Column: Like it or not, MacIntyre not cutting corners

There is no punchline, no joke or sarcastic quip suitable for what we’ve seen transpire at Baylor University in recent days, months, and even years. What do you call the disregard–no, the purposeful dismissal–shown by university officials towards accusations of sexual violations committed against female students by Bears football players?

Other than criminal. Other than evil. Other than vile.

It wasn’t long ago that accusations of sexual misconduct surfaced on a grand scale in Boulder. It wasn’t long ago that a football coach was unable to overcome the reputation that select incidents and individuals, including at times himself, bestowed on the program. In some ways, no one since that time has been able to truly navigate the minefield needed to be crossed in order to get Colorado football back to where it once was, before the scandal, before the misconduct, before the sanctions, and identity crisis.

Entering his fourth year at the helm, head coach Mike MacIntyre looks as close to doing so as anyone has.

Facing a rebuild job as serious as the one in Boulder, any one of the three head coaches since Gary Barnett couldn’t have been blamed for cutting corners. The world of college football is more demanding now than ever, with the decimals in television and other endorsement contracts moving further and further to the right. Sometimes, one step in cutting corners is recruiting athletes that come with, shall we say, baggage.

In a story published by CBS in 2011, looking at some of the country’s best football programs will reveal just how much baggage programs are willing to take on.

What we found was striking: on those Top 25 teams, more than 200 players were either arrested or cited by the police a total of 277 times.

Overall, 7 percent of players – 1 out of every 14 – in our single-season sample had a record.

Now, football players aren’t the only ones getting into trouble with the law. Young people all around the country, both in college and out of it, make stupid and often life-altering decisions in their late-teen, early 20s years of life.  This writer, the one that so often speaks about keeping it real and all that, was very lucky to avoid more serious trouble during that same time period. Yes, I made incredibly dumb decisions. Many of us have. Not all of us, however, experience our college years under the same microscope as college athletes. The first time a police officer stopped me on the side of University Avenue in Boulder, carrying a beer can as a bright-eyed college freshman, he let me go with a warning and the promise that if I didn’t empty the can, I’d be tossed in the can. Had I been a CU football player, my name would have likely been in the next morning’s paper. That’s life in Boulder, like it or not.

I have been given second chances in my life, despite my past. It can be understood then, why MacIntyre would also issue second-chances to some of his players who have made mistakes, including serious ones.

Defensive lineman Samson Kafovalu has had three separate incidents with Boulder police, while being given another chance by MacIntyre after the first two. There were those who called MacIntyre a hypocrite, unable to live up to his own billing as a man of character and discipline. There were those who praised MacIntyre for keeping Kafovalu connected to the program, mainly due to the young man’s ability on the football field. Most of all though, MacIntyre backed up all of his talk of needing to be a father figure to the young men entrusted to him and his staff, a role that has no clear cut definition and comes with no printed set of guidelines. When fellow defensive lineman Josh Tupou faced assault charges against fellow students, he was suspended for a year but kept in connection with the program.

Let’s be very honest here: Sometimes, college students drink alcohol and when that happens, fights have a tendency to start. That doesn’t excuse anyone’s actions, but let’s not pretend there’s no difference between a college fight and what has been going on in Waco.

In Waco, head coach Art Briles, his players, and the administration acted with impunity under one guise. They were winning a lot of football games and making the university a lot of money. Baylor players were not just getting into drunken college fights when someone says something stupid and everyone loses their cool. No, they were not. Their actions, the systematic culture of rape that was allowed to exists on campus, go beyond my understanding of what anyone would do simply to win. Beyond what someone would do to a woman, to a classmate, to a human. As the son of a beautiful mother, the brother of two beautiful sisters, and the partner to a beautiful woman, I’m ashamed to see what men like these are capable of. I’m ashamed that men in powerful positions have consistently, over time, allowed it to happen. I’m ashamed that we’ve all allowed it to happen.

Now, three players recruited by MacIntyre had indeed gone beyond what can be passed off as simple college-aged, foolish behavior.

This offseason, Nathaniel Robbins was arrested and charged with 18 counts that include assault charges stemming from a domestic dispute with his female partner and her female roommates. Robbins was immediately dismissed. N.J. Falo and Donald Gordon were arrested in April and face charges of second-degree burglary, theft, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and second-degree trespassing. Both players were suspended indefinitely.

The truth is, the abilities one has on the football field–in the classroom, on the basketball court, or in the biology lab–has no bearing on whether or not a second chance should be given. It is the content of one’s character that determines how difficult, long, and arduous the road to redemption may be. Sometimes coaches ignore that. Sometimes coaches misjudge. Sometimes we all misjudge.

Faced with the most pressure-filled season yet, MacIntyre would have gotten a pass from many had he sacrificed his own core values, the same ones many of us would hope our friends and children have, in order to win quicker in Boulder. MacIntyre could have transfers riddled with criminal records or volatile relationships with women. He could have taken more than his fair and healthy share of chances on high school athletes that showed little regard for their futures with their behavior. But he didn’t.

That doesn’t always guarantee the result so many people want and so many people think he and his staff deserve, but if there is any justice left in college football it will. Winning football games is the most important aspect of MacIntyre’s job, in many respects. Even if every player under his guidance graduated with a 4.0 GPA and not a single football player was arrested, it would be his record of wins and losses that ultimately carried the most weight on his job security.

Those wins haven’t come about as frequently as he or anyone else would prefer. Perhaps they won’t come this season either, opening up the chance that his time in Boulder may be done. But, there’s no contract worth selling out one’s character. There is no win total, no bowl game, no Heisman Trophy, no Nike deal that justifies the endangerment of students on campus, particularly female students. Nothing in this world can remove the stain, much less justify it, of what has happened at Baylor from those involved. Society may well offer redemption, but this writer is a bit more stingy with his forgiveness.

Thankfully, MacIntyre hasn’t cut any corners in his journey to bring Colorado football back to where it once was. Like it or not, doing things the right way isn’t just some excuse. After what we’ve seen coming out of Waco, it’s a requirement.