COLUMN: Barnett should be fired, without question
“It’s a guy’s sport,” Colorado Head Coach Gary Barnett said concerning Katie Hnida, after Hnida came out and said she was sexually abused to the point of rape within the Colorado football team. “[Players] felt like Katie was forced on them. It was obvious Katie was not very good. She was awful. You know what guys do? They respect your ability. You can be 90 years old, but if you can go out and play, they’ll respect you.”
According to the Rocky Mountain News (rockymountainnews.com), Barnett’s comments came in response to a reporter’s question of why Hnida was not well-liked by teammates
If you are thinking of becoming a head coach someday, and one of your players ends up getting physically abused, I would recommend not using the players athletic fallacies as grounds for them being inhumanely mistreated.
Barnett has been accused of being shady, deceiving and corrupt during his career as a football coach. I am pretty convinced of all that, but one thing is for sure. Barnett is not a smart man. The way he answered the aforementioned question says he believes that if you can’t perform on the field, then you don’t acount for much.
Hearing how Barnett seems to care so much about his team’s success yet so little about his actual players, one man comes to my mind.
Uday Hussein, Sadaam’s eldest son, was formerly the Olympic chair for Iraq. It was later discovered that Uday directed extreme physical punishment and torture on athletes if they did not perform up to his expectations.
Hussein was obviously a far more corrupt and evil man than Barnett, but the pair’s principles in their administrative endeavors were roughly the same. Both believed that if an athlete is subpar, they don’t deserve just treatment.
Essentially, Barnett admitted that he has less regard for players that aren’t as capable as others, and therefore, he should not be coaching college student athletes.
Katie Hnida, was given a roster spot by then-Head Coach Rick Neuhiesel back in 1999. Neuhiesel then left for Washington, and Barnett took over. Hnida said it was obvious that Barnett was bugged by having her on the team, and said that her coaches and teammates treated her as a player unworthy of a roster spot.
“None of the players wanted her on the team,” Barnett remarked. “Basically we were doing her a favor [by keeping her on].”
What happened during Hnida’s tenure under Barnett was unthinkable.
From the first day of practice, Hnida realized she was not welcome. She said that players made sexually graphic comments toward her, exposed themselves to her several times, and even groped her. Going in to detail on this matter is disgusting and truly heart-wrenching. The abuse Hnida described is far worse than anyone should ever have to endure.
As an administrative figure over the athletic department, you maybe let one instance like this slide as a fluke within the program. However, this was only a fraction of a considerable list of allegations toward Barnett’s program, and the University of Colorado.
Three women filed civil lawsuits against the school, saying it fostered an environment that led to their rapes by football players or recruits at, or just after, an off-campus party in 2001.
In 1997, a 17-year-old high school student accused a football player of rape after a recruiting party.
On Wednesday, Boulder police released a report from a woman who worked at the athletic department and alleged she was raped by a football player in her home Sept. 28, 2001. Barnett and athletic director Dick Tharp were informed of the allegation, according to the report.
Allegedly, Barnett was confronted by the woman with a claim in 2001 that a football player had raped a CU student. He then warned the woman that he “would back his player 100 percent if she took this forward in the criminal process.”
After hearing all of this, CU President Elizabeth Hoffman conferred with others and decided to put Barnett on administrative leave until April 30. This gives the school time to choose whether to reinstate or terminate Barnett.
Barnett will be on paid leave while an independent committee investigates the whole list of allegations involving the football program, including rapes, recruiting parties featuring alcohol and sex, escort services and hiring strippers.
Some people are quick to alleviate the responsibility of Barnett on these matters, saying the CU program has always been a problem. This may be so, but believe it or not, Barnett had a string of problems before he was even named head coach at CU.
Barnett was also with the Colorado program as an assistant coach during some if its darkest days, according to an AP report. Between 1986 and 1988, players were accused of crimes ranging from drunken driving to serial rape, and the school was featured in a Sports Illustrated cover story that still brings bitter memories.
Obviously this guy is not right for Colorado football, or any college program for that matter. He has claimed ignorance to most all of these allegations, but when the hits keep on coming, how much can we all believe.
I sincerely hope that when it is time to make a decision on coach Barnett’s fate, he is gone from CU and not rehired to poison another school.
Brad Barth is a freshman majoring in English. He can be contacted at bcb@cc.usu.edu.