7 months...

I helped to bust a case involving a sex offender. It was the husband of a cooleague. The article doesnt dig into limits by law of time served. Many sentences are severely limited by law. What was amazing was how many people wanted nothing to do with catching and convicting the guy. People were afraid. The dude was tall and handsome. The number of women who swooned over him was amazing even though he had been on the offenders list for child rape and attempted rape. He got a similar type of sentence. I had to fight to get a restraining order from the university. In your wildest imagination who would be tge last person youd think they would put on my tenure committee? His wife.... i failed first time and had to fight to get him off which i did and got tenure. It was my knowledge that got him convicted. My female boss cried about his arrest and presured me to not testify.

The whole thing makes me sick. At least they did get jail time. The university made her what was basically head of 4 H over a large area. The pedophile was using her contacts to get victims.
 
HawkGold said:
JoePa was a big donor.

KF has the kind of power that could create a PSU situation exceot is missing the popularity.

Any coach that doesn't understand rhabdo shouldnt be coaching. The award at best was ill advised. Is rhabdo child abuse... it could be a case of abuse of authority and is a very serious condition.

Making concern isnt so bad. The PSU situation is terrible. It didn't happen in a vacuum. Some of the parallels should be noted.

KF does have too much power. Why that is is an intrguing question.
Click to expand...

If KF has the power to protect someone like Barta, who was found guilty on all charges . . . that is a problem. Now Barta still may be forced out. In fact I think he will. And maybe KF can't protect Barta. I hope that he doesn't have that kind of power. But the culture at Iowa is one that lead to courtroom embarrassment and things like Alford and his "second chances". The fans who want the unpleasant inner workings of the AD to remain in the shadows are enablers leading Iowa down the wrong path.
 
Joshbrown said:
If KF has the power to protect someone like Barta, who was found guilty on all charges . . . that is a problem. Now Barta still may be forced out. In fact I think he will. And maybe KF can't protect Barta. I hope that he doesn't have that kind of power. But the culture at Iowa is one that lead to courtroom embarrassment and things like Alford and his "second chances". The fans who want the unpleasant inner workings of the AD to remain in the shadows are enablers leading Iowa down the wrong path.
Click to expand...
No idea whether or not KF has that kind of power. He does appear to have a lot of power. I have no idea why so many are theeatened by someone questioning the healthiness of someone havng that kind of power. The rhabdo incident was a very serious situation that some are afraid to admit. It is life threatening and altering. There very well could have been abuse of power but when an organization is so tightly controlled how would one know on the outside except the award was weird timing.
 
Joshbrown said:
^^^Straw man obfuscation.

One man being bigger than a public University = One man being bigger than a public University.
Click to expand...

If Ferentz had not turned in a child sexual predator he would have been fired and prosecuted. The Rhabdo situation didn't rise to the level of him needing to be fired. He wouldn't have been "bigger than a public university" if he had done nothing to prevent child sex abuse. The Rhabdo thing was bad but the reason he didn't lose his job or face charges wasn't because he was bigger than the U of I, but because the nature of the offense didn't rise to the that level.
 
Joshbrown said:
^^^Straw man obfuscation.

One man being bigger than a public University = One man being bigger than a public University.
Click to expand...


What if KF actually isn't bigger than the University, but you just think he is? He's a major player, as most all long term, higher level D1 football coaches are. I would even agree he's on the upper echelon in this regard. In my opinion, he's nowhere close to what Paterno was as PSU in terms of power. Powerful....yes, expensive to buy out due to a terribly designed contract, Yes. Bigger than the University, nah.
 
Last edited:
HawkGold said:
No idea whether or not KF has that kind of power. He does appear to have a lot of power. I have no idea why so many are theeatened by someone questioning the healthiness of someone havng that kind of power. The rhabdo incident was a very serious situation that some are afraid to admit. It is life threatening and altering. There very well could have been abuse of power but when an organization is so tightly controlled how would one know on the outside except the award was weird timing.
Click to expand...

I agree that the timing of the award was stupid, but wasn't the workout in question a competition to see how many times you can lift your weight in a specified amount of time? It seems to me that individual pride and competetiveness caused the rhabdo. So I guess the lesson to be learned is don't make workout sessions competitive when dealing with extremely competitive people or they may push themselves to far.
 
HawkGold said:
No idea whether or not KF has that kind of power. He does appear to have a lot of power. I have no idea why so many are theeatened by someone questioning the healthiness of someone havng that kind of power. The rhabdo incident was a very serious situation that some are afraid to admit. It is life threatening and altering. There very well could have been abuse of power but when an organization is so tightly controlled how would one know on the outside except the award was weird timing.
Click to expand...

