I Won't Miss You

I always find it difficult to maintain neutral opinions when I write. But you know I am really upset when I cannot maintain a civil writing tone. This is one of those stories.

. . . .

Gary Barnett was fired from his position of head football coach at the University of Colorado today.

Good.

I've been waiting for CU to do something about him for a year and a half. "Why?" you ask? I couldn't care less about how the Colorado football team does (although they have been outscored 133-22 in their last three games, which is basically a slaughterfest). Nothing of the sort. I wanted Gary Barnett fired because he is a sexist, chauvinist pig who never deserved to be coaching in the first place.

In January of 2004, the Colorado football program was accused to using sex as a recruiting tool. They allegedly took potential football recruits to downtown Boulder hotels (off-campus) where (supposedly) willing and ready females were waiting to have sex with them. The allegations were never proven nor disproven, but the general feeling was always that they were not without basis.

But that is not what pissed me off the most. Katie Hnida was a place kicker for the University of New Mexico - the only female player on any NCAA football team. She was actually highly recruited out of high school, having never missed an extra point in her career. She transferred to UNM from - the University of Colorado. Why?

"I was treated much more like a piece of meat there," she told The Albuquerque Tribune...

In 2004, Hnida formally submitted allegations of rape against members of the University of Colorado football team - a team Gary Barnett was supposed to control. Barnett was upset with the allegations and the media circus that followed. At one point he snapped at a reporter:

"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. Katie was not only a girl, she was terrible. OK? There's no other way to say it."

Essentially, Barnett was fighting her (true) accusations of rape because she couldn't kick a football. Here's a thought - maybe she would have been able to repeat her stellar high school performance if she didn't have 300-pound football player constantly harassing her. The day after this statement, Barnett issued a formal apology (which he did not author) saying that the previous quote was "misrepresented" and "taken out of context." Now, normally I try my hardest to give people the benefit of the doubt. But I cannot for the life of me figure out how you can place that comment in any positive context other than "I would have to be a complete sexist f--ing idiot to say that..."

The worst part about this is that Barnett was not fired following this - he was kept on for two more seasons. Now, with his firing (because he was a crappy coach) he will receive three million dollars in severence pay from CU. I say he should clean up his act and donate it to a women's rights group in Colorado - and that is the least he could do.