Golden Hypocrisy

I am going 'off-topic' with this post, but in a sense it stays with my disdain for the hypocrisy in collegiate athletics and especially the Golden Hypocrisy which can be so obvious in football and basketball.

The latest "you have got to be kidding me" example is Pearl, the Tennessee men's basketball coach and Hamilton, the Tennessee Athletic Director.

Please see this link for Fox Sports report or this link for ESPN report.

A few of my favorite parts:

"I've made some serious mistakes, and for that I'm truly sorry," Pearl said tearfully at a news conference. "I provided incorrect and misleading information to the NCAA. I've learned some invaluable lessons. After I provided the false and misleading information, subsequently I went back and corrected the record.

"I learned that it's not OK to tell the truth most of the time, but you've got to tell the truth all of the time," he said. (espn.com)

Interpretation - I purposely lied in a NCAA investigation which was looking into us cheating when we recruit, and if I cry when I talk to you, you will think I am sorry. Also, I learned something just now which I should have remembered from kindergarten.

''There needs to be more of that in college athletics,'' the athletic director said. ''I hope part of what you get out of this today is this is a person that stood up and did the right thing in the end by coming back forward and saying, 'I want to correct this.'

''I can tell you my interaction with him during that process, it was clearly something he initiated and was concerned about.'' (foxsports.com)

Interpretation - Even though the athletic department is in shambles for cheating and athlete conduct, look how great we are doing in admitting we lied about cheating! Because he got caught cheating and lied to the governing body of athletics, he was Gandi like in admitting it after the fact.

After admitting to misleading the NCAA in an investigation, Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl will lose 25 percent of his salary — or a total of $2 million — for the remainder of his five-year contract and not be allowed to recruit off-campus for one year. (foxsports.com)

Interpretation - He will need to get by on 1.2 million per year and he does not have to travel off campus to recruit any more. He can still make telephone calls and have all the recruits come to campus. Oh, and he still keeps his job.

I guess what gets me the most is the coach cheated in recruiting and knew he was cheating (yearly NCAA test, recent NCAA punishments for other programs for telephone call violations, etc.), then he LIED to the NCAA who was investigating him - How do you lie to the NCAA about cheating and still keep your job? Now his Athletic Director is trying to tell everyone how GREAT he is for admitting he lied and the coach squeezes out some crocodile tears to help.