Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Over and over again we have seen college athletic departments build gargantuan football (and in some cases, basketball) programs, only to see it all come crashing down:
Southern California, Ohio State, Miami and now Penn State.
The NCAA is trying to play cop, but the governing body for college sports has neither the budget nor the manpower to prevent these mutations from forming. It relies on conference offices and each school’s compliance department to walk the beat. As we have learned, sometimes those departments are run roughshod over by coaches, athletic directors, and in the latest and most horrific case, university presidents.
This next statement might secure my role as the most naive college sports reporter in the nation:
I have always subscribed to the belief athletics can be a vitally important part of a young person’s growth. At the earliest ages, sports help develop a child’s sense of self, provide a wonderfully healthy outlet, nurture social skills and teach young people that winning and losing, success and failure, is a part of life.
How a person learns to deal with that ultimately has a huge bearing on how he or she navigates life.
Healthy mind; healthy body.
Go ahead and chuckle. I’m holding the line here.
I hope Fordham does. We have exhausted a lot of man hours in the last two months reporting on Fordham’s search for a new athletic director. It has been a thrilling, twisting trek. The level of passion voiced by Fordham alumni has been overwhelming.
So this needs to be said right now: Whomever Fordham hires as its athletic director, and regardless of who has the power to bring that person to the University President, Father Joseph McShane, this should be the first question asked of that candidate:
Do you vow that you will always put first the values espoused by a Jesuit university and never put success in athletics above the reputation of a great university?
Father McShane should look that person square in the eye when he asks that question. If he sees the slightest hesitation, if that candidate says, “Absolutely,” yet looks away, then that is not the right person for Fordham.
The next AD’s contract should spell out in no uncertain terms the NCAA rules will be followed to the letter. If not, that AD forfeits the job and any severance.
The next AD’s contract should mandate the health, safety and well-being of every athlete and every camper, recruit, or guest that comes on campus will be held sacred. At the first hint of any impropriety, the AD becomes the ex-AD with no benefits forthcoming.
The next AD’s contract should make clear that if the values held dear by Fordham are violated, the university will take legal action. There will be no clandestine deal. You will not pass “Go.” You will not collect $200. And, oh yes, you cannot sue Fordham.
I can imagine some lawyers laughing as they read this: “I’d sooner lock myself in a room with Charlie Sheen than allow my client to sign that contract!’’
What makes such terms so onerous? Fordham is offering a great job in the greatest city in the world and in exchange is asking for honesty and integrity.
Fordham wants to walk with Georgetown and Notre Dame, not with USC and Penn State.