Integrity in College Athletics Plays Big… When Convenient

Sports Betting-Related Commentary
JAY’S WAYS
College Football Edition

Under ordinary circumstances, I might say that Jamar Hornsby’s football career was over. It’s altogether possible, though, that it’s just been put on hold. I’ll get to that in a minute.

First, let’s digress….

On March 13, 2000, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas introduced something called the High School and College Gambling Prohibition Act, another useless piece of paper that would have banned all betting on high school or college sports, as well as the Olympics. How that would have happened if the bill passed, I have no idea.

Brownback received a letter signed by 65 college sports coaches supporting his bill.

In the press release that accompanied the announcement of this legislation, Brownback was quoted as saying, "I thank the coaches for their support. They know better than anyone the ill effects that gambling can have on student athletes. NO LESS THAN THE INTEGRITY OF AMATEUR ATHLETICS IS AT STAKE, and this legislation is a step in the right direction."

I supplied the capitals, if anyone was wondering.

Okay, let’s talk about Jamar Hornsby, who by all accounts is a tremendous athlete, one of the best defensive backs to come out of high school – just the kind of player who could help a coach get a big raise at the end of a season.

Hornsby’s past was colorful, to say the least. He was recruited by the University of Florida (+185 to win the national title at BetOnline) and Urban Meyer, who likes to get raises (we’ll get to that in a moment), either ignored or didn’t bother to check on what were undoubtedly some major character flaws on the part of his blue-chipper. What eventually happened was one of the creepiest things I’ve heard: two years ago, Hornsby stole a credit card off a teammate’s girlfriend who had just died in a motorcycle accident and proceeded to run up about $3000 of charges on it before he got caught. For Meyer, who has had more players arrested than the Cowboys of the 90’s (which is a lot), consorting with criminals may have been nothing new, but even this had to strike him as a bit bizarre.

He let Hornsby go, at which point he was scooped up by some mercenary coach at East Mississippi Community College, where if he committed any crimes, he was at least not caught.

That brought him to the attention of the Ole Miss Rebels (+3000 to win the national title at BetOnline), who, wanting a winning football team like everyone else, decided to forget about all the creepiness and sign him anyway. They have no one to blame but themselves for what happened next.

Back in March, this particular criminal thug, along with some of his criminal thug friends, decided to grab someone out of their car in a McDonald’s drive-through lane, then proceeded to rob him and beat the hell out of him, allegedly with brass knuckles (that’s been denied; they probably threw them away).

Would it be any surprise that one of the 65 coaches who signed the letter supporting Brownback’s bill was Houston Nutt? He was then the football coach at Arkansas but has since come over to Ole Miss and practically tripped over himself when it came to getting into bed with the criminal thug so he could win another football game or two.

Nutt, who apparently had been stickler for "integrity" back in 2000, knew exactly what happened at that McDonald’s. He saw the police report, he read eyewitness accounts. Yet for the sake of winning another football game or two he wasn’t going to budge one inch until he saw an indictment. He was perfectly happy to have the criminal thug running around loose on campus, representing the athletic department, free to rob an unsuspecting student or beat someone half to death – all the while probably hoping the thug’s trial could be delayed so that he could insert him in the lineup this season.

Innocent until proven guilty? Absolutely, but this isn’t a courtroom. It’s an athletic program at what is supposedly an institution for higher learning. You err on the side of caution for the sake of the actual students – you know, the ones who don’t carry brass knuckles around to defend themselves. That kid should have been sent home.

Finally, when the felony criminal assault indictment was handed down on July 31, Nutt washed his hands of the criminal thug Hornsby, dismissing him with the prepared line, "I am releasing Jamar Hornsby and he will not be a member of our football team." Of course he did – when he found out it would be very unlikely Hornsby could help his football team this year.

Let’s hope the criminal thug doesn’t see daylight for a while, but if he does, there is no doubt in my mind that the next coach who takes a chance on this athlete, probably at the Division 1-AA level, will talk about how the incident was "blown out of proportion" and how "everyone deserves a second chance." That’s because, truth be told, most coaches are whores, without any regard for dignity or honesty or decency or, that’s right, the "integrity of college athletics."

You know what they care about? Money. Everything else can take a back seat.

To them, this isn’t about education. It’s not about "building character." It is about nothing but business, and that is no surprise.

As people involved with the gambling industry, we treat it the same way ourselves; when we engage college athletics as a component of our business, remember that THEY created that template, not us. If you run into some NCAA-type that wants to talk about the "integrity of college athletics," tell him to get lost and go climb back under a rock.

"In other news," as they say, Meyer just received an extension to his contract at Florida, worth a total of $24 million over six years. That constitutes a raise of $750,000 per annum. According to Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley: "We are proud he is our coach and we appreciate all that he has done for the Gators."

Forty-four wins. Two national championships.

Twenty-five player arrests…..and counting.

I guess the message is clear – you don’t get there with Dudley Do-Right. You’ll get there much quicker – and become a pillar of the community – with Dudley Do-Wrong.

So calling all hypocrites – you need to just shut up about gambling.