Rush To Judgment Right Call On Coach
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One of college football’s brightest young coaches — black or white — Mike Haywood was poised to celebrate 2011 in grand fashion, having risen to a big-time school after just two seasons as head coach at lower-tier Miami (Ohio) University. The University of Pittsburgh announced him as its new coach on Dec. 16, giving him a five-year contract believed to be worth about $1 million annually. At the ninth stop in his 13-year coaching career, he had landed the top gig in one of the Bowl Championship Series conferences.
But the celebration ended abruptly on New Year’s Day. Haywood was arrested Dec. 31 at his home in South Bend, Ind., on domestic violence charges; hours after being released on bond Jan. 1, he was fired. “Head coaches are among the university’s most visible representatives and are expected to maintain high standards of personal conduct and to avoid situations that might reflect negatively on the university,” Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg said in a statement. He said the decision “is not tied to any expectation with respect to the terms on which the legal proceeding now pending in Indiana might ultimately be concluded. Instead, it reflects a strong belief that moving forward with Mr. Haywood as our head coach is not possible under the existing circumstances.”
Haywood disagreed with the university’s decision and professed his innocence. “It isn’t fair,” he told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “The truth will eventually come out.” Perhaps he didn’t attack the mother of his child. Perhaps he will be exonerated in court. And perhaps Pittsburgh will have to pay damages if he files a lawsuit.
Regardless, this “rush to judgment” was the right move.
