his team or owner Arthur Blank, leaving a brief copied note in player lockers, showing up the next night at Arkansas doing the Wooo-Pig-Sooie chant. The lack of class and common professionalism in that departure, along with all the other underhanded behavior in Petrino's past, should have been quite a red flag for Long and the search committee at Arkansas. They knew the kind of man they were hiring and should not be shocked now to find out that Petrino is still the same sorry guy.
Second, while the firing was merited and certainly deserves applause, the bulk of the praise for that decision should be aimed far above Long's administrative level. I've been a college professor for nearly two decades (at institutions large and small) and for many of those years worked closely with the schools' athletic departments as either Faculty Athletic Representative or Athletic Council chair. Believe me, virtually no decision - and certainly not one as significant as firing the head football coach at a BCS level university - is made solely by the Athletic Director. At the very least, the university president or chancellor would be deeply involved, and (more significantly) the power brokers of the institution's trustees would need to approve a move of this magnitude.
So, while Jeff Long deserves his share of pats on the back for firing Bobby P (or his share of blame if you support the coach) ... Arkansas Chancellor David Gearhart and the university's Board of Trustees made the decision. Without question. Good for them.
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