It isn't that people are threatened by others questioning things. It is the comparisons that are used that are absurd. Equating Ferentz to a person who not only turned a blind eye to a child predator, but basically enabled him is absurd.
 
Joshbrown said:
If KF has the power to protect someone like Barta, who was found guilty on all charges . . . that is a problem. Now Barta still may be forced out. In fact I think he will. And maybe KF can't protect Barta. I hope that he doesn't have that kind of power. But the culture at Iowa is one that lead to courtroom embarrassment and things like Alford and his "second chances". The fans who want the unpleasant inner workings of the AD to remain in the shadows are enablers leading Iowa down the wrong path.
Click to expand...

Who are the fans that want that want the unpleasant inner workings of the AD to remain in the shadows? On HN, a few other Iowa sites, facebook, and twitter i've only seen folks that either absolutely want him gone yesterday, or those completely in favor to have him fired to move forward, but just want the decision made quickly to begin the damage control. It doesn't seem like any decision is being made very quickly, which I don't like.

Maybe I just haven't seen what you've seen.

I agree that if any coach would have the power to protect would be a major issue, I just haven't seen anything to indicate that in this case. I assume that would be a Regents, President, and likely Donors would play that role.
 
I think Paterno was a decent guy for the most part. The one thing he is guilty of, and quite big and shouldn't be looked past, is that he turned his head the other way when he was aware of these egregious allegations. He became negligent for not doing anything to stop it. I suspect he was so disgusted with it he didn't want anything to do with it and just wanted it to go away so turned his head instead of doing the correct action.
 
deanvogs said:
It isn't that people are threatened by others questioning things. It is the comparisons that are used that are absurd. Equating Ferentz to a person who not only turned a blind eye to a child predator, but basically enabled him is absurd.
Click to expand...

The premise at the start may have been on the strong side. If you were one of the 12 or parents thereof, you might feel differently. If you've ever been around abuse of power, those of us who have may feel strongly that things in re to rhabdo don't feel/look right. Maybe I've missed something, but what I find amazing is the lack of followup of what happened to those players later on.

Can you agree that there appears to be a situation where a coach might have too much control at Iowa and that improper activities might more easily be covered up as a result? No accusations, but concern about the concentration of power?
 
HawkGold said:
The premise at the start may have been on the strong side. If you were one of the 12 or parents thereof, you might feel differently. If you've ever been around abuse of power, those of us who have may feel strongly that things in re to rhabdo don't feel/look right. Maybe I've missed something, but what I find amazing is the lack of followup of what happened to those players later on.

Can you agree that there appears to be a situation where a coach might have too much control at Iowa and that improper activities might more easily be covered up as a result? No accusations, but concern about the concentration of power?
Click to expand...


First off, players getting a case of rhabdo isn't unheard of and has happened on rare occasion and in other sports.

Second, it seems to be an isolated incident as there have been zero reports of it happening all the years prior or years after.

Third, just because you didn't hear or are aware of, how can you assume there was no FU on the Iowa rhabdo situation. How do you know they didn't do some internal investigating/evaluating and come up with some findings. I would almost venture to say that they did. Actually, I think they did evaluate it and changed many of their practices as far as workouts go.

The rhabdo situation seems to be one where for some reason a perfect storm happen all at once. The correct formula was met for some reason. Because of the sheer number of players involved, maybe it had something to do with what energy drink mixture they were drinking while training or something. Pure speculation on my part. I know it's reported that they had excess training, but I find it hard to believe that 13 players all "overtrained" at the exact same time, without there being some kind of other common denominator, and a systemic one at that, which could be what a workout drink could provide. Again, not saying it was that but merely pointing out that it could have been something systemic that all players affected had in common.
 
HawkGold said:
The premise at the start may have been on the strong side. If you were one of the 12 or parents thereof, you might feel differently. If you've ever been around abuse of power, those of us who have may feel strongly that things in re to rhabdo don't feel/look right. Maybe I've missed something, but what I find amazing is the lack of followup of what happened to those players later on.

Can you agree that there appears to be a situation where a coach might have too much control at Iowa and that improper activities might more easily be covered up as a result? No accusations, but concern about the concentration of power?
Click to expand...

I have stated many times that Barta is negligent in his duties by giving KF too long of a contract. We need a stronger AD who wouldn't have given out the contract, because I don't want a head coach to have that much power/leverage over the program.

