So Rob Howe wrote an article....



That's an interesting read that most of us knew all happened. I've heard a few stories about Kirk that would tarnish his image as being a great guy. I appreciate Rob not backing down from the power and influence that Kirk has with bringing it up. Not sure what the end game is though. This should be fun...
 




Kirk sure has a LOT of black athletes who sing his praises. I would venture to say the vast majority statistically. Maybe he is a part-time 'racist'. Or maybe managing conflicts in a complex endeavor as large as the FB program will result in a few black players being involved and using racist as the catch all gotcha. Of course eagerly lapped up by uber vindictive Howe.
 


It's a story of unchecked power. Most employees in an ultimate leadership position would not have been given a second chance after he blew his first chance in the years after the internal report was released. Actions like Doyle getting a special award after a major f*ck up - even if an accident - needed to be checked. Maybe things would never have progressed to the point of needing Husch Blackwell to investigate had Kirk been checked earlier.

This isn't the main story of Kirk's career in my opinion. But they aren't chapters to completely forget about either. Not exactly news here - and in my view, lots and lots of good from the man over all those years.
 






I also don't get why some fans are so sensitive about this. For years, fans have complained about Iowa media "not asking the tough questions" because they tried to stay on Kirk's good side. Well, this is the tough stuff here. It took courage for Howe to pursue these stories and ask the tough questions, even to the detriment of his career. He sacked up. How many of us would do the same?

He followed the story based on two official reports - one by an independent law firm - that even involved assistant coaches.
 


Let's see...anybody after 27 years (9,855 days) at the helm of a major corporation who dealt with hundreds and hundreds of players, countless media types, assistants, university types, boosters (you get the picture) who didn't have a f*ck up or two, or three, well c'mon, it just doesn't happen.

Goodness gracious, nobody's perfect. Would you rather endure what KF has messed up, or say, a Scott Frost, JoePa, Harbaugh, Tucker, Urban, Tressell, etc.

Here's more.....

www.cbssports.com

Eight years of Big Ten scandals paint unflattering picture, but connecting dots may be unfair

Eleven of the Big Ten's 14 programs have been involved in a serious incident over the last eight years
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com

And this is just the B1G. It exponentially expands outside of the B1G boundaries.

As others have said...what's the end game to the article? What axe is there to grind?

Seems like a lame poop-throwing exercise to me.
 
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There is so much more to this story of racial bias, but Rob has decided that he will come down on one side. As I am sure you were, I was appalled by some of our coaches’ behavior toward black athletes. No excuses. Evidence was clear. See reports.

I would not, however, place the weight room fiasco next to the racial bias issues. Talk about cognitive dissonance. Unrelated.

However, the end result is the most significant part of this story. A settlement was reached, like it or not. Doyle was fired. Given the information we have seen about his behavior, I am ok with that. The death of the program was predicted.

Then, in my view, Kirk reacted with the appropriate corrections. Enough? Too much? But the program did not perish and most of the black athletes who were part of the program at that time remained on board. Recruiting of minorities seemed to continue successfully.
Examples of players affection for Kirk are well documented. The treatment of cultural differences has apparently been addressed in a satisfactory manner.

I am very proud of the end result.

I may get targeted, to use a football term, for one additional position that I want to suggest. Hayden Fry famously said he was in fact “color blind” in his treatment of players. You know his history. That may have been KF’s view of the world.The error on his part likely shared by many, might have been that sensitivity to cultural differences and the need to respond appropriately, was not within his view. We must admit that we older guys may have missed reality. No more excuses.
 














NCHawker said:
I suspect Rob fancys himself as a hippy rebel. HIs career hasn't gone as he hoped. He's and unhappy small man.
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Yeah obviously he wasn't breaking any news with this article he was just bringing up the past and giving his 2 cents on it telling others how they should feel.

This is the part that got me thinking.
He felt that Beth hasn't been on the job long enough to congratulate him and speaking for the school, athletic department Iowa fans.... