For Gary Pinkel at Missouri, an Evolution Followed by a Revolution

We are at WAR. Instead of a College Football Draft, these somewhat healthy young men should be being drafted into the Armed Services. Life is no longer normal -- in any sense of the word -- here in the United States. If we are serious about maintaining some semblance of democracy, freedom, society, culture, and civilization, we must stop playing games and fight for these things. Life changed in WWI and WWII and frivolous things were put "on hold." All sports, College, Pro, amateur, etc. must be ceased in order to direct resources of spirit, soul, heart, mind and education to fighting and winning a War against those who are fiercely intent on destroying civilization as we know it. There is no dishonour in putting our daily lives towards the pursuit of maintaining those daily lives in the future. If we are to be serious about our freedoms the game=playing must stop until the War is fought and won.

I don't see any mention of the several rape scandals involving U. of Missouri football players, such as Coach Pinkel letting a star running back continue playing after the first sexual assault accusation against him until he was finally charged with two more assaults on women two seasons later. This is all documented in the 2013 book "They System."

This was a major mistake in judgment. Football teams and coaches should stay out of these types of issues on campuses. There is not enough space here to explain why what they did is so wrong headed. The NCAA should step in and have some say-so in this as well.

So, "Pinkel, the Tigers' football coach, had to side with his players." No he did not. He was an employee of the university and required to behave like an adult. An adult would not have been in "solidarity" with his players. He's their coach, not their buddy.

I was a sophomore in college in Ohio when the murders happened at Kent State in May 1970. What happened at Kent State had a major impact on many people and especially the students in Ohio colleges at the time.

I applaud the coach for standing with his players and I wish him the best of luck as he fights cancer.

I am sorry that Pinkel has cancer, but his actions were wrong. What he did will lead to football teams everywhere trying to have their views prevail over those of others. Football players do not have any political or social skills any more than Hollywood actors. The whole thing was disgusting and will have bad results.

It is very easy to find numerous media and police reports of Coach Pinkel's role in the case of the Univ. of Miss. swim team member who was raped by 2 members of Coach Pinkel's football team. The rape victim later committed suicide. Pinkel took many steps to deflect the investigation away from his players. It's all in the reports.

Pinkel has always supported his players. In whatever they do.

I'm surprised this article did not even mention Pinkel's and University of Missouri's failure to protect women from its own football team.

http://www.espn.co.uk/espn/otl/story/_/id/10323102/university-missouri-o...

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/11394655/missouri-officials-say-k...

Now...imagine if the players at all the top NCAA colleges threatened to sit out unless paid for their services. THAT would be something.

On one hand, Pinkel never genuinely supported the causes of his LGBT or African American players. He only cared about winning football games. This is obvious based on his failure to admit of his white privilege during a recent interview. Resigning was the right decision. On the other hand, there is no doubt that athletic boosters and university donors (who are primarily white male conservatives) wanted Pinkel out based on his public support of LGBT and African American players. In that case, it looks they forced him to resign.

Bravo to the coach -- and hope his departure does not silence his important voice. He may have changed history for the better -- on and off campuses. And protecting his team and his players for their good acts and for their support of equality and fairness and justice is his job and he did it well.

This was an easy piece to write about a man who has just resigned from the one of the premier football coaching jobs in America.

I have three questions to ask: What did he know? When did he know it? Why did he think it was OK?

Let start with the last question. I can't be bothered to look up this guy's salary, but my guess is he was paid handsomely by Mizzou. While he collected the salary and endorsements, his players got nothing. So before we brand him as some kind of moral Statue of Liberty, let's understand how he was able to get past the absolute obvious.

The what did he know and when did he know it questions are answered pretty easily. Did this guy ever read a credible newspaper, or like Sarah Palin would he have trouble answering that question? It's not any secret that investigative reporting has revealed the widespread evidence of CTE in football players in high school, college, and the NFL.

To pretend he didn't know those things is to pretend that the sun doesn't rise in the East.

I wish him and his family well as he fights cancer.

But protecting his players? He might have done so by inviting nationally sanctioned CTE researchers into his office to give the facts to these young kids. That would have been an act of real moral courage.