Former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer says he's moved on. He doesn't dwell on his decision that stunned Sooner nation and crippled the football program 20 years ago Thursday when he suddenly resigned.OU was in a heap of trouble back then, with five players being arrested on various felony charges and the program had been slapped with three years of NCAA probation for recruiting violations. Who could forget a tearful Switzer admitting on June 19, 1989, that too much had transpired for him to continue on as the Sooners coach?
For the next 10 years, OU lost its dominant identity, appearing as a shell of the program that had won three national titles in 16 seasons under Switzer. The veteran coach would go on to win a Super Bowl as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, but it wasn't long before his outlaw reputation caught up with him in Dallas, making it impossible to continue on. The Sooners, meanwhile, were stuck in mediocrity.
Switzer, 71, has remained visible and has even been embraced in Norman in recent years. He has several successful businesses. But what's sad is Switzer still doesn't get it. He seems to still blame the actions of his players, which included accusations of a rape, a shooting and quarterback Charles Thompson selling cocaine to an undercover FBI agent, for his decision to step down.
Switzer doesn't seem to take responsibility for his part in the problems at OU and the culture that engulfed the program. It was recruiting violations that landed OU on probation.
"Coaches pay a tremendous price for the actions and behavior of their athletes," Switzer said to the Associated Press. "We are held accountable for their actions. That's what the media and administration do. Is it fair? You judge it."
The long and short answer is yes. Switzer knew he needed a certain kind of athlete to contend for and win those coveted national title and that's what he set out to attract.
Switzer was larger than life and seemed above the law when he was at the helm. It seems only natural that some of his players would pick up on that.
The program struggled through a decade of losing under three coaches as direct result of the mess Switzer left behind. It wasn't until athletic director Joe Castiglione and football coach Bob Stoops came along that the OU program moved far enough away from Switzer and reclaimed its rightful place as one of the powerhouse programs in college football.
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Like wow man, Stoop's program isnt any cleaner than Switzer's.
I am not quite sure what the point of this column is. Was Switzer a large part of the problem? Of course. Were OU officials and alumni happy to look the other way as long as the team was winning national championships? Of course. Is this the first time something like this has happened -- and will it be the last? Of course not. Look at what good ol' dadgummit Bobby Bowden has let happen at FSU. And he's supposedly this great Christian, not a mercenary jackal like a lot of the others. On the other side, the service academies have high standards but are no longer part of the football equation. Notre Dame can't keep up anymore because of its high academic standards. Are ND fans happy?
I have never quite figured out why the best athletes are usually dumbasses in the classroom and very often very dubious human beings on the streets outside. For some reason or other the ghetto seems to produce these mega-athletes. (I am not so obtuse that I can't understand the dog-eat-dog hunger and desperation that exists there, and which in turn creates fighters and ball players, etc, who see other routes to success barred to them, but who can punch a guy's lights out or slam dunk a basketball !).
But at the same time a lot of them are nothing more than criminals. That's all they know, and bringing them to some elite university isn't going to change that. At least not overnight. These guys arrive from the Hood as predators, and predators they remain.
They DO bear some responsibility. They are being given a free ride but they don't take advantage of it, and most of the time this is inevitable, because they don't arrive on campus with the right tools. Moreover, they all seem to have an enormous sense of "privilege". And most of them, when they finally get nailed doing something illegal, try to play the race card. "Well, I was singled out because I am Black." Never mind all the white pussy that was thrown their way by various boosters who wanted to keep them nice and satisfied during intervals between leading the fast break down the court or field. No, they are VICTIMS.
I live in Europe now but I still follow the American sports scene, especially college football. I like to think I'm a little more objective now than I was when I used to live and die on the success of certain teams.
I am not the smartest guy in the world, but I can see the situation clearly enough to say this: With regard to college sports, America has created a mega-mega dollar enterprise based on using the bodies of dominant Alpha-type teenagers, and out of signing up hired guns as coaches --professional mercenaries, essentially -- coaches who are either drill sergeants or Slick Willies of one kind or another. They hire a sports Godfather to run the program and load their teams up with athletically gifted goons who never were intended to become part of the true educational business of the university and then the idea is simply to go out and win football games...all this while maintaining a Mr Clean image. Americans often seem incapable of separating "image" from "reality." Because America cannot live with certain realities.All the "character counts", role model, and religious bullshit that seems to infiltrate every American breath, seems to be the only way that Americans can forgive themselves for being so insatiably greedy, and so Americans have to act like they are "troubled", offended, and otherwise amazed by these very predictable outcomes.
Really, I am more pissed off (I am not going to say "offended" because polically correct Americans are always getting "offended" by something or other), no, I am more pissed off by all the phony moralizing and feigned shock that comes after the jig is up (so that expression makes me an official racist, right?), than I am when these coaches and players do exactly what they are expected to do: which is ANYTHING, especially Cheat, in order to win. And I haven't even touches on steroids yet...
So to conclude. Yes, of course, Switzer should be held responsible. But so should his thug players and the mafia-mentality boosters and aumni.
stoops isnt any cleaner than Switzer?
not sure what you're smoking, but maybe you can grab your time machine and go back to 1989, and sell it- you'll be a millionaire.
Icky are you saying that all these top Black recruits out of Texas that sign with Oklahoma have a burning desire to live in Norman? What have you been smoking?
Great column from a guy who used to fall asleep covering games for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Enrico, I don't think the "ghetto"--or, for all your whining about political correctness, to put it less PC than you did since it's clear what you mean, the fact that a lot of football players are black--is the reason why many athletes are underachievers in the classroom or "dubious human beings" A lot of white athletes, or ones that are not from the "ghetto," get into trouble, don't care about academics, think they're above the authority or are just otherwise @ssholes. The problem is the way EVERYONE rolls out the red carpet for athletes and basically gives anyone in athletics reason to believe that they CAN do whatever they want and get away with it all because they win games...as this blog post suggests about Switzer and the OU program under his reign. So, yeah, I'd say you're "obtuse" and, as far as racist, probably no more so than the average non-black person when talking about troublesome athletes (which isn't saying much).
I was a die hard Barry fan and i truly miss the old Sooners!!!!!!
It's 5:27 pm...and OU still sucks.
b.s. barry is still the king. read into this story what you will. this great coach of a great program is guilty of no wrong doing. sooner haters are still around. from the time of bennie, bud, barry, and, bob. some people just cant stand the success. 7ntl championships. 47 games without a loss. ou has lost more ntl championships than most schools get to play for.. hell -- ou has lost more ntl championship this decade than most schools get to play for. so sooner haters we are used to it. it is ok lol. go sooners beat texas.... for beating texas is more important tha all the ntl championship games combined. texas is worthey.
Barry is/was and always will be the Sooner God. He's at just about every big game, brought in for "inspiration" and probably has forgotten more than Stoops will ever know. I'm from New York and I tuned in to OU football in 1975 and this guy knew how to win the big one. First OU game I ever saw (on TV) was OU 14 Michigan 6. I'm not knocking Stoops, he is quite successful, but Barry had a "certain something" that Stoops just doesnt have and no way does Barry lose 3 shots at the national title. He knew how to step on the opposition's neck when it counted. Go Sooners 2009. Run the table!!