With allegations of workout and practicing violations brewing against the University of Michigan, head coach Rich Rodriguez addressed the media.
Words were hard to come by for the extremely emotional coach as he stood at the mic trying to defend his team’s reputation.
The allegations that were made against Rodriguez and his coaching staff came after players from both 2008 and 2009 informed the media that the teams abused the NCAA rules in and out of season.
A choked up Rodriguez said everything that you would expect from a head coach trying to wipe away the stain from his team’s name.
Rodriguez made statements in the press conference such as, “I guess I’m here to tell you that whatever you’ve heard or want to believe, the truth is that this coaching staff cares very deeply about the young men in our program,” and “Nobody on my staff would ever tell a player to miss a class… never have, never will.”
At the end of the day, I could care less as a college football fan about workout violations.
Unless these violations have resulted in the physical or mental detriment of a player on the team then I really don’t want to hear about it.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Rodriguez is a very scummy guy for the way he left West Virginia two years ago, but there is no reason for this to be a headline story in the world of sports.
Furthermore, it infuriates me when programs get put under the microscope like this because it brings such negativity to an entire institution of higher learning.
If anyone who knows college football can tell me that there is one school, big or little name, that doesn’t violate NCAA stipulations, then they are lying to me and themselves.
Just think about all that has recently surfaced in college sports.
Big name programs like USC and Tennessee are in the news all the time, and it usually isn’t positive coverage.
I have no doubt that teams across the country are always trying to legally slither there way around NCAA rules.
And I am tired of hearing about booster conspiracies and schools handing out gifts to student-athletes.
So many schools do it, and it has been in the media so much lately that it just doesn’t really hit hard anymore.
I sit in front of my television set and when I see that a John Calipari team violated NCAA rules in the past, I just chuckle and turn the channel.
These allegations seemingly keep popping up out of nowhere, and I doubt that we will be seeing the last of them anytime soon.
Sam Gerb can be reached at sgerb@ut.edu