Bliss reminds me more and more of the football coach in the movie 'The Program.' He was a classic piece of work.
That wasn't in the movie. James Cameron's character got away with it. It's like the Watergate Tapes. But, then again, would you have trusted Dave Bliss?
What a low down despicable piece of garbage. I hope Bliss spends a long time in prison.
Here are the transcripts of the first tape from Rouse.
From this site:
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/6547718.htm
Posted on Sat, Aug. 16, 2003
'What we've got to create here is drugs'
STAR-TELEGRAM ARCHIVES/ALISON WOODWORTH
Baylor assistant coach Abar Rouse, shown coaching at McLennan Community College in December 2002, secretly recorded conversations with head basketball coach Dave Bliss about creating a story that Patrick Dennehy had dealt drugs.
Here are excerpts from several conversations involving former Baylor basketball coach Dave Bliss, secretly recorded by assistant coach Abar Rouse from July 30 to Aug. 1. The conversations revolve around the question of who paid the tuition of slain basketball player Patrick Dennehy. The National Collegiate Athletic Association and a Baylor committee are investigating whether NCAA rules were violated in connection with the tuition payments. The coaches make references to several other basketball players who may talk with investigators. Their names have been omitted.
July 30, Conversation 1
(Bliss and Rouse are in an office.)
Bliss: Tell me how you think it went with ...
Rouse: (Player 1)?
Bliss: (Player 1).
Rouse: He's on board.
Bliss: You think?
Rouse: Yep.
Bliss: Let me ... He's gonna say whatever it takes?
Rouse: I think so. I'm almost sure.
Bliss: See, (Player 2) will do the same thing.
Rouse: That's what I told him.
Bliss: Those two talking?
Rouse: I don't know if he called him yet.
Bliss: OK.
Rouse: But ...
Bliss: And I'll tell you, it's funny. (Player 3) will say whatever it takes.
Rouse: I just think with (Player 1) we're good. I know that (Player 1) ... I think we're pretty safe.
Bliss: We'll help (Player 1) after we get out of all of this.
Rouse: I told him. I said, "You know, you're gonna be in good favor with Coach." So I just told him, "Don't worry about anything else."
Bliss: We need to think of ... I just spent time with the lawyers.
Rouse: Yeah.
Bliss: Our whole thing right now, we can get out of it, OK? Reasonable doubt is there's nobody right now that can say that we paid Pat Dennehy.
Rouse: I understand.
Bliss: Because he's dead.
Rouse: I understand.
Bliss: OK? So what we have to do is create the reasonable doubt. I've aged about 30 years in the last two months.
Rouse: I know.
Bliss: I used to be young.
Rouse: I know.
Bliss: But the thing is, I've got like 30 years (in coaching), I've never talked to an NCAA guy, OK? So, I mean, that stands for something.
Rouse: Yes.
Bliss: And the thing about it is, what the lawyers want to do is all they've got to handle is $2,000 for the down payment (on the sport utility vehicle) and then like $7,000 on his tuition.
(The two then discuss whether someone else will help out.)
Bliss: And what we've got to create here is drugs.
Rouse: I understand. I don't ...
Bliss: Once we do that ...
Rouse: We're done?
Bliss: You know ...
Rouse: We're good?
Bliss: Reasonable doubt.
Rouse: I'm with you. I'm with you.
Bliss: So here's the thing that we've got to do. You think of this over the night. Like, did (Player 1) tell you any stories after I left or anything like that? Because what we want him to do ... Think about this.
Rouse: OK.
Bliss: We want him to tell stories to (law professor Bill) Underwood (a member of the internal investigative committee) that end in (INAUDIBLE). You know, "Coach, I'm a role player." I'm big on role-playing.
Rouse: Yeah.
Bliss: This is (Player 1). And what we have to decide is whether we want (Player 3) and (Player 1) to go together or if we want them to say the same thing and maybe (Player 2) say something different.
Rouse: I understand.
Bliss: So think of ... We don't have to do anything until tomorrow.
Rouse: OK.
