The investigation about the domestic abuse of Courtney Smith by her then husband, a receivers coach, institutional bystander behavior and attempts to cover up both at Ohio State is complete. As disturbing as the actual findings are, is the fact that the outcomes and “sanctions” or lack thereof, were so foreseeable?
The simple explanation for what did and did not happen is C.R.E.A.M., the acronym many of you know to mean, “Cash Rules Everything Around Me!”
To that end, the fact that there were 115 deaths statewide due to domestic violence in Ohio in 2017 played little to no role in the decisions about accountability. The fact that the football program generates about $90 million per year and is deemed by the Wall Street Journal to be worth about $1 billion if up for sale on the open market, is seemingly all that mattered. Simply put, short of Aaron Hernandez-like murder charges, there was NEVER a time when Coach Urban Meyer was in danger of losing his job. A 73-8 record with a National Title in College football is the equivalent of Teflon.
Speaking of the late convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez, Meyer actually coached him at Florida, where Hernandez was one of 31 different players arrested during Meyer’s tenure…a tenure that included two national titles. Therefore, it is safe to say that at two different venues, Urban Meyer has presided over a football culture that would seem to be relatively permissive at best.
It is hard to know where to start with this episode of ‘The Cesspool of CREAM called College Football’, but for contextual understanding, let us talk about Title 9. It was established in 1972 and largely deals with the issue of gender equity on college campuses. It has been instrumental in expanding athletic opportunities for women. Study after study has shown that women who participate in sports tend to have higher self-esteem and are less likely to find themselves in abusive relationships. It also charges a college to provide a safe and abuse-free environment by requiring any college employee to report instances of alleged abuse to the college’s compliance office. There are exceptions to this requirement called confidential reporters, which typically are counselors, health care professionals, attorneys, and their staff.
No coach or athletic director ever falls under that umbrella, and both Meyer and Athletic Director Gene Smith knew this.
As for the “punishment” of a three-game suspension for Meyer, think of it this way: when former Ohio State QB Terrell Pryor and several of his teammates traded memorabilia for tattoos, they were suspended for five games. But in a state where nearly 20 people a month die from domestic abuse, the University saw fit to sanction an enabler of such abuse with a three game suspension?
Let that sink in for a moment.
There are at least two things that Ohio State and other such programs can do about this issue immediately; 1) in the hiring process, never ignore the red flags of an abuser. Human behavior is relatively predictable IF we review the history and resist cherry picking or denying information. While there are exceptions to every rule, abusers largely do not change. Meyer knew more than enough about this assistant when he was with him at Florida, to know the risk, and even if he didn’t, a program with a $109 million budget can surely do a thorough background check…if it wants to; and 2) immediately began a college-wide ‘Bringing in the Bystander’ training sessions, which show bystanders how to effectively intervene in cases of intimate partner abuse. I am proud to say that my employer, Montgomery College, conducts these trainings for all incoming athletes and as many other students as our volunteer resources allow. But the reality is that Montgomery Community College is not generating $90 million a year through its athletics, which bring us back to the primary culprit: the Cesspool of CREAM.
In some ways, big-time college sports, like mega religious institutions, have the best of both worlds in that they can generate enormous amounts of money without being accountable in the ways commercial for-profit entities are. They pay no taxes. Short of a ‘death penalty’, such as what was endured by Southern Methodist University in the 1980’s, I do not see any deterrent or incentive for big-time college football programs that will counter the profit motive. This challenge is beyond sports and manifests itself on all levels of society, from Wall Street to Health Care. There are two kinds of verifiable power in America: organized money and organized people. Ohio State and other big college football programs are a part of organized money. It is our responsibility, be we sports fans or not, to organize as people to counter organized money interests by insuring, among other things, that the provisions of Title 9 are adhered to within the college setting. Otherwise, who will intervene on behalf of the Courtney Smiths of the world?
