Shocking tales out of Colorado? Not exactly

The Chicago Sun Times ^ | 02/20.2004 | Rick Telander

[Therapist]

don't believe we learn from the past. I used to, but I don't anymore. I've seen the past re-enacted enough times now to know that if we were going to learn anything from the stupidities of yore, for one thing, we sure wouldn't still have canned peas.

Or take the University of Colorado.

By now, you most certainly are aware of the sexual abuse, violence, drinking issues and general immorality attached to the Colorado football program.

As I write this, six women have come forward with accusations of rape or near-rape by Buffaloes players, recruiting parties at the school are said to resemble Roman orgies, coach Gary Barnett is on paid leave after school president Elizabeth Hoffman said she was "utterly distressed'' by his behavior and words and the wheels of a major criminal investigation are grinding on campus.

So read this: "At Colorado, running back O.C. Oliver was arrested for failing to appear in court on a traffic violation, defensive tackle Steven Cole Hayes was arrested for investigation of shoplifting [and subsequently found to have an outstanding warrant for failure to appear on a traffic violation], running back Marcus Reliford was arrested [though later acquitted] for the alleged rape of an 18-year-old woman after entering her dormitory room through a window and two other players were arrested for participating in a brawl outside a Boulder tavern. Another Colorado player was arrested [during the] same week ... picked up on suspicion of torturing, killing and skinning a pet rabbit. [That] seemed insignificant when [one] considered that in the last three years, over two dozen other Buffaloes had been arrested for crimes ranging from trespasssing to serial rape.''

Yesterday?

Try 15 years ago.

It's straight from my book, The Hundred Yard Lie: The Corruption of College Football and What We Can Do to Stop It, first published in 1989. The book has so much stuff about former coach Bill McCartney's old Buffs that you can understand why Boulder police used to drive around with football programs to better help them I.D. criminal suspects.

Oh, the bad stuff was all going to end.

McCartney, whose teenage daughter was impregnated by the team's quarterback, became a religious Promise Keeper, the criminals were dutifully punished and that was that.

Ethics were going to descend on Colorado football like a steady rain.

But as former split end Loy Alexander declared angrily after the Buffs finished 1-10 in 1983: "We've got enough altar boys. We need some athletes.''

And apparently the altar boys have gone and never come back because first coach Rick Neuheisel (fired later at Washington for gambling) and now Barnett basically have kept the seedy past rolling at Colorado.

You can question all you want what it was exactly that weak-legged, high school homecoming queen Katie Hnida thought she was doing on the Buffs' renegade team -- with her long, blond hair, eyeliner and happy smile -- but you can't question the frightening swinishness of her treatment.

When Barnett started blabbering that Hnida was a "girl'' who was "awful,'' who couldn't "kick the ball through the uprights,'' it seemed as though he was justifying her alleged rape simply because she couldn't help him beat Nebraska.

Barnett's logic was so bizarre that president Hoffman, who looked as grim as an executioner at her news conference, probably did him a huge favor by telling him to disappear for a while.

These uglinesses bubble to the surface every so often in college football.

And we trot out our TV cameras and frenzied reporters and the laconic cops and the outraged administrators, and soon the commissions for reform begin their hand-wringing and mountainous paper production.

Things calm down at the most visibly culpable schools, then, like moss on sand-blasted tree trunks, the bad stuff starts to grow again.

And yet the perniciousness of the Colorado mistakes -- there were plenty of other misdeeds during the late 1990s that we don't have space or stomach to report on here -- makes you wonder, in particular, about the men who reign at the top of the program. Right now, that's Barnett.

I look back at his book from his glory days as Northwestern's coach, High Hopes: Taking the Purple to Pasadena, and I search for clues to the man.

How about this, about his coaches: "If I hired them, they're mine and I believe in them. They would have to commit a felony before I would get rid of them.''

Or this, about the recruiting process: "I believe 85 percent of recruits have a good idea where they want to go before the proccess begins.

"There are exceptions, of course, and that's why you go after them anyway. ... The best way ... is by figuring out who 'the champion' is and getting whoever it is in your camp. 'Champion' is a term we used at Colorado to describe who will be the most influential in the recruit's decision. ... It might not be one of his parents. Maybe it will be his girlfriend. ... You have to know who that person is, though, because it's a person who will champion your cause if you can win them over. And everybody has one.''

Sometimes it might be a stripper.

It even might be a less-than-willing Colorado coed who ends up at the wrong end of a drunken young man's sexual attack.

Barnett signed my copy of High Hopes back in 1996 with these words, "To Rick -- You have insights that are truly rare.''

Rare or not, here's my latest, Coach.

I think it's time for the Boulder cops to start driving with those Buffaloes game programs again.

And for you to take a rest.

[Therapist]

Ouch! Telander exposes that players have long been bolder in Boulder. What signal are the regents looking for--finding Jon Benet Ramsey's killer?

[per loin]

Bring enough animals into a house, and presto! You have an animal house.

[ghost of nixon]

A lot of tut-tutting by supposedly progressive sports writers. Colorado University was rated the #3 party school in the country this past year. Assuming this is a reasonably accurate rating, then why is the football team being singled out for behavior that is certainly happening elsewhere on campus? Liberals in Boulder wanting to bring down the "evil" football empire.