Bliss: What we want to do is they tell the story, "We've been going to Dennehy's apartment. And what we've done out there in Dennehy's apartment (is), you know, we'll go up there and smoke some weed and drink some stuff and have some ladies up there. And then there's one time I went out there. And this was like the middle of May. And we're up there and we're getting ready to do some ---- (expletive deleted) and Pat walks in with a tray. All of a sudden on this tray, I notice some new ---- (expletive deleted). There's pills. There's whatever."
Rouse: I'm with you.
(Bliss digresses for a moment.)
Bliss: And then what happens is, they walked in and they put the tray down, OK?
Rouse: Yeah.
Bliss: And when they put the tray down, Patrick said something like, "We're gonna have some fun tonight and we're gonna let the other guys pay for it." And he brings out his roll of $100 bills.
Rouse: I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm with you.
Bliss: And so what happens is, the perception that he's doing other ---- (expletive deleted) at the same time ...
Rouse: Exactly.
Bliss: And what happened ...
Rouse: And so that's where he gets money.
Bliss: Yeah. That's where he gets a part of it.
Rouse: But they don't have to know where it comes from?
Bliss: They don't have to know anything. All these guys have to do is tell them what they saw.
Rouse: Exactly. OK.
Bliss: They don't have to fabricate something, but what we want to do is have decided whether we want two of them to agree or three of them to agree or one to agree to one story, one to agree to another story.
Rouse: Like another incident?
Bliss: Yeah. Another incident.
(The coaches discuss how to create another story about Dennehy's involvement with drugs, this one involving a Baylor recruit who has been accused by Dennehy's girlfriend of threatening Dennehy.)
Bliss: What does that sound like?
Rouse: That sounds good. That sounds believable.
(The coaches further discuss the player accused of threatening Dennehy, then discuss Carlton Dotson, who has been arrested in connection with Dennehy's murder, as well as media coverage of the case.)
Bliss: So. Now tell me the amount of time you talked to (Player 1) when you left here. You talked to him a little bit more?
Rouse: I just talked to him. ... I just wanted to spend another like hour with him just to let him know. We talked about that for just a couple more like minutes when I got over to his house. Just, you know, basically, "Hey, everything's gonna be all right. This is gonna be good for us, for the program." He'd like to save the program.
Bliss: Yeah.
Rouse: That brought a smile to his face. So ... I was like, "Look, you're getting off." I said, "You don't have to worry about anything. You're getting off scot-free on that. And so you just need to relax and ..."
Bliss: Abar, he tells us the story that he told us today about stuff and then what we do is we give him the kicker. In other words, he tells the story kind of like I told you just now.
Rouse: Yeah.
Bliss: And then we have him talk about the fact that he (Dennehy) brought out the roll of money.
Rouse: OK.
Bliss: Because, see, then he only has to remember one thing.
Rouse: The plate and ...
Bliss: See, the plate, that's kind of how they did stuff. He says they bring out the stuff.
Rouse: Yeah.
(The coaches discuss the player's story some more, then cover several topics, including another player who apparently once hung out with Dennehy, and discuss several people who have made accusations against the program. They then return to a discussion of the players they have spoken to.)
Bliss: All they've got to remember is they can tell the story, "We went up there (to Dennehy's apartment) and everything. And all of a sudden, he walked out with that tray and it had everything on it that you can imagine. And I knew something different was up. And then he pulled out his roll of bills. And when he pulled out that roll of bills, it scared us and we never went back."
(The conversation continues, with the coaches discussing the players' stories and their future in the profession.)
Bliss: And we are gonna win. I'll tell you, like I just spent two hours with our lawyer. He's a ----- (expletive deleted). That's why he told me, "Just give me reasonable doubt." He said, "This is the first time they've ever had an NCAA investigation with a dead person." So we don't have to have overwhelming evidence. All we've got to have is any reasonable doubt, because I've got 30 years in the business with no bad track record.
(The coaches discuss Dotson and people who have made accusations against the basketball program. Then Bliss mentions a Star-Telegram article detailing allegations against the basketball program when he was head coach at Southern Methodist University. He denies the accusations, which drew no punishment from the NCAA.)
Bliss: Twenty years ago, and I've been clean ever since. I've never talked to an NCAA person. So that's what I'm trying to save you guys with. And the only thing about it is, we've got to be tough during all this. (Bliss goes on about assistant coach Rodney Belcher, then the coaches discuss the logistics of getting two players together the next day to "kind of put a story together," in Bliss' words.)
