Miami shame: Thugs don't need hugs
October 20, 2006
BY
RICK TELANDER Sun-Times Columnist
The returns still are coming in from the Miami-Florida International football brawl Saturday, but for now the tally stands at a total of 31 players suspended or dismissed from both teams. After watching the tape of the vicious brawl, again and again, I can't help wondering where the criminal charges are, why somebody from the thugfest -- maybe a bunch of somebodies -- isn't in jail.
After all, former Hurricanes player-turned-TV analyst Lamar Thomas was swiftly fired after he merely
spoke about the mayhem as it was going on, saying a little too eagerly that he was almost ready to take the elevator down and join the brawl.
''You don't come into the OB [Orange Bowl] talkin' smack, not in our house,'' said Thomas, who offered this solution: ''Why don't they just meet outside in the tunnel after the ballgame and get it on some more?''
There's no doubt part of the soft landing for the players -- and their coaches -- can be blamed on Dallas Cowboys center Andre Gurode, who inexplicably refused to bring charges against Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth recently after Haynesworth danced with his cleats on Gurode's helmet-less face to the tune of 30 stitches.
Precedents matter.
When you see what some of the Miami players were doing in the brawl, the thing that comes to mind is not a sports fight, but a beatdown.
You think of a back-alley mugging.
You think of cowardice and rioting.
You think of mobs.
You think of the popular underground videos going around of authentic street beatings, of surveillance cameras catching thugs trying and sometimes succeeding in killing victims.
Miami safety Brandon Merriweather was very active in the brawl, stomping on downed FIU players with his cleats, among other things.
In old-time fights, men stood and fought each other one-on-one with their fists or wrestled one another to the ground. If it was wrong, there was still a certain code to the nastiness.
Merriweather's actions had no code except to maim or kill.
''As a team captain, I have come to expect more from myself,'' Merriweather wrote in an apology.
Team captain. Wow.
Blame starts at the top
And so we are left to wonder about the state of Miami football and the state of NCAA big-time revenue-producing football generally. Yes, Florida International figures in here somehow, but, be honest: Had you ever heard of the school before this?
Miami has won more national titles in the last quarter-century (four) than any other university. It has won them under four different coaches, and current coach Larry Coker is the most clueless of them all.
''I think this will affect the image of our program,'' Coker said post-fight, ''but in a very positive way.''
What?
There is a wealth of football talent in the high schools of South Florida, and Coker has seen fit to ride that talent to his own national title in 2001. But his control of his charges -- like the control of former Miami national-championship coaches Howard Schnellenberger, Jimmy Johnson and Dennis Erickson -- seems at times nonexistent.
Just as the management of the school seems to have no control, or rather, to enjoy the fruits of victory that comes from an out-of-control program.
Maybe this is just thug life -- as tattooed on iconic and murdered rapper Tupac Shakur's belly -- infiltrating America's educational and entertainment system with the technical assistance of the computer era.
Maybe it had to happen, the gangster world and the sports world melding.
But it has been building, and see-no-evil apologists such as Miami president Donna Shalala -- formerly of the Clinton administration, formerly coach Barry Alvarez's landlord at the University of Wisconsin -- are part of the problem.
'Do that again and you're grounded'
''We will not throw any student under the bus for instant restoration of our image or reputation,'' Shalala said. ''I will not eliminate their participation at the university. I will not take away their scholarships.'' She added that Miami now has a ''new standard,'' that says, ''Do this again, and you're off the team.''
My goodness. Maybe Shalala will be giving all the fellows apples before bedtime, too.
Let me tell you about Miami's past.
In 1984, I wrote a story for Sports Illustrated about the Canes' stellar offensive line. In the accompanying photo, two of the five linemen are giving the the camera the finger.
In 1986 I wrote about star Miami linebacker George Mira Jr., not long after he had been arrested by campus police and charged with disorderly conduct, battery on a police officer, assault, fleeing a police officer and possession of steroids without a prescription.
In a 1995 cover story, after many more NCAA violations and legal offenses by players, Sports Illustrated blared in bold type, ''WHY THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SHOULD DROP FOOTBALL.''
The Hurricanes got into a postgame fight with LSU last December at the Peach Bowl, and they started a near-brawl before this year's Louisville game by stomping on the Cardinals' midfield logo.
No, this is not new territory for Miami, nor for the NCAA football money machine that now gives us $3million coaches and games virtually every night of the week in lieu of integrity, education and honor.
Hell, there was even a brawl last week at the end of the delicate Dartmouth-Holy Cross game.
Thug life. Live it.