[Therapist]

Bluto Blutarsky.

[Therapist]

Princeton rated Colorado #1 party school.

[Wolfie]

Coaches should room their daughters in the athletic dorms. Might make them a bit more considerate in the recruiting process.

[colorado tanker]

Bingo. NOW is behind this, supported by a very liberal DA.

[Therapist]

Former coach Bill McCartney's daughter was knocked up by the quarterback. Is that taking one for the team?

[Wolfie]

Nope, that's karma.

[BadAndy]

"When Barnett started blabbering that Hnida was a "girl'' who was "awful,'' who couldn't "kick the ball through the uprights,'' it seemed as though he was justifying her alleged rape simply because she couldn't help him beat Nebraska. "

What is shocking is that a coach can be suspended for giving an honest assessment of a player's ability. I think he was trying to say that they were doing her a favor by letting her on the team even though she was a terrible player.

[FlJoePa]

Look for Neuheisel's name to be in the news in the next few weeks. I think he needs to repair his image, and I think I know where he's going to do it. Stay tuned.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

What is shocking is that a coach can be suspended for giving an honest assessment of a player's ability. I think he was trying to say that they were doing her a favor by letting her on the team even though she was a terrible player.

He wasn't asked about her abilities, he was asked to respond to the charges that she made about being sexually harrassed and raped. He responded to the charges that she was sexually assaulted by saying she was a lousy player. He wasn't suspended for giving an honest assessment, he was suspended for seeming to justify the behavior of his players.

[Jeff Gordon]

Colorado should abolish their football program. It is a waste of money as well as being a danger to the community.

[Digger]

Since you brought up Nebraska here is an interesting story on a recruit that they got in the later days of recruiting. Lydon Murtha - 6'8" 320 lb lineman, one of the nations top who is from Minnesota & was committed to them for a good year switched to Nebraska after accepting an invitation. Apparently when he went to the Minn recruit trip the guys took him to stip clubs & drinking parties which if they had done their research would have found that this guy wanted NO part of that atmosphere. So when recruited by NU this type behavior was not part of the weekend. So he chose Nebraska. Also it was interesting that Barnett was accusing new coach Callahan of getting special treatment from Tom Lemming with recruiting info. I'll state it again & again. If you stay at these totally left-wing commie universites such as Colorado that atmosphere will ingrain itself into one. Barnett wasn't perfect when he left Northwestern but degredated over the yrs. I wish they would keep him there so we all can use him as a bad example.

[safeasthebanks]

Are you sure about this? I honestly don't know myself, but the first time I heard about this comment it was supposedly just a question about why she was cut, and my reaction to this whole thing was similar to Andy's.

Again, I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just wondering which is the right story.

[cwb]

If that is what Barnett did, than that was a big mistake. Unfortunately, I see the events at Colorado as a microsm of much larger problems at our institutions of higher learning. Rush was just talking about the S&M club that was sanctioned at Iowa...and I also heard about one at a New York university several years, ago. They got (and recieved) protective status through non-dicrimnation lawsuits.

O'Reilly has also pointed out several instances of disgust on our campuses, from Indiana U students who participated in the filming of a porno, on campus, to the work of some of our professors (Kansas) who use adult hardcore films, to "stimulate" debate. There are some glaring inconsistencies here, when you have one group of liberals calling women to fight date-rape, unwanted touching and even dirty jokes...while you have another group advancing the ideals of sexual promescuity and revolution.

Not to make any excuses for these kids behavior, but what did these people think would happen once you start feeding the hormones of young, verile males with a constant barrage of sexual imagery and ideals? While most adults can distinguish between the messages and the difference, we are dealing with immature young men...and when it comes to athletes, pampered young men. The very irresponsible promescuity they have promoted has come back to bite them in the butt.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

I'm pretty sure that he made these comments to an SI reporter when asked to respond to her charges of sexual assault. I'll double check, but I believe that is what I read when looking at the facts of this story.

[BadAndy]

Unless the coach was present when the alleged harassment happened, all he can do is speculate. Poor players on varsity teams get dumped on mercilessly even when they are males. In addition there was resentlment she was forced onto the team for political reasons. Perhaps he was trying to convey that. In any case he was suspended for SEEMING to be be insensitive about a 2 year old claim of harassment. He said nothing that warrants losing his job, unless we live in a police state.

[MileHi]

He wasn't asked about her abilities, he was asked to respond to the charges that she made about being sexually harrassed and raped.

False. That remark was in regards to harassment in the lockers and on the field, crude comments and balls thrown her way when she practiced. Not about the rape.

BTW, the "rape" happened at a players house while she was watching a movie with him some evening, if her account is true. She didn't report it and no charges were filed. How is the football program to blame? Why are no charges filed in all 6 cases? Even the NOW leaning DA declined to file two of these for lack of evidence.

One case involved a co-ed who woke up and realized that she had had sex, but didn't remember leaving the bar or who she left with. She was sure she wouldn't have consented though. (Or, maybe it was buyers remorse for irresponsible behavior.)

I couldn't care less about CU football but Boulder is a Marxist town and this has the hypocritical stench of NOW all over it.

[MileHi]

For clarity, if these ARE rapes, these guys need to be jailed. So far none of the accused have been named, we have not heard their side, so all we have are accusations.