CBS’ Gregg Doyel Weighs In On Pitino

Carl H | August 13, 2009 | 1 Comment

To read the entire article, go HERE. Otherwise here are some excerpts:

“…Pitino’s contract has all sorts of clauses that could allow Louisville to fire him. There is the matter of “employee’s dishonesty with Employer” and “acts of moral depravity” in addition to “disparaging media publicity … that damages the good name and reputation” of Louisville.

Taken one by one:

If Pitino lied to Ramsey a few months ago, well, he has given Ramsey the legal excuse to fire him. A lie that big, to your employer, probably should get you fired. So I couldn’t argue that.

But that garbage about moral depravity or disparaging publicity? Complete crap. Having an affair isn’t moral depravity. It’s life. Unless Louisville wants to be on the record as saying roughly half of the American population is morally depraved. If so, Louisville should put its morals where its mouth is and make that position clear on future fund-raising letters to alumni. The school wouldn’t raise 20 bucks.

This isn’t Alabama football coach Mike Price making an ass of himself at a strip club and getting himself fired for cavorting with strippers. This isn’t Iowa State basketball coach Larry Eustachy making an ass of himself at a drunken college party, kissing up college girls and losing his job. This is a grown man (Pitino) and a grown woman (Sypher) doing what grown-ups sometimes do. In private. It went public only because she became a criminal, trying to extort money from Pitino. That’s not his fault.

An abortion, while objectionable to many people on ethical or religious grounds, isn’t “moral depravity” either. And as for bad publicity, well, look. Schools like to pretend the media doesn’t matter 98 percent of the time, so don’t turn around and use us to justify the firing of a basketball coach who had an affair. That’s weak. Be better than that, Louisville.

As for the rest of us, we need to be better than what we’ve been, too. The glee we take in the discovery that an immortal is just as human as the rest of us? It’s sickening. Jesus-preaching Josh Hamilton gets photographed with women and whipped cream and tongues everywhere. Roethlisberger and Bryant get accused of rape. Pitino has this scandal. And the haters line up. Someone falls down — and you kick.

Come on. Be better than that. This isn’t a sporting mistake. It isn’t a loss on the field or an NCAA violation or even a stupid quote to the media. This is real life stuff, and if you’re using it as a hammer to hit Pitino on the head, then you’re a bully.

And if Louisville tries to use this to fire Pitino, then Louisville is un-American. The school’s main color, however, is red. Maybe it could open a campus in Beijing.”

It appears this is all pretty much over with as Jurich has stated he backs Pitino “One Million Percent” and Louisville President James Ramsey has released a statement that Pitino is “our guy“.

Gary Parrish, also of CBSSports, takes a look at how this will affect Pitino in the future and in recruiting and takes a someone opposite stance than Doyel, stating that Larry Eustachy and Mike Price were removed from their jobs for less than what Pitino has done.