Serving the University of Toledo community since 1919.

Always expect the right thing

IC Photo File

Blake Bacho, Sports Editor

We’re going to take a quick trip down I-75 for this one.

In case you recently took up residence beneath a slab of granite, Bowling Green State University is currently searching for a new men’s basketball coach. Chris Jans was fired after only one season due to his sloppy, drunken performance at a local restaurant on March 21.

You can’t really describe what Jans did that night without referencing a donkey at least a few times. Do a quick YouTube search if you want to see exactly what happened, but expect to feel disgusted by the end of the clip.

After BG learned of what transpired that evening they promptly sacked their disgraced head coach, earning praise locally for doing the right thing in a messy situation.

 

Fans of professional sports know that talent usually trumps everything. But Bowling Green’s administrators made it clear that this won’t be the case on their campus, dismissing the man who led the program to its first 20-win season since the 2001-02 campaign.

 

Good for the Falcons, but I wouldn’t necessarily give them too much credit.

 

Again, go to the tape. Jans didn’t tiptoe into a gray area that night; he high-stepped his way over the line and promptly whacked a woman on the rump. BGSU did what was right because they had to, not because they wanted to.

 

On our own campus, the powers that be in blue and gold have had to do the same thing a couple times in recent years. Former University of Toledo track and cross country coach Kevin Hadsell was under investigation for sexual harassment when his superiors forced him to depart.

 

More recently, former Rockets Head Soccer Coach Brad Evans resigned his post amid reports that he had been in a relationship with a former coworker. Don’t think for a second that he left without pressure from the university.

 

The choices that Toledo and BG’s decision-makers made in these instances were absolutely the right ones. These men acted in ways that no employer can tolerate. Had these things happened at any old business, it would’ve been expected that people lost their jobs.

 

But we aren’t talking any old business. We are talking sports. Therein lies the problem.

 

Turn on ESPN and within the first hour of programming you’ll hear about at least one professional athlete or coach that kept their job after doing something unspeakably stupid. Courtrooms can slow this process, but in the end almost all of these men remain on the field.

 

Only after public opinion starts cutting into profit margins do athletes and coaches start hitting the unemployment line. But even then their stay usually isn’t long.

 

For one reason or another, we’ve reached a point where doing the right thing is the exception instead of the norm. I’m not saying people shouldn’t be commended when they do what is right, but it shouldn’t come as such a surprise when it does happen.

 

Fans at every level need to expect and demand the right thing, especially when messy situations pop up. If they don’t hold programs to this high standard, morals will always take a back seat to profit margins.

 

BGSU did the right thing by firing Jans. They recognized that success on the hardwood doesn’t trump embarrassing behavior off of it. For that, the Falcons should be commended.

 

But I still don’t give them too much credit. They did what was right because they had to and because Falcon fans expect such action.

 

Between Hadsell and Evans, it’s clear that Toledo’s fans expect the same.

Print Friendly

Comments