Culture of Power Fueled Mishandling of Scandal

I hereby pronounce Gary Barnett guilty of being ... a major-college football coach.

The University of Colorado reinstated Barnett last week after a fairly exhaustive inquiry proved he didn’t knowingly sanction the use of sex and alcohol to recruit football players.

What Barnett did do was use his power and prestige to micromanage a crisis with an iron hand, circumventing university procedure, believing he could handle turmoil in the football program better than any six-handicap athletic director or chancellor with a doctorate.

Big-time college coaches believe this is their birthright. It is the culture in which they live, prosper, teach, flail and fail.

At many schools, the head football coach is the most powerful man on campus, and he knows it.

The coach at Alabama may be the most powerful man in the state.

Coaches work on campus but really are independent, win-or-else contractors, making obscene gobs of money relative to others in education.

Unlike professors, coaches need 10 wins because they don’t get tenure.

It should come as no shock that scandals arise in this climate.

Coaches operate in the us-versus-them world. They build cocoons around their programs, isolate themselves from reality, close practices to the media and, above all else, desperately try to keep trouble contained.

It was easier in the old days.

Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden, the winningest coach in major college history, once pined about the days when a player arrest was a matter handled privately by the head coach and chief of police.

Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, who has dealt with his share of off-field incidents in recent years, used to get the first call from police whenever one of his players ran afoul of the law.

“I would go down and take him home,” Paterno recently told the Boston Globe. “Then I would kick him in the rear and run him until his tongue dragged.”

In that sense, Barnett is old school.

When he learned one of his players had called female kicker Katie Hnida a pejorative name, he did not report the incident as sexual harassment, as was required by school policy.

Instead, Barnett chewed out the player and made him do extra drills.

End of story. Case closed -- except it wasn’t.

We live in different times. Coaches can no longer plug every leak in a dam break. This is the Internet age, an era where one chat-room conversation can bring down a program.

There are no secrets anymore, no coach powerful enough to keep everything in house.

Gary Barnett, you are no Bear Bryant, although we’re not sure Bryant could be Bryant if he coached today.

Barnett’s biggest mistake in the Colorado mess was thinking he was big enough to handle it alone.

It is reasonable to conclude that, after a review of the facts, Barnett’s role in this nefarious affair did not rise to a level of impeachment. This would be a perfect time, however, for self-reflection and re-evaluation.

Barnett has saved his job for now but, as they say, be careful what you wish for.

He now must tether together a program coming off a 5-7 year, the worst of all his offenses, some think. He must reconstruct a program severely saddled by new recruiting restrictions, while competing in one of the nation’s toughest conferences.

Off the field, Barnett could not be any more under the microscope if he was a single-cell amoeba.

He says he’s up to the task.

Good luck and ... we’ll see.

* Five thoughts regarding the Lakers’ series against Minnesota.

1. Dear God: Please let this interminable, back-stabbing, infuriating championship season end so we can get to the important business of restructuring the franchise.

2. Who is Fred Hoiberg and how come the Lakers made him look like John Havlicek?

3. Given the Lakers needed Derek Fisher’s miracle shot in Game 5 to defeat San Antonio, maybe we should call this year’s team the Joyless Luck Club.

4. Phil Jackson is looking more and more like Col. Sanders.

5. The Lakers could be the first team in NBA history to stage their victory parade in 15 separate limos.

* Utah company markets scented bowling balls.

Some of the most popular fragrances on the pro tour include black cherry, cinnamon and licorice. Fragrances that aren’t selling as well include rosemary rental shoe fungal spray, Chanel (Lane) No. 5, thumbhole thyme and essence of ash tray.

* Russia’s Marat Safin drops his shorts during French Open match against Felix Mantilla.

“I felt like pulling my pants down,” Safin said. “What’s bad about it?”

You don’t get it, Marat. The French like pastries but not tennis tarts.

* During late-night stopover in Detroit, Angels place order for 240 hamburgers at White Castle restaurant.

Please tell me they all weren’t for Bartolo Colon.

* Angels sign outfielder Raul Mondesi.

Former Dodger manager Tom Lasorda used to say the guy was a five-tool player.

Given Mondesi’s reputation for disrupting clubhouses, the only tool I can think of at the moment is a monkey wrench.

* Former jockey writes song about Smarty Jones.

“Smarty Jones, yeah,” the chorus goes, “Do. Do. Do.”

Sorry, when I think of horses and “Do Do” I think of shovels and stable boys.

* NFL says it wants to place a franchise in Los Angeles by the 2008 season.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said he now considers it his mission to put a team in L.A. before Americans put a man on Mars.