Its a damn shame.
No, not the ridiculously weak suspension handed down to Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer on Wednesday.
It was so absurd, it was laughable.
For turning a blind eye to an alleged domestic abuser on his staff for years, Meyer was suspended for three meaningless games to start the 2018 college football season.
Thats big time justice. What a joke.
That should have been expected, however. These universities dont care about morals, ethics or doing the right thing.
Sadly, for most of these colleges, its just about winning games and making money. Its sad.
Jay Bilas on Ohio State ruling: Urban Meyer lied at Media Day | Get Up! | ESPN
ESPN analyst Jay Bilas says he has no issue with Ohio State’s decision to suspend head coach Urban Meyer without pay for the first three games of the season, however, Bilas takes issue with how the reports described Meyers’ bending of the truth.
But dont blame the schools. Blame the enablers – the parents.
Yes, these athletes parents continue to turn their heads to the ills weve seen on college campuses and continue to send their kids there no matter what.
They refuse to demand standards or hold coaches accountantable to behavior most would not accept in any other arena in life.
Thats the shame in it all. Apparently, as long as Billy has his scholarship and the abuse isnt happening to him directly, the hell with everyone else.
It keeps happening over and over. It can be stopped if people werent so selfish.
Enter Meyer. You have to be only about your job and legacy to ignore someone in harms way.
Theres no other way to look at this situation.
Meyer – national championships and all – should no longer be a football coach, the leader and developer of young men. Thats a job for someone with morals and compassion for others.
Meyer would have easily been fired had parents shown up to Columbus, Ohio and threatened to pull their kids out of the football program.
What kind of parent would be good with a coach that apparently knew one of his assistant coaches – Zach Smith – was allegedly physically abusing his wife – for years, no less.
Somehow, Ohio State, in an embarrassing investigation, believed that Meyer knew none of this, despite Courtney Smith sending text pictures of her bruises at the hands of her ex-husband to Meyers wife, a nurse at Ohio State.
We cant honestly believe that a wife wouldnt share this information with her husband.
Thats what Meyer and Ohio State want you to believe.
In the press conference on Wednesday, Meyer acted without emotion or remorse. He even refused to say Courtney Smiths name.
Ohio State suspends football coach Urban Meyer for three games
Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer has been suspended after an internal investigation found he mishandled allegations of domestic violence by a former assistant coach. Meyer will miss the Buckeyes’ first three games, one-quarter of the regular season. He will also lose six weeks of pay. Jim Axelrod reports.
When asked what he had to say to her directly, Meyer answered: Well, I have a message for everyone involved in this: Im sorry that were in this situation and Im just sorry were in this situation.
And its not just an Ohio State thing. Its a college sports, money-making thing.
At Louisville, people turned their heads over and over about how basketball coach Rick Pitino did his business.
Between 2010-2014, Louisville had prostitutes working out of the basketball dorms for recruits. Parents still sent their kids there.
That scandal didnt get him fired. It wasnt until 2017 when federal prosecutors got involved in an alleged pay for play for recruits at Louisville that Pitino was finally canned.
At Indiana University, its took forever to fire basketball coach Bobby Knight. Knight was known for his terrible behavior toward others, including physical and verbal abuse. He was also the coach who brought a whip to practice and snapped it at players. Moms and dads didnt object. Thats right, he was winning games.
Knight should have never lasted 29 years at the school. Parents, not the school, allowed it to happen.
At Penn State, the late Joe Paterno, the famed football coach there, and top administrators turned their heads to Jerry Sanduskys horrible sexual abuse, some of which took place in the football facility.
Somehow, it went on for years and the higher-ups knew. But Paterno was winning football games. Thats what mattered the most.
Sadly, even when all was exposed, many didnt want Paterno to be punished because he was a legendary coach. Terrible.
When these coaches of big, money-making programs are given absolute power, there isnt a proper system of checks and balances to keep people honest and accountable.
These parents and athletes have the power to change things, make things right. The University of Missouri football team showed us the way in 2015.
They didnt like the racially charged incidents that were taking place on campus. They said it would boycott all football-related activities until the university system president was fired or stepped down. Two days later, that man stepped down.
Incidents like Meyer at Ohio State only continue because the parents and players allow them.