(Bliss stops briefly to speak to his wife on his cellphone. Then conversation resumes. Rouse asks what's going on with the Sheriff's Department regarding the murder case. Bliss explains that it's a shift in jurisdiction and isn't important.)
Bliss: That's nothing compared to ... All we've got to do is come up with $2,000 and $7,000. We come up with that, then we're home free. (Another person) is going to help us a little bit with $2,000, and then the rest of it we've got to get from the drug thing.
Rouse: OK.
Bliss: And I'll tell you, this guy, if he had $5,000 in his pocket, you know, then anything's possible.
Rouse: I understand.
Bliss: So what we'll do is just create reasonable doubt. Well, why don't you plan on this. Why don't you get (Player 1). Make sure he gets to class in the morning. And then tell him we'll get him over here at 11 o'clock, both he and (Player 3), and we won't do anything tomorrow. We'll just talk about it from 11 to 12. And then we'll figure out after that what they want to do. We might do them Friday or Monday. If they're ready to go ... See, really, they're part of the story. There's really only gonna to be (INAUDIBLE). All they're gonna do is at the end of it say, "When he brought out that tray with all those exotic drugs on it, we got scared. All we wanted to do is smoke some weed. And then Pat reached in his pocket and pulled out a roll of bills and said, 'We'll let these guys pay for it tonight.' "
Rouse: Yep.
Bliss: That's like the key phrase: "We'll let these guys pay for it tonight." And all of a sudden, they both say the same thing, because they remember him saying that. Now with (Player 2), I have a hunch (Player 2) is gonna have a different story, because he might have gone out to that place out there in Leroy or might have been someplace where they dropped off some ---- (expletive deleted). But he'll have a story. We'll listen to his story, and then we'll put a little punch on it. He can tell the story, because that's his story, and then we'll put our punch at the end.
Rouse: I'm with you. It sounds good. Let's rock and roll.
Bliss: Yeah. All that lawyer wants ...
Rouse: Will that end the inquiry?
Bliss: What I think it'll do is give a reason for the extra money, and what they'll do, the inquiry, will then tie it all up and say, "This is what we found," and present it to the NCAA. And we could be done with it in two weeks. What I want to do is be done in August with it, once we get back in school. And if we do what I think we can do, we'll be done faster than that. Then what we end up doing is present it to the NCAA. They look at it. If they want to take it further, fine. If they accept it, then we go from there. If they want to take it further, then they have to wait for the criminal investigation to be over, and that's like a year or two later, especially now that Dotson says he didn't do it.
Rouse: I'm with you.
(The conversation in the office ends. Bliss and Rouse then walk out. Tape continues to run. Bliss reiterates that the unnamed lawyer is tough and will "eat up" bad stories. He says players will have to tell the same stories to NCAA officials if the NCAA doesn't believe it, but NCAA will be "easy" compared with the lawyer.)
Bliss: This guy (the lawyer) can't go up there with a weak sister. He's got to have a solid story, and that's why as long as these guys are telling the truth, truth, truth, with a little kicker down here, then they can remember that and they can sell that.
Rouse: To the NCAA.
Bliss: Well, him (the lawyer) first, and then he can sell it to the NCAA.
Rouse: I'm with you.
Bliss: Because that's what it amounts to. Him being able to ... Like I asked (Athletic Director Tom) Stanton, because that's who I was out there with. And I said, "Does this lawyer actually believe us? It sounds crazy to me. This ---- (expletive deleted) sounds crazy." And I said, "Does he believe us?" And he said, "You know what he does? He believes you. And he believes that you wouldn't do anything like this. And he also believes that with a dead man, he doesn't have to come up with the same type of proof. All he has to have is reasonable doubt." In other words, granted the guy didn't pay $7,000 of his tuition, but by this time in his life, he was buying a $3,000 setup for a TV in his van. He was buying two $600 dogs. He was buying guns. He was buying all kinds of ---- (expletive deleted).
Rouse: So there's plenty of reasonable doubt.
