[NU Sports] McGee Fire or Not?

[cherron604 at aol.com]

I am not sure what the signed codes are at NU, but I know that at a number of Chicago suburban high schools, athletes sign pledges that they won't engage in certain kinds of conduct, and those that violate these pledges (i.e. not necessarily arrested for an alcohol-related offense, but perhaps pictured on Myspace.com engaging in alcohol use, etc.) are frequently kicked-off of their teams - several South suburban high school were impacted by these suspensions this past season.
 
If the high schools are encouraging zero-tolerance, can we expect less from the most prestigious universities in the country ?
 
Chuck Herron   Tech '85 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: prplehaze at insightbb.com
To: wseliger at aol.com
Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Sent: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 10:45 PM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] McGee Fire or Not?


I'm not getting into what John meant or didn't mean, nor do I particularly care how many more people may die in drunk driving incidents or from drug related murders in the inner cities of our country. I do however care about the message that our coaching staff is delivering to our football players about personal responsibility and making the correct choices, something about which they preach time and time again. Is that message not diluted considerably by the retention of someone, without at least some serious repercussions beyond those applied by the legal system? I am also concerned about the image projected in the living rooms of recruits across the country as our coaches sit down and try to sell this program as the peerless academic and football program we know it to be, but which is diminished and subjected to negative recruiting due to the actions of a member of the coaching staff. Folks, it's tough enough out there for Fitz due to his age and our standards without having to deal with this. 
 
I have seen the impact that a DUI conviction can have on an assistant coach's career, and it's not pretty. It can become a negative factor in advancement and it at least one case, cost one basketball assistant I know, a head coaching job. Fair?, probably not, but that is reality in college sports and reality is what we should be dealing in. Should McGee be fired? Probably not, but he should be disciplined in a way that is at least public to the football team so they will understand that Fitz and the coaches are sincere when they talk about personal responsibility and self - discipline. 
 
Mark 
 
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