You're a major college football head coach now, or didn't you get the memo? You're not supposed to care about character. You're not supposed to mold young men. You're supposed to "pray for a misdemeanor," as Bobby Bowden once did. Most importantly, you're supposed to win.
With Masoli, you would have won. Don't you remember the way he dumptrucked that Oregon State defender to make sure you guys won the Pac-10 title? Who cares if he probably carried the laptop he swiped the same way he toted that football? That doesn't matter. What is important is winning -- not whether Masoli leaves school and becomes an honest, productive member of society.
This is a great tongue-in-cheek piece on how a college football coach--who has a team in 2010-11 that could win a national championship--has suspended his star quarterback for one year, greatly lessening his team's chances for that national championship. Coach Chip Kelly has made a great choice. Perhaps his star quarterback won't win a national title next year, but he may learn a thing or two about honesty and the consequences of his actions. The ending is fantastic:
But you had to make a statement. You had to place character above winning. You had to send a message to all those little ones who wear green and gold and who sleep under Oregon posters that they shouldn't steal, that they shouldn't lie. You had to tell your fans and boosters that you'd rather risk losing a few games than risk selling your program's soul for a title that would make you a very, very rich man.
What on earth were you thinking?
