College Coaches Aren't Letting Their Dismissals Become the Last Goal
Photo by Associated Press
In the lucrative arena of collegiate sports, coaches are paid to negotiate a field stacked with tough-to-tackle hazards: losing seasons, player misbehavior or even their own questionable antics.
When the team lost, coaches used to pack their bags and slip out of the locker room after quietly negotiating a contract settlement. Now, however, more fired coaches are scrambling to court with high-profile lawsuits that embroil universities in protracted legal battles that are endlessly scrutinized by media, fans and alumni.
“I think you’ll see more of a trend toward litigation,” says Robert Lattinville, a partner with Stinson Morrison Hecker in St. Louis who chairs the firm’s sports law practice group. “That college coach is a CEO of a multimillion-dollar corporation. In many respects, he or she has gotten their experience on the field or the court. They’re handed the keys and they’re not experienced with employment matters.”
Some coaches also aren’t experienced with changing perceptions of what constitutes abuse of players. Ten or 15 years ago, coaches could slap players on the head, grab them by the throat or berate them after a bad play without the university or anyone else paying much attention, says Gary Roberts, dean and professor at Indana University School of Law in Indianapolis and an expert on sports law. Now the YouTube age of instant media saturation has upped the ante.
“I think universities are being more aggressive in punishing this type of behavior,” Roberts says. “It’s been a fairly recent phenomenon where you see a number of coaches getting fired for misconduct and the universities terminating the contract and not paying the balance.”
Continue reading “Benched Coaches Shooting Back” online in the October ABA Journal.
