Boys will be boys

By Dan Nied [send email]

When that first drop of beer slides down the gullet and the girl next to you smiles with glossy eyes, perfect dental work and a plunging neckline, well, it's hard not to get carried away.

There is nothing wrong with a party now and again. Nothing wrong with a little fun, in most cases.

And now, with Washington coach Rick Neuheisel hitting the gallows after betting in an NCAA tournament pool, I have to wonder what is wrong with these men being men.

Of course Eustachy and Neuheisel's cases aren't most cases. They were coaches in the most visible position that their respective schools have ever known. Let's just say it wasn't a good idea for Larry to head to a five kegger and do a few body shots. And maybe Rick should have thought twice about throwing a few hundred bucks in an NCAA pool.

But, then, it wasn't a good idea for me to drop $1,000 for a spring break trip to Cancun, make a fool out of myself and not even get laid. I learned to forgive myself. Everyone I knew learned to forgive me and ISU and Washington should have forgiven their men.

In Eustachy's case, let's face it, most coaches talk about getting closer to the campus community, creating a tighter bond with the students. Eustachy actually probed and prodded into the real life of the average college students.

What he did was identify with the fans. He is the Jack Kerouac of coaching.

Maybe Joe Torre or Don Baylor should think about heading to the local watering hole after each game and tying one on with the average Yankees and Cubs fan. Couldn't hurt.

But, I suppose, that in some circles, what Eustachy did could maybe, possibly, be considered unprofessional. I might be able to see how the blandest of people might see a coach hitting on 18-year-old chicks at a party and wonder if that is the best image for the basketball program.

But Neuheisel? I just don't get how you justify firing a man for participating in something as common as an NCAA pool. Millions of American men and women fill out brackets all the time, and most of them don't do it just for fun.

There may or may not be an NCAA rule Neuheisel violated; nobody is really sure. But if it is in the rule book, maybe they should think about taking it out. Or at least ignore it the way the NBA does with traveling.

If you want to chastise these men, fine, be that way. But there are a hell of a lot of other atrocities that coaches commit that are far worse, but not as blatant.

During my junior year at Bowling Green's student newspaper, the BG News, I repeatedly dogged football coach Gary Blackney because defensive back Emmanual Hendrix was CONVICTED of felonious assault, yet he was barely disciplined, let alone kicked off the team. So basically I had to pay my way though school (out-of-state tuition, at that) while a convicted felon, who wasn't even a starter, didn't even get the proverbial slap on the wrist for beating the shit out of a girl.

That made me feel good.

By the way, Blackney didn't get fired until the next season, when his team went 2-9 and lost to pathetic Buffalo ... man, it makes my teeth hurt to even think about that team.

I would have felt better about our society had Blackney just shown up with Hendrix to a party and tried to get a little ass. Then at least I could halfway respect the man. Of course, Emmanual Hendrix was just one of about a thousand convicted felons playing football in college and the pros that year, but no coach ever lost his job over it.

Last year Penn State's Joe Paterno let safety Anwar Phillips play in the team's Citrus bowl game three weeks after he was EXPELLED from school for sexually assaulting a woman.

I greet that with a hearty "WHAT THE FUCK?"

But now are a night of drinking with students and an NCAA tournament pool unprofessional? Yes. It should never happen again. But should Eustachy and Neuheisel have been fired? Talk to me when one of their players gets convicted of assault and plays the next day.

But hey, it could be worse. They could be Mike Price.