This articles is ridiculous, but it deals with Osborne so:
Accountability in college athletics a rare occurrence
By IAN O'CONNOR
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: August 28, 2005)
Tom Osborne will likely be elected governor of the state of Nebraska. He will be elected largely on his popularity as the former football coach of that civic Saturday afternoon treasure known as the Cornhuskers, whom he turned into two-time national champs.
Lawrence Phillips, the running back Osborne refused to tackle, might be sitting in a jail cell the day Congressman Osborne takes his oath of higher office. Phillips is behind bars in Los Angeles now after plowing across a football field the way he once had in Lincoln, only this time he allegedly battered opponents half his age, and only this time he allegedly used a stolen black Honda to do it.
Phillips now has a rap sheet that runs longer than the Mississippi. But he won enough football games at Nebraska for Osborne to become bigger than the university, so big that the coach could suit up Phillips after he dragged his then-girlfriend down three flights of stairs — by her hair.
Osborne was already acting as if he were governor of the state, and now he'll get a chance to make it official. But he won't just be the face of a state known for touchdowns as much as anything; he'll remain the face of a coach-worshipping culture in major-college athletics that forever runs against the grain of a university's mission statement.
The latest arrest of Phillips — while he was wanted on suspicion of assaulting yet another woman — and the "I'm-just-really-embarrassed-and-sorry-for-the-people-that-he-hurt" statement from the gubernatorial hopeful — a little late for that, wouldn't you say, Tom? — serve as sorry reminders that institutions of higher learning are too often reduced to small and meek appendages of run-amok sports programs.
Forty-eight hours after news of Phillips' latest round of mayhem hit, word came that University of Cincinnati president Nancy Zimpher was terminating Bob Huggins, the basketball coach who had lorded over a program that majored in off-court embarrassment. Like a defender desperately needing a stop in the final minutes, Zimpher got up in Huggins' face and declared that her school's academic credibility was more important than taking an anything-goes approach to securing the highest possible seed in the Bearcats' first Big East Tournament.
Zimpher threw Huggins $3 million to get lost, and deserves her fair share of credit for doing it. But will Zimpher's stare-down of Huggins inspire a trend, or will it be rendered a rare exception in a high-stakes game where the rules favor the multimillionaire coaches who fill stadiums and arenas and university coffers while running programs severely lacking in redeeming social value?
"I'm skeptical," said Kathy Redmond, founder of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes. "Whenever I deal with college presidents, I have to be. For the most part, college presidents are figureheads and athletic departments are calling the shots. The presidents normally only act when you hit them in the pocketbook."
Redmond has hit a number of Division I schools in the pocketbook by helping alleged victims of sexual assault file Title IX lawsuits against those schools. The victims claim that the institutions violate Title IX's equal opportunity guidelines by allowing hostile environments for women to exist on their campuses. The schools often settle these cases with their bowl game or NCAA tournament receipts, then install tougher student behavioral codes in order to keep future winnings for themselves.
Now Redmond wants to lobby Congress to revoke the NCAA's tax-exempt status — "Hit 'em where it hurts again," she said. "We have to level the playing field and give students a way to fight back. There are many Lawrence Phillipses and Tom Osbornes out there. The only time some coaches hold their players accountable for anything is when they miss curfew the night before a game."
Empowered by star-struck boosters and healthy winning percentages, major-college coaches often become the most powerful figures on campus. Presidents who are slaves to the bottom line become towel boys and girls (see Betsy Hoffman, University of Colorado). They cower in the presence of coaches who seek lavish contract extensions despite poor graduation rates and consistent patterns of player misconduct.
It's rare when a Myles Brand takes out a Bob Knight, or when a Nancy Zimpher takes out a Bob Huggins. "Athletic departments can give universities stature," Redmond said, "and college presidents need that."
Osborne gave Nebraska a whole lot of stature. He also brought the school coast-to-coast ridicule for suiting up players accused of lawless and antisocial conduct, and for conducting his own investigations — including interviews of the complaining witnesses — before the local prosecutors could do their jobs.
The Phillips case was only the most memorable; he was, after all, a first-round NFL draft choice. Redmond said she was sexually assaulted by another Cornhusker, Christian Peter. Her lawsuit against the former Giant was settled, this as she found a career calling in victims' rights.
"When Lawrence Phillips was in a boys home growing up, I truly believe he was on the right track," Redmond said. "Nebraska derailed that. Osborne undid what that boys home did. There was no accountability for Lawrence Phillips, no discipline. Just a protective mechanism for him to conduct himself the way he did. Nebraska didn't care about Lawrence Phillips; they cared about their won-loss record."
That won-loss record is what will make Osborne the next governor of Nebraska. He won't have to sweat the possibility that Phillips will be convicted of assaulting another woman or of crashing a stolen car into some teenagers he'd joined for a fun afternoon of sandlot football, teenagers who would learn all about the former running back's long history of explosive and misguided rage.
Phillips' collegiate eligibility has expired. In other words, there's no reason for the ol' football coach to offer him a pardon.
