Deeper into the mud of shame
[The Pitt News, March 2, 2011]
We won! After delivering a disappointing season fraught with on-the-field missteps and administrative peccadilloes, Pitt’s football team has finally proven victorious.
But wait — don’t start high-fiving or popping champagnes.
Apparently, the Panthers are better than everyone else — at getting arrested. Yesterday, Sports Illustrated published the results of an investigation that found that the Panthers had more football players bearing criminal records than any other team in the SI 2010 preseason Top 25.
The six-month investigation was conducted by Sports Illustrated and CBS News, and it involved scouring records of all 2,837 players in the preseason rosters of those 25 teams. According to Sports Illustrated, 2010 Pitt football players represented more than 10 percent of all players found to have been charged or cited with a crime — 22 Pitt athletes out of 204 total.
With no school-by-school details as to the nature of the charges, the number of convictions or their trend over time, the SI article is clearly limited and should not spark overreaction. But for Pitt to sit confidently at the top of the list – the next runner up has four fewer players charged – is a disgrace.
True, many of the high-profile cases that account for Pitt’s SI ranking – stories involving Jabaal Sheard, Jason Douglas and Jeffrey Knox – have already had their day in the news cycle. But now with the SI publication receiving national attention, the football team has yet again accomplished one more tug on the incessant drag of Pitt’s name through the mud of ignominy. Somehow, some way, this self-provoked shaming must stop.
One proposed solution, as the SI article suggests, is criminal background checks during recruiting. According to the article, ever since Knox was arrested and booted from the team, the Athletic Department has changed its recruiting practices, but background checks are still not pursued.
Instead, the University statement published in the article says the change is a “checklist of questions that attempts to gain greater knowledge of the behavior and citizenship of an individual prospect.”
In a news conference yesterday, Athletic Director Steve Pederson called this milder diagnostic “background research,” and he insisted that it was integrated before the Athletic Department knew a media investigation was in the works.
Whether or not this “background research” will adequately substitute for actual background checks remains to be seen. But we agree that Pitt recruiters should expend more energy reaching into incoming athletes’ pasts, at least for football candidates. With a professional stadium and several nationally televised games, the football team carries the Pitt emblem like few others. Considering that and Panther football’s recent history of high-profile criminal charges, a background check pilot would fittingly start with the football team.
No one’s calling background checks the silver bullet or instructing recruiters to disqualify anyone with misdemeanors. Background checks represent only one useful tool for the Athletic Department to use as it makes sure – we hope – that the embarrassing 2010 season never repeats itself. But a solution we think would be more effective is changing the culture now abounding in Pitt football. By next year, every player should appreciate his role as a leader in the campus community, and he should realize the magnitude of damage he can inflict with even one slip-up.
When Todd Graham accepted the job of head coach in January, he talked of bringing to the football program “integrity.” So Coach, you clearly have a lot of work ahead of you.
We won! After delivering a disappointing season fraught with on-the-field missteps and administrative peccadilloes, Pitt’s football team has finally proven victorious.
But wait — don’t start high-fiving or popping champagnes.
Apparently, the Panthers are better than everyone else — at getting arrested. Yesterday, Sports Illustrated published the results of an investigation that found that the Panthers had more football players bearing criminal records than any other team in the SI 2010 preseason Top 25.
The six-month investigation was conducted by Sports Illustrated and CBS News, and it involved scouring records of all 2,837 players in the preseason rosters of those 25 teams. According to Sports Illustrated, 2010 Pitt football players represented more than 10 percent of all players found to have been charged or cited with a crime — 22 Pitt athletes out of 204 total.
With no school-by-school details as to the nature of the charges, the number of convictions or their trend over time, the SI article is clearly limited and should not spark overreaction. But for Pitt to sit confidently at the top of the list – the next runner up has four fewer players charged – is a disgrace.
True, many of the high-profile cases that account for Pitt’s SI ranking – stories involving Jabaal Sheard, Jason Douglas and Jeffrey Knox – have already had their day in the news cycle. But now with the SI publication receiving national attention, the football team has yet again accomplished one more tug on the incessant drag of Pitt’s name through the mud of ignominy. Somehow, some way, this self-provoked shaming must stop.
One proposed solution, as the SI article suggests, is criminal background checks during recruiting. According to the article, ever since Knox was arrested and booted from the team, the Athletic Department has changed its recruiting practices, but background checks are still not pursued.
Instead, the University statement published in the article says the change is a “checklist of questions that attempts to gain greater knowledge of the behavior and citizenship of an individual prospect.”
In a news conference yesterday, Athletic Director Steve Pederson called this milder diagnostic “background research,” and he insisted that it was integrated before the Athletic Department knew a media investigation was in the works.
Whether or not this “background research” will adequately substitute for actual background checks remains to be seen. But we agree that Pitt recruiters should expend more energy reaching into incoming athletes’ pasts, at least for football candidates. With a professional stadium and several nationally televised games, the football team carries the Pitt emblem like few others. Considering that and Panther football’s recent history of high-profile criminal charges, a background check pilot would fittingly start with the football team.
No one’s calling background checks the silver bullet or instructing recruiters to disqualify anyone with misdemeanors. Background checks represent only one useful tool for the Athletic Department to use as it makes sure – we hope – that the embarrassing 2010 season never repeats itself. But a solution we think would be more effective is changing the culture now abounding in Pitt football. By next year, every player should appreciate his role as a leader in the campus community, and he should realize the magnitude of damage he can inflict with even one slip-up.
When Todd Graham accepted the job of head coach in January, he talked of bringing to the football program “integrity.” So Coach, you clearly have a lot of work ahead of you.
