by Richard M. Berthold
Daily Lobo Columnist
Throughout my career I have been openly critical of the major college sports, football and basketball, so it was with some irony that I found myself standing on the sidelines of Saturday's homecoming game, wearing a UNM football windbreaker and looking, except for the hair, like a shabbier version of a Lobo booster. The man responsible for this phenomenon - Coach Rocky Long.
I met Rocky Long when a few years ago I put in a brief stint on the Athletic Council, a sort of joke committee through which the faculty is supposed to exercise some control over athletics, a daunting task for academics who have little enough authority even on the main campus. Understandably, Long was suspicious of me at first, but he understood and accepted the principles upon which my criticism was based and realized it was not personal. I in turn discovered that he was a hell of a nice guy and agreed with a number of my objections about college football. Contrary, in fact, to the general faculty perception (including me) that coaches regularly deceived their players about a future in professional sports, he instead tells his people that Brian Urlacher notwithstanding, their chances of a career in the NFL are mighty slim and they had better damn well be prepared to do something else.
More compelling for me personally, as I dealt last fall with my fifteen minutes of infamy because of a callous remark, Long expressed some understanding and sympathy, providing the support that most of my faculty colleagues, for whatever reason, refused to. Coaches are not typically recognized as vehement proponents of free (and in my case obnoxious) speech, but Long could empathize with my position - every time the football team loses he is subjected to the same sort of abuse about his personality and abilities and ancestry that was pouring down on me. We shared the frustration of dealing with insulting crap from people who had little idea of who we were and thought themselves more expert in our fields than we. And he is a better man (and in a higher profile position) than I. Unlike him I cannot resist telling such people in colorful proletarian terms what they can do with their opinions, to the consternation of the administration.
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In return I empathize with Rocky Long, who has the in many ways thankless job of coaching the football team of second-rate institution in a poor state. He will never get the resources and respect lavished on the teams of the big football schools (though it was hard to believe that the lavish sports complex was part of the same university I worked for.). Worse, he and his players must live in the shadow of Lobo basketball, which receives the lion's share of the attention and enthusiasm of the community. He is forever doomed to play Philip II to the basketball coach's Alexander the Great.
Well, Long provided me the opportunity to do something I had long desired - hang out on the sidelines of a football game. My interest is in the NFL, but clearly the San Fransisco 49ers were not about to grant me admission to their bench area, and so for only the second time since graduating from college, I attended a college football game, a very nostalgic experience for an old professor.
Two things in particular caught my attention. One was a smaller player who immediately struck me as very attractive for a guy, until I realized it was in fact a woman. While I do not follow college ball, I suspect this is not at all a common occurrence, and I enjoyed a rare moment of actually being proud of UNM. Yes, I believe that chicks in shoulder pads represent a measure of social progress, and Long is to be praised for having a female kicker on the team.
The other thing was just the opposite. When the weather cooled, I was amazed to see the cheerleaders all don jackets emblazoned with "Comcast." Now, I understand the American university, like the American government, is increasingly selling out to corporations, but to see the University advertising this particularly noxious organization was very disappointing. And I thought those continual rate increases were to pay for the barrage of anti-satellite propaganda and the acquisition of AT&T! But I suppose I would rather pay for jackets for UNM cheerleaders than for more self-congratulatory ads by this offensive monopoly.
So, has Berthold sold out for a mess of football pottage? No. I still object to the corrupting influence of employing the American university as a farm club for the NFL and NBA, billion dollar businesses that should at least be paying for all those athletic scholarships. But football and basketball are as permanent a part of the university as the College of Arts & Sciences, and in the minds of many in the community they are clearly a far more important part. To talk about abolishing them is akin to discussing the repeal of gravity. The best the faculty can do is attempt to prevent serious outrages and hope for coaches like Rocky Long.