July 31, Conversation 2
(Rouse and Bliss hold a conversation in an office. Bliss says that Player 1 would be a good witness because he's "on the in." Bliss says that they should "plant a little bit of the seed" during this meeting, but that it doesn't have to be taken care of that day. Bliss and Rouse plan how they'll deal with the player. They then go to meet him in the locker room.)
(A muffled conversation takes place between Rouse and the player. Then Bliss, Rouse and the player are together, apparently in an office or locker room.)
(Bliss then explains the situation to the player, saying the school did not make the down payment for Dennehy's SUV. He says Dennehy "had a lot of money" beginning in the middle of May and bought several things.)
Bliss: There isn't anybody who came to me and said, "You've got to ask (Player 1) this." I'm coming to you ... I guess I'm coming to you because I think from my aspect what I'm trying to do is see if there's anything that anybody knows that can help Baylor get out of this hole. Now the reason we're in a hole is because we've got a dead person. If Pat could talk for himself, we wouldn't be in this position. So what we've got to do is try to piece things together, (Player 1), from people that are on the outside but might have heard something or seen something. And that's why that AAU coach, he called me up. He saw in the paper that we were being accused of paying for that car, and he said, "Coach, I know you didn't pay for that car, because I helped. I helped pay for that car. Pat knows that, but Pat ain't here. But I've got records that show I helped I pay for that car." And he said, "Pat's being accused of getting money from the coaches to live on and stuff like that."
(Bliss goes on, quoting the AAU coach as saying he gave Dennehy money for living expenses, and explains that investigators are looking for anything positive to help the university.)
Bliss: And now you know we're really in a tough position. And that's why it's kind of like I come to you differently than your coach, where I'm supposedly the authority figure and you're the player. It's kind of like we're both Baylor now. And what we've got to do ...
Rouse: We're all Baylor.
(Bliss continues to discuss the AAU coach, applauding his willingness to come forward. Then he digresses, talking about having Rouse there. The player says he's comfortable with that. Bliss starts talking about the situation again.)
Bliss: I talked to the lawyers last night, and they said to me, "We got it on pretty good account that Pat Dennehy was selling drugs." OK? And I said, "How do you have it?" He said, "We've got some witnesses." OK? I said, "You got witnesses?" He said, "I'm gonna talk to them at 5 o'clock." This was like 4:30. I said, "What are these witnesses going to say?" And they're gonna say they just know he was involved in it. They were around him when he was showing some cash. He was talking big time. And he was letting on that he knew how to get ahold of some stuff. I said, "Who are these people?" He said, "I can't tell you, but what I've done is these guys ..." In other words, their names don't go anywhere. They don't have to go on TV. They don't have to go in front of any board of review. These guys are not students. They're guys here in town who either bought from Pat or whatever. What I would love for you to have enough confidence in me, (Player 1), is to tell the two of us anything that you think that we could add to this situation, because if we can prove that Dotty and Dennehy were selling drugs, I think we're out of the woods. So the thing about it is, I don't know if there's anything you might know, and you may think about it or something like that. But if there's something there, you're not gonna suffer the consequences at all.
(Bliss continues in the same vein, urging the player to share anything he feels comfortable discussing.)
Bliss: I don't come to you as the head coach because we've got to try to save Baylor, because it's not fair for us to go down something ... First of all, Dennehy ... You don't even have to tell me about Dotson because he's still alive. But Dennehy is never going to refute what we say. In other words, he's never gonna ... if we say something about him ... I've got some things to say about him, because he came in and tried to get me to help him with something, and I told him, "I can't help you." Now I know that pissed him off, but he knows that's the truth. And now he's dead, so he isn't going to argue with me at all. So it's one of those things that if there's anything you can think of. Is there any time you were around him that he might have shared anything with you or might talked anything about anything?
Player 1: Not particular. But if I keep thinking, you know ...
Bliss: Yeah.
Player 1: I probably can find ...
Bliss: How about, did you ever see him have some money?
Player 1: Not just too much money, but I saw him have money and I didn't have money. Like you get a (stipend) check, mine would be gone, but he'd have money.
(The conversation continues, with Bliss again urging the player to remember anything that might help with the perception that Dennehy was into drugs, had money and hung out with shady people.)
