By Scott Salomon
Last year, I wrote that it was Slime Time in Boulder when Deion Sanders took over as the head football coach of the Buffaloes. This year, I guess, we are going to get more Slime, but in a different flavor.
It appears as though Boulder was not satisfied with just Coach Prime on the sidelines. No, no, no.
Coach Prime, 16 months into his contract, has hired Warren Sapp, the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers superstar and Pro Football Hall of Famer, as a graduate assistant. What may look like an innocuous hire could turn out to be an unmitigated disaster.
Sapp will earn $150,000 a year as a graduate assistant to coach and help shape the impressionable minds and bodies of collegiate-aged men in Boulder. Great job for a guy with an alleged history of abuse toward women.
Sapp comes to town with a legal history that includes arrests for domestic violence, solicitation of prostitution and assault.
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Sapp is also no longer working for the NFL Network, in part, because he was suspended and then fired after some gruesome allegations came to light. Shortly thereafter, allegations of sexual harassment in the work place at NFL Network came to light and they were centered around Sapp and a female who filed the complaint.
Now, we have Sapp coming to Boulder. Good grief. What happened to the days that coaches were vetted and had to be deemed safe or a low-risk of bringing harm to a community? Colorado athletic director Rick George obviously did not get the memo on Sapp.
Sapp’s problems with women are well-archived. Following the 2015 Super Bowl in Arizona, Sapp was arrested for assault and solicitation of a prostitute which ultimately cost him his on air job at the NFL Network. Months later the former Miami Hurricane was arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend in an altercation in a Las Vegas hotel that spilled over to her residence.
Sapp avoided jail time in both instances after his lawyers worked out a plea deal that kept him out of the slammer.
I cannot think of any valid reason why a collegiate head football coach that would hire a person with Sapp’s criminal credentials, and no coaching record to speak of, to work around college-aged children. They might be tall and might be in their teens, but they are still children.
Cut to Coach Prime. Cut to Rick George, who did the wrong thing by turning the other way and giving into Prime and allowing a Hall of Famer, in both Pro Football and criminal circles, to bring his “A game” to Boulder.
Young coaches would practically die for the opportunity to be a graduate assistant at a Power 4 school. They would work for chump change and room and board to do whatever medial tasks the coaching staff needed them to perform. Most GA’s get very meager wages and they certainly do not come in the six-figure range and have other associated benefits.
They certainly would not be making Sapp-like-coin to work as a GA.
BuffZone, an independent website that covers CU sports, reached out to George seeking “further clarification and comment on the vetting process for Sapp”, but was told through a university spokesperson CU would stick with its statement which was previously released by the school:
“Warren Sapp successfully completed all of the necessary steps required of anyone who is employed at CU Boulder, including a background check. Furthermore, Athletic Director Rick George personally met with Warren to clearly articulate the department’s standards and expectations, to which he acknowledged and agreed.”
As if the Board of Trustees did not go too far when they hired Coach Prime last year, they had to look with a blind eye when Prime further sullied the neighborhood and brought in an alleged violent criminal to help coach the defensive line.
People do make mistakes and they should not be forced to live with them for life. However, crime has its disadvantages and you forfeit certain rights and opportunities as a result.
He should not be a Power 4 coach and should not have the benefit of working with children, regardless of their age. It is a small part of the penalty that you have to pay for allegedly beating the crap out of women and soliciting public-workers and then allegedly beating them up during Super Bowl week.
After all, who would not want to be Warren Sapp. You can do what you want, when you want and cause all the trouble you want, because there will always be lawyers around to bail you out. Further, with friends like Coach Prime, who will give you a job and a more than modest salary, and an AD like George, who will rubber stamp the hire.
What kind of message is Prime sending to his players? I ask this rhetorically because there is no acceptable answer. Sapp is going to attempt to coach fundamentals and three-point stances, but the message that this hire sends to the team goes far beyond.
Think of the message this sends to the women in sports who involved with Colorado football! Team support staffers, cheerleaders, band members, and friends and family of those involved with the program. Does fostering an environment of respect and safety matter to the Colorado athletic department? This hire makes that answer clear.
Sapp’s own alma mater, the University of Miami, distances itself from him and would not give him the opportunity to coach on the defensive line when a position became vacant.
If Sapp gets into trouble in Boulder, will Rick George admit that he was wrong?
Having Sapp coaching children and allowing him to roam the campus freely, with his background, is disgraceful.
I wonder what this season will bring for Sapp and Prime.
This is going to be some football season in Boulder, Colorado, the city where literally anyone can get a job with children, regardless of their background. All you have to do is be friends with the boss and have the Board of Trustees fawn all over you.
