College Football And The Culture Of Absolutism
A story broke in the Detroit Free Press yesterday detailing potential NCAA violations in the University of Michigan football program under head coach Rich Rodriguez.Even if you're not a sports fan, keep reading, because this story is less about college football and much more about the culture of absolutism that has developed in this country.
Briefly, here are a few excerpts from the article:
The NCAA, which governs college athletics, has strict limits on how much time coaches can require players to spend on their sport. But Rodriguez’s team has routinely broken the rules since he took over in January 2008, people inside the program told the Free Press.
Numerous players on the 2008 and 2009 teams said the program far exceeded limits intended to protect athletes from coaching excesses and to ensure fair competition.
...In the past two off-seasons, players said, the Wolverines were expected to spend two to three times more than the eight hours allowed for required workouts each week. Players are free to exceed the limit, but it must be truly voluntary.
The players said the off-season work was clearly required. Several of them said players who failed to do all the strength and conditioning were forced to come back to finish or were punished with additional work.
...Players spent at least nine hours on football activities on Sundays after games last fall. NCAA rules mandate a daily 4-hour limit. The Wolverines also exceeded the weekly limit of 20 hours, the athletes said.
I don't know whether these allegations are true--no one outside the program does.
What I do know, though, is that some of the reactions to this story make me sick. Here's Chad Henne, former Michigan quarterback:
As for the anonymous players who complained, Henne suggested some might have ulterior motives.
“I really think whoever’s saying it really doesn’t want to be there,” Henne said. “If they’re saying that then they’re not really worried about the team, they’re not worried about what they’re going to do during their season and they’re kind of just giving themselves up. That’s just negative talk right there. So whoever it is just really doesn’t care about the team, I would say.
“If they’re complaining about that, then they don’t want to be the best they can be and that’s their own fault.”
Dear Chad: you're a dick.
I heard a local talk show host and ex-college football player Sean Adams say the same thing on the radio yesterday: "if they're complaining, then they don't want to do what it takes to win."
Seriously, this makes me sick.
The reasons it makes me sick are two-fold: one, it's so illogical that it makes my stomach hurt, and two, it indicates a blind subservience to absolutism which makes me feel even more sick.
Let's take a look at the logic first. These players are complaining, not about activities during the NCAA-approved time periods, but about mandatory activities that appear to far exceed NCAA guidelines.
The attitude many people are taking is that the allegations aren't true, but even if they are, the players who complained are losers and aren't committed to winning.
Well, let's take that rationale to its next logical step. If players who aren't willing to participate in mandatory activities beyond NCAA time guidelines aren't committed to winning, doesn't that mean that other coaches who aren't willing to exceed NCAA time guidelines aren't committed to winning, either? Because it's the same damn thing.
Hey, if you're not committed cheating, you're not committed to being the best you can be.
No one would ever say that about a coach. In fact, allegedly "clean" coaches who do follow NCAA guidelines are celebrated as examples of doing it "the right way." So it is utterly, completely ridiculous to apply one standard to coaches and an entirely different standard to players.
The second, and even more disturbing, aspect of this story is the notion that questioning authority is somehow disloyal. That is so wrong and so messed up that I could write 5,000 words about the subject and barely scratch the surface. There is NO situation, even in war, where authority cannot or should not be questioned. In any circumstance, I can provide a scenario where not questioning authority is not only wrong, but immoral.
Questioning authority doesn't make anyone a loser. Questioning authority is the only way to stop losers in authority. The idea that someone in authority cannot, by definition, be wrong is incredibly dangerous, not just in sports, but anywhere else as well.
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