The University of North Carolina’s football team is currently undergoing an exam that only a known drug runner crossing an international boarder could relate to. Do they deserve this level of an exam? Of course they do. They have done things that are against NCAA rules. One of their coaches (now ex-coach) had a close relationship with a sports agent involving some level of finance, which is strictly verboten! Players have received things of value from persons with connections to this agent, also verboten! Additionally, it seems that an academic advisor developed a relationship with some of the players and did some things they shouldn’t have done. Writing papers for them and stuff like that. So yes and double yes UNC deserves this investigation.
Having said that, the next logical question then is, should the Head Coach resign or be fired?
Well, my personal feeling is…..not necessarily.
Understand, I was a college football player myself. While I never played at this level and it was many years ago, I do have some experience with how things play out with college athletics. Coaches can only control players while they are in direct sight of them. Whatever period of time the player is out of sight from the coaching staff, they can do as they please. Yes, coaching staffs give players rules they are to abide by, but these are 18 to 24 year old males who believe they can do anything. Rules are viewed more as suggested guidelines. They can be followed at their own discretion.
You also need to understand that these are not a bunch of choir boys we are talking about. These are highly aggressive and competitive young men. Even at the level I played at, these guys were more aggressive than the normal population.
Any institution that decides it is going to have an athletic program that will compete inter-collegiately must knowingly decide that this is the type of individual they will be bringing into their midst. The higher the level you wish to compete at, the more competitive and aggressive the athlete you will need to bring in. And like any other population you look at, it will be distributed along a continuum. You will have a limited number of folks who are your Payton Manning and Walter Payton types on the positive end and your Lawrence Taylor and Ben Roethlisberger on the other end and everything in between. With this type of population, the only way a coach could hope to control their behavior would be to lock them up and only let them out to practice and play.
As far as the assistant coach is concerned, should Butch Davis have known about his dealings with an agent? Well only if he controlled the other coach’s finances. Some people are saying they were friends and thus he must have known.
Well think about that for just a second. If you are friends with someone for 20 years and you know he is in charge of making sure things are done correctly and you know you are not. Are you going to tell him you are breaking the rules? I think not. Now look at it from the reverse angle. You have been friends with someone for 20 years, you ask him if he’s doing things the right way and he tells you “yes”, what are you going to do? He’s your friend. You have no reason to doubt him. Of course you will believe him.
I feel that any college athletic program that strives to compete at the highest level in football as well as any other sport requiring high levels of physical aggression will have its share of athletes who get into trouble. That share will probably occur at a higher incident rate than you will find in the general population at the school.
I feel the coaching staff’s responsibility is to inform the athlete of what the rules are and tell them what the punishment is for breaking the rules. They must then follow through on this and not give the offenders a wink and a nod. If this happens you will have scenarios like the Barry Switzer era of Oklahoma football.
It is NOT the coaching staff’s responsibility to police their behavior. They should be active in reinforcing what the rules are, but these young men will chose to do what they will. Believe me, I know, coaches cannot control players when they are out of sight.
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