Commentary: Thanking all the upstanding coaches and role models - apparently, there aren't many left

My head is spinning after a week of blunders, accusations, and bizarre stories – locally and nationally – which makes me even more thankful for coaches and leaders who set a good example.

To recap: The head coach of a local softball team instructed his 11 and 12 year old girls to intentionally lose a game at the Little League World Series. While I understand that it was an intended strategy and, “within the letter of the rules,” according to the league president, it’s an absolute travesty to the integrity of sports and the spirit of the game. The “winning at all costs” approach set a terrible example to impressionable kids – and unfortunately the national scrutiny has unfairly subjected them to harassment and ridicule.

Imagine if Pete Carroll’s “Always Compete,” mantra was altered to “Always Compete – Except when you’re trying to eliminate another team from contention by tanking a game on purpose!”

And that’s just the start. Baylor football coach Art Briles is continuing to fain ignorance over the checkered past of one of his players who was convicted of sexual assault. That’s even **after** Huskies football coach Chris Petersen confirms that he thoroughly apprised Briles of that player’s disciplinary record when he played for Petersen at Boise State – including violent incidents with a former girlfriend that led to his dismissal from the team.

So Briles now looks like a liar – and his future in Waco is in question.

And that’s nothing compared to a damning video that surfaced today, showing Hall of Fame receiver Cris Carter giving this awful advice to NFL players at a rookie symposium last year:

“And just in case you all decide not to do the right thing, if you all have a crew, you’ve got to have a fall guy in the crew…You guys are not all going to do the right thing, so I have to teach you how to get around all this stuff too.”

Yes – he really said that. Rather than stressing a zero tolerance policy, he really told players to have a contingency plan – and a “fall guy” – for when they get in trouble.

And don’t even get me started on the Bellevue Football Program, under suspicion for years of bringing out-of-district talent to their team. While many of their players are talented, up-standing student-athletes, the program has reportedly been tainted by over-eager coaches and boosters trying to skirt the system. I recommend reading the in-depth report in today’s Seattle Times, documenting at least one former player’s account of using an illegal address and getting his schooling paid for by anonymous sources while he played for the Wolverines. It comes after their head coach was suspended in June, in part for providing money to a different player’s family.

Which brings us back to Sarkisian, the former Husky coach, who today apologized for his behavior and language at a school-sponsored booster event at USC last night.

From multiple accounts, Sark was drunk, and had to be pulled off the stage by athletic director Pat Haden during a profanity-filled speech in which he was allegedly slurring his words. He also called out Pac-12 rivals by yelling quote “They all suck!” and was dismissed by Haden after a stern discussion off-stage.

So to recap – in one week, we have an allegedly drunk coach, another one feigning ignorance for a player’s violent past, another one telling 11-year-olds to lose a game on purpose, a Hall of Fame “spokesman” telling players to have a “fall guy,” and a local football program in hot water for going too far.

I guess the moral is – let’s hear it for the coaches and role models doing things the right way. The ones whose ultra competitiveness isn’t tainted by grey areas and ambiguity.

They’re clearly hard to find. So let’s thank all of them while we have that chance.