New York Times Column: “If this evidence does become public — the N.C.A.A. has vowed to appeal — I think it will scandalize fans who have long been led to believe that N.C.A.A. investigators are the “good guys” trying to catch the “bad guys” in college sports.”
Is the Joe Nocera talking about the NCAA draconian penalties dealt out to Penn State University based upon the superficial and now disreputable Freeh Report, without conducting hearings or its own investigation?
Let’s sample a little further:
“The evidence is simply beyond the pale. To find [Todd McNair, 47, an African-American University of Southern California assistant football coach] guilty of unethical conduct, the enforcement staff had to put words into Lake’s mouth that he never uttered. It botched its questioning of McNair — and then, realizing its mistake, chose not to re-interview him. One enforcement official sent a back-channel e-mail describing McNair as ‘a lying, morally bankrupt criminal.’ And that’s just for starters.”
…At one point during the hearing, the judge told the N.C.A.A.’s lawyer that he well understood why the organization would want to keep evidence away from the public; if he were the N.C.A.A., he would want to keep it from the public, too.”
And for those of us who hope that justice will be done, “About two weeks ago, Frederick Shaller, a superior court judge in Los Angeles, issued a tentative ruling, saying that McNair ‘has shown a probability of prevailing on the defamation claims.’ ”
This touches upon two of our favorite crusades:
1) The N.C.A.A. improperly penalized Penn State University for acts by a retired professor (who happened to be a former football coach) on the grounds that the administration had not done the job that the local police department, child welfare department, former district attorney and former attorney general, now, governor of the state, had failed to do.
2) That Lancaster Newspapers cannot in truth treat the dismissal of the libel and defamation suit brought by former county commissioner Molly Henderson as vindication: “Because he is a public figure, McNair had to show that the N.C.A.A. had acted with ‘actual malice’ — that is, it wrote things in the full knowledge that they were false. As any journalist knows, it is very difficult for a public figure to sue for defamation — precisely because actual malice is so hard to prove.”