That said I don't see Rhabdo the way you do. This was the same workout that they had been using for almost a decade I believe. They didn't think or even dream that they were endangering any athletes. Also they moved swiftly to study it and change what they were doing. They have been on the forefront now of the GPS technology that tracks all sorts of things to help athletes train smarter and safer.

It is a far cry from finding out something is wrong, and then sticking your head in the sand and ignoring it, therefore letting it continue. If that would have been KF and Doyles approach AFTER Rhabdo, then yeah, I would have said throw the bums out.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
First off, players getting a case of rhabdo isn't unheard of and has happened on rare occasion and in other sports.

Second, it seems to be an isolated incident as there have been zero reports of it happening all the years prior or years after.

Third, just because you didn't hear or are aware of, how can you assume there was no FU on the Iowa rhabdo situation. How do you know they didn't do some internal investigating/evaluating and come up with some findings. I would almost venture to say that they did. Actually, I think they did evaluate it and changed many of their practices as far as workouts go.

The rhabdo situation seems to be one where for some reason a perfect storm happen all at once. The correct formula was met for some reason. Because of the sheer number of players involved, maybe it had something to do with what energy drink mixture they were drinking while training or something. Pure speculation on my part. I know it's reported that they had excess training, but I find it hard to believe that 13 players all "overtrained" at the exact same time, without there being some kind of other common denominator, and a systemic one at that, which could be what a workout drink could provide. Again, not saying it was that but merely pointing out that it could have been something systemic that all players affected had in common.
Click to expand...

This is the way I see the Rhabdo as well. Think about all the advances in technology and medicine and what we know now vs what we thought we knew 20 years ago. Same thing here, It wasn't like Iowa was doing something that was ever viewed to be unsafe at all. KF and Doyle took swift action to totally revamp the way things were done to make sure nothing like that would ever happen again. They didn't engage in a cover up or massive stick your head in the sand and ignore the problem reaction to the situation. Changes were made, improvements were made.
 
HawkGold said:
The premise at the start may have been on the strong side. If you were one of the 12 or parents thereof, you might feel differently. If you've ever been around abuse of power, those of us who have may feel strongly that things in re to rhabdo don't feel/look right. Maybe I've missed something, but what I find amazing is the lack of followup of what happened to those players later on.

Can you agree that there appears to be a situation where a coach might have too much control at Iowa and that improper activities might more easily be covered up as a result? No accusations, but concern about the concentration of power?
Click to expand...

I can agree that anyone with too much power can corrupt...but not just at Iowa....Everywhere, it's in every facet of the world and has been forever. Concentration of power is in everything.... control, power, money, greed, corruption, it's not any worse now that it's been for 100 years, it's simply reported on more in a 24/7 news and media world. Improper activities is in politics, local/state/national gov'ts, business, finance, most large organizations either public or private or for profit or not for profit....there has always bad things happening...we just find out about a lot more of them now.

It's not a good thing, but it's not new. The University of Iowa is not immune to such things, but it's no more likely here than anywhere else. The boogeyman might be real too....

There is no smoking gun, although that won't stop folks from asking the question. It you ask the question a certain way, subtle inference can be made to make case.
 
deanvogs said:
This is the way I see the Rhabdo as well. Think about all the advances in technology and medicine and what we know now vs what we thought we knew 20 years ago. Same thing here, It wasn't like Iowa was doing something that was ever viewed to be unsafe at all. KF and Doyle took swift action to totally revamp the way things were done to make sure nothing like that would ever happen again. They didn't engage in a cover up or massive stick your head in the sand and ignore the problem reaction to the situation. Changes were made, improvements were made.
Click to expand...

That's a reasonable response. My response would be... where is the follow up with these guys? It's a reasonable question and maybe it's been answered...I haven't seen it. I guess honest people can agree or disagree about that silly award and timing. There is a lot we don't know about the situation though...much like KFs contract.

Not everyone agrees or disagrees about how JoePa handled things and what he did or didn't know. There is some pretty damning information out there, how much is truth we don't know.

I do confess to being a bit jaded due to my own past experience with another Big university cover-up of the sexual predator who was convicted in 7 jurisdictions. I have also viewed close-up of a former Big U head who was known for his "values" and impeccable morals who gave jobs to unqualified individuals who were family members of big donors.

I"m still going to root for the Hawks this fall. I will continue to shake my head (both ways) in wonder about KF. As a side note, I did turn down several job offers from Big Universities as well as ISU and surprisingly the most professional one I dealt with was PSU.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top