Bliss: Take your time and try to piece some things together. Just remember that anything you can remember is gonna help Baylor. We can get out of this. And, see, if Dotson hadn't killed Dennehy, we wouldn't be in this jam. So we don't deserve to be in this jam. The reason we're in this jam is because of a dead guy and a guy that murdered him, and that isn't fair for you and me and Abar to be in this jam, because we didn't do anything. It's not like we created this situation. We're the victims. If you read the papers, ---- (expletive deleted), I'm the bad guy. But I think ... Here's the thing I think. And you just mentioned it a little bit there. I think (Player 3) thinks he might have seen Pat with some more money than (INAUDIBLE). He also knew that Pat had that dark side to him, that he hung with some people that were different. Now did you ever take a trip up where those dogs are?
(The conversation continues, with the player discussing drug deals in Houston and Bliss discussing accusations that the players had smoked marijuana before practice.)
Bliss: I think the thing we want to do -- and you think about this -- if there's any way that we can even create the perception of the fact that Pat may have been a dealer. Even if we had to kind of make some things look a little better than they are, that can save us. And the part about it is, we don't deserve to be in a jam, so I don't mind ... And I'm not telling you to lie at all, although, you know, I'm already lying a little bit to the people because there are some things I don't know because Pat's dead. So I'll say things like, "I didn't pay it." I mean, I didn't pay it, but I said, "I don't know where he got the money from," because I don't know where he got the money from. The only thing is, the NCAA will ask you, "Where could he have gotten the money from?" And Bob Fuller thinks he got the money from dealing drugs, that he was a supplier for the people here in town, that they would go around and maybe go down ... a guy from Houston would drop it off here or they'd go up to the methamphetamine thing up there in Leroy or whatever that is. And he said they were dealing with some high-powered drugs and that Dennehy, you know ... Again, you think about this. He was doing some exotic ---- (expletive deleted), doing some different stuff ...
(The conversation continues in the same vein for several minutes, with the player saying he smoked marijuana at Dennehy's house.)
Bliss: Perfect. Stuff like that accounts for everything. And then what we can do, we can say -- and, again, not to put words in your mouth -- but if you just said this single statement I think it would help: "One time I was over there doing it and Pat brought out a lot of stuff. Mushrooms and all this stuff." They're not going to scare you. They're just going to listen to you. "And then he brought out a wad of bills. He must have had 50, 60 hundred-dollar bills." And then you can say, "I know that the guy, Pat, was doing some wild ---- (expletive deleted)." And then you can say, "That was in the middle of May. And after that, I stopped even going over there, because I knew that stuff was going crazy." Because you even told me that. Wasn't it about the middle of May you started ...?
Player 1: More the beginning.
Bliss: OK, more the beginning. And, again, not to put words in your mouth, if you ever said anything like that, we'd be off the charts. They'd say, "The guy is dealing drugs. That's where he got his money from. And Baylor, they're not in trouble any more."
(The conversation continues for several more minutes before Bliss leaves.)
Gotta love amatuer athletics. The NCAA, for the love of the game.
Ereht era llits os ynam derewsnanu snoitseuq.
I ylurt eveileb siht si tsuj eht pit fo eht grebeci.
Yhw did eht Samoht dik netaerht ot llik Yhenned dna Nostod?
Yhw did eht sehcoac tel ti edils?
Woh did yeht repmah eht lanimicr noitagitsevni otni eht Yhenned redrum?
Os ynam snoitsueq ta siht tniop.
Wow, that is harder than one would think.
Here is the non mirror version.
There are stillsom amny unanswered questions.
I truly believe this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Why did the Thomas kid threaten to kill Dennehy and Dotson?
Why did the coaches let it slide?
How did they hamper the criminal investigation into the Dennehy redrum?
Rouse didn't start taping Bliss until Bliss pulled out his contract and showed Rouse he hired and fired the assistant coaches.
Why did Bliss show up at Guinns house Saturday with his own damn tape recorder?
This whole situation stinks mightily,
look for more bombshells in the coming weeks.
Shameful. And I bet he calls himself a Christian.
Oh wonderful. Another reason to rake Centex through the mud. Maurice Clarett should send Dave Bliss a $100 check. There is no better PR than a bigger story emerging just in time. Just ask Gary Condit.