Sep 4th, 2009 | 11:54 pm |
By Travis Duncan
“You can never say never, but as long as Tom Jurich is here as the athletic director, I will always be here,” Rick Pitino said with a slight smile upon signing a contract extension in 2007. “This is where I want to live. This is where I want to coach.”
On Aug. 12, Pitino said “as long as they will have me, as long as they’ll have me, I’m going to coach here.”
Pitino uttered those words in a public apology, one day after the Louisville Courier-Press published a report detailing that Pitino admitted to police he had sex with a woman named Karen Sypher in 2003.
Why didn’t the University of Louisville censor Rick Pitino? They did say Pitino made “errors in judgement” but why didn’t they come out and say this is wrong, you don’t cheat on your wife and then try to cover it up.
“”He’s clearly made errors in judgment that have come under intense public scrutiny. We can’t ignore these errors in judgment, and they have saddened and disappointed me. As we try to teach our students, when you make a mistake, you admit it and right it as best you can. Coach has done that today,” Louisville President James Ramsey said in a statement.
Was Ramsey’s statement a public censor or just public relations fluff?
“I considered a wide range of options in dealing with Coach Pitino’s errors in judgment and their impact on our university,” Ramsey wrote in the memo to faculty and staff. “In the end, I told Coach Pitino that he needed to publicly apologize to the university community for his actions. He has done that.”
The Athletic Director, Tom Jurich on the other hand was more forgiving. “As I said yesterday, Coach Pitino has been truthful with us about this matter all along and we stand by him and his family during this process. He’s been diligent in his work as our men’s basketball coach, despite a number of false rumors, reported inaccuracies and the difficulties this personal matter that happened six years ago has placed on him and his family. I’m a million percent behind him,” Jurich said in a statement.
In publicly standing behind Pitino, Louisville felt that it would not be a significant public relations risk to keep their basketball coach. They calculate they can survive the storm long enough for the Cardinal to clinch a spot in the NCAA tournament.
But the media isn’t required to stand behind Pitino. The local Louisville media doesn’t issue statements after scandals, it reports them.
“Everything that’s been printed, everything that’s been reported, everything that’s been breaking in the news on the day Ted Kennedy died is 100 percent a lie, a lie,” Pitino said.
“Enough’s enough, everybody is tired of it,” Pitino said. “We need to get on with the important things in life like the economy and really some crucial things in life like basketball.”
Pitino went on to say that it hasn’t affected recruiting one bit, “we’ll still bring in top ten guys,” he said. Which we can assume Pitino meant is the more important things he would like the media to focus on.
Many would argue that Pitino put his family in that position, after 35 years as a coach he understands what is means to be a public figure. But, does the Louisville media decide what is news or is news defined by what the people of Louisville want to know. If so, the local media was simply reporting the news and Pitino didn’t like it.
“It has been pure hell for her and my family,” Pitino said.
Imagine a brightly lit newsroom, editors and writers standing in deep thought, suddenly the person in charge stands up and says “Coach just said ‘enough’s enough’ and by golly he’s right! We’re not going to touch this story until Karen Sypher is locked up!”. And they strattle off to lunch, and all is right in the bluegrass state.
If that had happened, would it ease concerns that some prominent donors may think twice before making contributions to the athletics program? Would Mrs. Pitino be better off? Would it prompt the citizens of Louisville to refocus on more important things? Would Rick Pitino be able to sleep easier?
