Mark WiedmerJust check out the latest headlines involving Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer and his former wife-assaulting assistant Zach Smith, and it’s easy to question what lessons of character and decency are being taught throughout big-time college athletics.
Yes, The Ohio State University has put Meyer on paid leave and it may ultimately terminate him and his $7.6 million annual salary. And that’s an important lesson for all moving forward, whether they are abusers or among those seeking to cover up the abuse.
Perhaps if Meyer had either suspended or fired Smith back in 2009, when he reportedly slammed his then-pregnant wife Courtney against a wall, had Meyer at the very least forced him into counseling with zero tolerance for a repeat incident as well as ordering him to publicly address the wrongness of his behavior, perhaps we wouldn’t be where we are now in this disgusting story.
But just when you think this has all gone to heck in a handbasket, just when you convince yourself that we need to start this whole major college athletics thing over, just give the whole thing a death penalty for a year or two, along comes a group interview with University of Tennessee co-defensive coordinator Chris Rumph on Thursday afternoon.
Because new Volunteers head coach Jeremy Pruitt apparently wants to do all the talking from this point forward, reportedly putting his assistants off limits to the media for the rest of the preseason and the season, the too-rare wisdom Rumph dispensed might not be heard again until this time next year.