 Northwestern
athletic scandal: ‘The buck stops here’ isn’t enough to stop the rot (Above) The Northwestern
University “Wildcat” Marching Band performs at the 2005 Sun Bowl on December
30, 2005 (Mlehrer/Wikimedia Commons). Every business is going to face
unexpected problems, challenges, and disappointments. What matters more than
anything is how you, as the leader, respond. By Howard Tullman 23-Jul-23 – Watching the administrators at Northwestern
University shimmy and shake and try to scramble their way out of the worst
athletic scandal in the school’s history looks like just as fruitless an
exercise as sitting quietly in the stands at any typical NU football game on
a sunny Saturday afternoon in Evanston as the Wildcats get their asses kicked
for the zillionth time by a bunch of oversized Big 10 giants from any of the
other teams in the league that prize steroids over scholarship. The NU team
lost 11 out of 12 games last season. We all knew that the
fans and the players were all gluttons for punishment – why else would we
keep showing up to watch the weekly shambles and slaughter – but we didn’t
know that – in addition to the on-field beatings – dozens of the players were
also hazed, harassed, and humiliated by the older players – encouraged,
aided, and abetted by the coaching staff – in practices, in the locker rooms,
and at training camp. Anyone who thinks for a
minute that the players decided on their own – year after year – to punish
the newer players in darkened locker rooms for perceived playing mistakes or
just for the hell of it is a bigger moron and just as complicit as the
assistant coaches, trainers, and other enablers who let this crap go on – on
a regular basis, year-in and year-out – without ever speaking up. Why the
school thinks that any of these losers should be retained is beyond me. And, of course, the abuse wasn’t limited to the gridiron. The baseball team, the cheerleaders, and probably every squad except the chess club paid the price and suffered at the hands of a bunch of testosterone-maddened and insecure scumbags and bullies who ran these programs and who violated every bit of trust, faith, and confidence that the players, their parents, and the public had placed in them for decades. NU’s president tried at
first to bury the whole thing – even after a six-month investigation – with a
despicable two-week suspension of the head coach accompanied by a bland and
clearly mistaken statement asserting that no one on the coaching staff – up
to and including the head coach – knew anything about what was going on. This contention was so
patently stupid and unbelievable on its face that the statement needed to go
on to admit that there was more than ample opportunity, evidence, and reasons
for all of the coaches to have discovered what was happening right under
their noses – and obviously with their blessings – but somehow, they all
missed it. These clowns were apparently more Inspector Clouseau types rather
than Columbo types. My guess is that NU will have to eat their words and try
to get out from under this obvious lie as the evidence grows and more
credible student athletes come forward. But the Daily
Northwestern, the school’s student-run newspaper, wasn’t buying this pile of
baloney and published lengthy articles with student-athlete disclosures about
the true state of affairs. Somewhat surprisingly, given the arrogance,
obliviousness, and reluctance of university administrators worldwide to ever
concede error, NU’s president shortly after the paper’s disclosures was
shamed to his senses, and fired the head coach. He seized upon the old and
tired rationale that “the buck stopped with the boss” even as the University
continued to suggest that the coach knew nothing and the University retained
all of the other assistant coaches and promoted one to be interim head coach. The lawsuits have begun
to mount – there are at least a dozen plaintiffs and three or four suits
already on file – and the daily damage to the reputation of the University,
the growing scale and scope of the scandal as it spreads through other parts
of the athletic program, the almost immediate impact of the recruiting of new
players, and – interestingly enough – the prospect that the scandal may
impair or shut down the school’s grandiose plans to rebuild the football
stadium are all just accelerating parts of the debacle. The fact that the head
coach was only part of the way through a massive ten-year contract that the
University may have to honor and pay out is just icing on the greed-laced
cake that treats these coaches as economically-critical supermen. But the most important
lesson for every entrepreneur trying to build his or her business isn’t
simply that hazing is horrible. Or even that it’s sickening and sad that so
many people in responsible positions knew what was going on, claim they were
unhappy with it, and still did nothing. Every business is going
to face unexpected problems, challenges to the institution’s integrity and
core principles, disappointments from people you trusted and counted on, and
issues that threaten to impact the business far more broadly than the simple
unfortunate circumstances which may be immediately at hand. What matters more
than anything is how you, as the leader, respond. So far, everything Northwestern’s leadership has done after the fact is wrong. Needless to say, they also share boatloads of blame for years of facilitating and accommodating chubby old men, alums, and donors fondling cheerleaders in skimpy uniforms at pre- and post-game tailgate and cocktail events. Just part of the job, I guess. And frankly they still are doing a half-assed job by trying to keep the majority of the people around who were absolutely part of the problem. They need to dump the
whole football coaching group, maybe give some thought to cancelling the
season, get some fresh new people into the job, and bite the bullet by
bagging the Big 10 and playing in a group or division where their players
have half a chance to win a few games and won’t have to take the losses out
on their peers. When – not if – you face a similar major and maybe
existential problem and risk like this in your company, there are a few basic
rules to keep in mind on how to proceed: 1 Blaming the big guy is never enough if the system
stinks Big deal – NU got around
to belatedly firing the top guy after they were shamed into it and they think
that through that simple gesture he’s going to absorb all the blame for the
problems even after they’ve given him a complete pass and claimed that he
actually knew nothing. He built the outhouse that is your football program
over dozens of seasons and to think for a second that pushing him out without
completely cleaning house is going to offer any comfort or consolation to any
of the victims or convince anyone that the University is really committed to
change is wishful and foolish thinking. And to be clear, the
head coach is not even the biggest guy – they need to dump the Athletic
Director as well. 2 Slicing the salami instead of making deep cuts is
stupid Half-assed measures,
slow steps, and hoping that the world will quickly lose interest in your
problems are just as painful and destructive approaches as making a series of
small layoffs instead of biting the bullet one time, digging deep, and
cutting to the bone so that you’re in a position to start effectively
rebuilding from a solid foundation. Northwestern – whether they admit it
today or not – needs to promptly dump all the guys involved with the football
and baseball debacles from top to bottom and not try to pretend that they
were ignorant or innocent. Waiting for the “new”
guys who will eventually be hired to do the dirty work and cutting later down
the line just delays the process, destroys any credibility that might have
remained, and sends the wrong message to the victims that instead of fixing
things, you’re trying to gloss over them and hope they disappear. 3 Start immediately to build for the future and
forget defending the past There’s no explanation,
excuse, or justification for the flat-out abuse and other disgusting
behaviors that the coaches and program administrators allowed to go on for
years unchecked, uninterrupted, and likely encouraged. It’s a complete waste
of time to even try to say that it goes on everywhere, that boys will be
boys, that it’s just locker room horsing around, etc. As we’ve seen, it only
ultimately serves to justify and encourage more outrageous actions and
behaviors from the same bad actors. The future starts every
morning and each day you spend looking backwards is another day that you fall
further behind in fixing the problem and building a firm foundation for the
future. 4 Don’t leave anything important to the lawyers There are likely to be
threats of lawsuits and plenty of advice from counsel, but – whether the
audience is clients, customers, parents and students, or the whole world –
practically speaking, matters of reputation are decided in the court of
public opinion, not some dusty courtroom, and having your lawyers speaking to
the press for you with a bunch of denials and “no comments” is the most
certain way to put your worst foot forward. In the attention economy
of today, everyone expects answers and, if you don’t get out in front with a
comprehensive story, you can be sure that the vacuum will be filled by media
trolls and anyone with an adverse position or a hostile agenda. Silence is no
longer golden, it’s an invitation to a further mess. |