The biggest water cooler story in local news these days is the Seattle Times' in-depth look at the troubled recent past of the University of Washington football program. The series itself is worth a read, in no small part because of the energy and resources that went into the reporting.
That said, a couple thoughts:
1) The series implies a state of affairs that although recent, should not necessarily be considered current. A new University President, a new Athletic Director, and a new Head Coach are all in place compared to the time period in question. As the Times' itself reports, the result is a change in the culture of the program for the better. Followers of Husky football will further recall that current Coach Ty Willingham came under fire from some corners of the fan base in the discussions after this past football season for not being focused enough on winning, rather than character.
All in all, whether intended or not, the totality of the Times series ends up creating the impression of a program currently run amuck, rather than the more accurate truth of a program that appears to be emerging reasonably well from some serious problems.
2) Speaking of those problems, some of the facts presented in the articles are truly horrifying. On a purely human base it is difficult not to be repelled by the behavior of the bad apples in question as well as the people that enabled them. As someone who has spent some time coaching college athletes and taking seriously the duty to encourage their development outside of sports, I found the stories nauseating. It is a lesson for other athletic programs to avoid assiduously.
3) Despite the validity of the concerns about how the program operated, apparently in the past, there is one nagging issue in my mind. Going back to high school, through college, and then on through professional life, I have consistently found athletic programs of all kinds and the general mood of journalists not covering sports to be antithetical. Reporters as a stereotype tend to have run in very different crowds than most athletes. They're different people with different ideas. And I've rarely found them to be compatible.
Accordingly, even in the midst of obvious attempts to be even-handed, I still detect a whiff of the "nerds v. the jocks" mentality with which just about anyone who has ever gone to high school can identify. As a veteran of both sides of that conflict, I wish it didn't carry over into adult life in such a manner.
Posted by Eric Earling at January 30, 2008 07:17 AM | Email ThisReality is: there's a paying market for college athletes.
Fiction is: We'll make all these laws and regulations to pretend their is now.
Ok, so starting from that point, there will always be trouble. My solution is just to tear down the regulations and make star college athletes a kind of "independent study" program where they can get paid as much as their worth and do whatever it takes to be successful. Hire a bunch of tutors (or management consultants)...who cares, as long as they leave with cash in their bank account. Then, when they are 22, if they want to, they can go to class and learn about biology or Dickens or whatever...
"House Bill 3284 (Limiting the interest on a small loan to thirty-six percent per annum) Introduced by Rep. Sherry Appleton, (D-Poulsbo) on January 29, 2008, to limit the interest on a small loans available through RCW 31.45 Check cashers and sellers, to thirty-six percent per annum."
Today's story about Anthony Kelley is very inspiring.
I was at the UW Stanford game when Curtis Williams suffered his injury, and the story of the way he played without his mouth guard and would rush in to hit with his face makes me think that the "accident" was bound to happen sooner or later.
Posted by: Stuart Jenner on January 30, 2008 09:33 AMThis story = *yawn* snoozefest *yawn*
a. WAZZU is undertaking a $70 million remodel of Martin Stadium and we didn't go to the legislature hat in hand. The money is coming from student fees, alumni, and school resources.
b. Can we say ethics or the lack thereof of Rick Neuheisel? Wanna bet UCLA will have the very same problems within a few years.
c. Athletics at all colleges are BIG business and let's get real about it. There has to be a committment from the top to run clean programs. That starts in the prep programs and in school districts like Seattle where their loosey goosey transfer policies have created a "free agent" market at the prep level.
d. There are different types of "racism" and one type is the racism of low expectations usually promoted by the secular progressive philosophy which is whatever ethnic group ________had a hard time and they can only be expected to act this good. Really, Tony Dungy, the head coach of Indianapolis expects better than that. Michael Vick should have had his lame a$$ kicked long before he ended up in federal prision. Some of the Portland Trailblazers should have been kicked to the curb. Oh, and what about the kids with college diplomas that can't even read them? They get injured and never get the pot of gold.
If this is big business, then there has to be some payoff for the players in the form of an education or pension, but this payoff comes only if they adhere to standards, otherwise kick their lame butts to the curb. Word gets around fast if there are rules that MUST be followed.
