Coaches Behaving Badly?

CurtisEdmonds · #1 05-01-2003, 11:55 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/spor...ama-Price.html

Two different coaches. Iowa State's hoops coach, Larry Eustachy, got caught canoodling with some teenage chicks:

Quote:

Iowa State basketball coach Larry Eustachy was suspended following the publication of photographs in The Des Moines Register that showed him partying with students and kissing young women on the cheek.

Then, newly-minted Alabama football coach Mike Price did a little dirty dancing of his own:

Quote:

Dancer ``Destiny'' Stahl told the News that Price spent about $200 on her, but nothing happened beyond dancing. In all, Price spent several hundred dollars in cash at the club ``buying and tipping all the girls,'' she said.

``There was no sex, no touching, no lap dancing,'' the 36-year-old Stahl said. ``He was a gentleman.''

Oh, good. But it doesn't end there:

Quote:

The Mobile Register reported that the next morning, a young woman in a hotel room registered to Price ordered more than $1,000 in food and drinks charged to his bill.

The Register, quoting four workers at the Crowne Plaza who would not agree to be identified, said the woman wanted the food placed in boxes so she could leave with it. She ordered one of everything on the menu, the paper said.

OK.

Both of these coaches behaved like pigs. But lots of men behave like pigs all the time. Should it always cost them their jobs? Seems a little out of line to me. If what these men did wasn't exactly innocent, or responsible, it wasn't hurtful or cruel or evil, either.

Magick1 · #2 05-01-2003, 12:48 PM

Van De Velde the ISU sports director has recommended that Eustachy be terminated because of his conduct.

Eustachy says he will not resign, and came out yesterday stating he is an alcoholic. (Will he be protected under the American's with Disabilities Act?)

It will be interesting. Van De Velde gave his recommendation to the university's President, and Eustachy has 5 days to appeal this termination recommendation. Eustacy has stated he will not resign.

Now, though, it has been left up to the President of ISU to decide now. (Does he deserve a second chance?)

CurtisEdmonds · #3 05-01-2003, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Eustachy says he will not resign, and came out yesterday stating he is an alcoholic. (Will he be protected under the American's with Disabilities Act?)

Ah. Well, now.

Alcoholism is a recognized disability under the ADA. But having a disability does not give you a pass for bad behavior. If Coach Eustachy is being fired for smooching with underage girls, that's not disability discrimination (assuming that a non-alcoholic or otherwise non-disabled person would have been fired for the same offense).

Eustachy can ask for "reasonable accommodations", including leave to undergo rehab, etc. But his status as a person with a disability does not give him leave to go around and play tongue hockey with coeds. And if that is prohibited under his contract, he doesn't have any kind of case.

**mrisch**[$] · #4 05-01-2003, 01:45 PM

Give me a break. Kissing young (oh, and by the way college students, who work so hard to be called "Women" are NOT teenagers) women at a team party is hardly the thing that firings are made of.

Not very professional, maybe, but hardly moral turpitude. Hell I got kissed on the cheek by two paralegals (age 23) at our Christmas party. Not very professional (as my wife reminded me) - but should I be fired?

CurtisEdmonds · #5 05-01-2003, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Granny said in post # :
Not very professional, maybe, but hardly moral turpitude. Hell I got kissed on the cheek by two paralegals (age 23) at our Christmas party. Not very professional (as my wife reminded me) - but should I be fired?

Dude, I think you did get fired. Just not from your job.

**mrisch**[$] · #6 05-01-2003, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Curtis said in post #5 :

Dude, I think you did get fired. Just not from your job.

Nope, I did the firing...

Too bad it doesn't work that way in the real world.

**mrisch**[$] · #7 05-01-2003, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Granny said in post #4 :
Give me a break. Kissing young (oh, and by the way college students, who work so hard to be called "Women" are NOT teenagers) women at a team party is hardly the thing that firings are made of.

Wait - I just read an article carefully. These were the women at the OTHER school! After a loss to that team on a road game! After he put his team to bed!

Oh yeah, fire that guy.

CurtisEdmonds · #8 05-01-2003, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Wait - I just read an article carefully. These were the women at the OTHER school! After a loss to that team on a road game! After he put his team to bed!

Oh yeah, fire that guy.

I am waiting for you to tell me why that makes a difference. What's the difference between smooching a Missouri coed and smooching an Iowa State coed?

Answer: about forty pounds.

*rimshot*

**mrisch**[$] · #9 05-01-2003, 09:31 PM

Well, from what I read, he wasn't smooching, he was getting a kiss on the cheek or few. A winning coach at team based parties getting kisses on the cheek are not a problem.

A losing coach getting kisses on the cheek from the away team students at an away team party is a problem. It's the school representative thing that I have an issue with, not the smooching.

**MrsNormanMaine**[$] · #10 05-02-2003, 05:52 PM

As an Alabamian under duress, I've been watching the story on Mike Price with fascination. The press and public are calling for the man's head.

Excuse me - he was in another state on his own time and his own money. How is this the business of anyone other than, perhaps, Mrs. Price.

I just don't get Alabama...

MNM

P.S. There's no indication or allegations that any illegal activity of any sort, even under the strange laws of Southern states, was involved.

brian_igo · #11 05-03-2003, 09:30 AM

I think its important to remember that the Bama football program is in the middle of a two-year postseason ban and loss of scholarships for paying off players a few years ago. That followed another scandal that tainted Gene Stalling's tenure in the early nineties.

If this wasn't on the table I'm convinced "strippergate" would be dismissed as "boys being boys" by most of the people now screaming for Price's head. But the next time the NCAA uncovers bad things happening in Tuscaloosa the very existance of the football program could be at stake. And that scares Bama fan even more than Bo Jackson Jr. enrolling at Auburn.

Brian

CurtisEdmonds · #12 05-03-2003, 11:17 AM

What I think is interesting is how this will play out in the academic arena. I happen to be a case in point here.

Year before last, George O'Leary quit his coaching gig at Georgia Tech, and signed on at Notre Dame. Only they found out he lied on his resume, and he got shown the door before he ever got within twenty feet of Touchdown Jesus.

Fine and dandy. Except that I applied to work at Georgia Tech right after that. They were embarrassed that they hadn't picked up on O'Leary's lies, and so they went through my resume with a fine-toothed comb. (They didn't find anything, of course, but it took awhile to do the background check, and it meant me sitting around for two weeks in my old job, being miserable.)

Magick1 · #13 05-03-2003, 01:47 PM

now has some "new" allegations of NCAA "minor" violations.

Looks like the witch hunt is going on, and they are trying to make another case against him to get him out.

They have also suspended the assistant ISU coach saying he made a phone call to a family member of one of the team players kind of implying that everyone needs to band together & go against the system trying to "break up the team".

It's been interesting watching this unfold.

**mrisch**[$] · #14 05-03-2003, 06:23 PM

Price was fired today.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._alabama_price

Magick1 · #15 05-05-2003, 10:05 PM

Eustachy, even though he claimed he would not resign the other day, decided today, he would resign.

They offered him a decent severance package. They are paying the balance of the year's 220,000 salary and benefits, and in January 2004, they are going to lump sum him 850K.

And, Eustachy, said that he wasn't going coach again, that ISU would be his last coaching job. But, he's backed out on that too, saying he will be looking for another coaching job.

I don't quite know what to think about that one.