Oh, you Huskies, on the subject of government money, suck it up like WAZZU did.
Posted by: WVH on January 30, 2008 10:33 AMBut, they kept going to the Superbowl and losing, so the local judges made sure that all legal problems were put on hold until after the season, at which point they were made to go away...
Posted by: John Galt on January 30, 2008 11:20 AMSeattle will be a better place sans the Times & P-I.
Posted by: AP on January 30, 2008 11:52 AMReally? Just scanning today's headlines reveals this:
Ahmu is the second Cougar known to have been arrested this month. Safety Xavier Hicks was arrested for second-degree assault on Jan. 10. In a separate case, Hicks pleaded not guilty Friday in Whitman County Superior Court to second-degree theft for use of a credit card that didn't belong to him, according to The Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
And let's not get started with the credit card fraud ring a group of Coogs had going a few years back. Or the alleged rapist - rhymes with henior jobley. And if you think Ryan Leaf was simply a jerk on the football field, well, you never spent much time around Pullman bars.
My point is, this type of behavior permeates ALL big-time college football programs. No one is exempt.
Posted by: jimg on January 30, 2008 11:57 AMIt certainly wasn't just Neuheisel. I really wondered at the time of his investigation and firing why Barbara Hedges wasn't in the docket along with him. UW athletics was rife with bad behavior during her tenure. As it is, I think Slick Rick got kind of a raw deal and was used largely as a scapegoat for a program that had no institutional control.
My guess is Rick'll probably not get himself in trouble at UCLA as he did here, but UCLA is so sick of fielding so-so teams they'll look the other way at a lot of player hooliganism.
Anybody know how USC has been faring in this context? I know of Reggie Bush's possible problems, but I haven't seen a lot of egregious stuff coming out of there (or none that I remember).
Posted by: Frank Black on January 30, 2008 12:20 PMIf one looks only at the UW football program that could very well be true. However the series has done an excellent job of portraying specific events involving the prosecutorial and judicial systems in King County. In that portrayal some very questionable and disturbing events were reported:
The questionable actions of Norm Maleng and his number two man Dan Satterberg in the Prosecutor’s office. Actions tantamount to dictating how the police handle an investigation, timeliness of prosecutive action and declining to prosecute to name a few.
Actions within the judicial system involving questionable acts such as the propriety of sealing records, propriety of sentencing and chumminess with the accused while before the bench to name a few.
Actions by Attorney Mike Hunsinger which possibly indicate a conflict with NCAA rules and regulations to name a few.
This is not just about an atmosphere of “nerds vs. the jocks.” It’s about responsibility and accountability of the major university in the state, responsibility of both King County’s prosecutive and judicial systems, and at least one member of the Sate Bar.
Yes, the individual athletes named are gone and hopefully the new coach will be allowed to carry out his program in the mature manner he has been known for throughout his coaching career.
However as long as Dan Satterberg is King County Prosecutor, judges rule the bench as they have in the reported cases, Mike Hunsinger wants to simply “help” as he claims and the Tyee Club wields so much power and influence then this sordid matter is far, very far, from being something that “should not necessarily be considered current.”
It's time for those elected to maintain the public trust and those sworn to uphold the public trust to use the series in the Times to refocus their priorities and consider this possibley just the first report in what could turn out to be an even darker story or stories of events past, present, and future.
a. The fact that in Seattle the school transfer policies have created a "free agent" market at the prep level, so kids that think they are going to be the next Lebron James, even though they shoot hoops like me, they are encouraged in that delusion earlier in their life.
b. See, comment #15 by John Gault and his observations of Denver. This is proabaly true of many teams, not all.
c. UCLA has had a few losing seasons, certainly not the glory days of the past and they hire Neuheisel with the brief to just get the job done and one would have to be an idiot to not know what that means.
I think the slimey system of college sports and sports for many major league teams is an engrained cultural affect and at this point is bigger than any one person, dead or alive. If you have an alumni who is really willing and able to write really big checks to bring back the glory days no matter how you get the glory, can you really lay the blame at just individuals or is it a system that has pulled everyone into the muck?
Posted by: WVH on January 31, 2008 10:06 PM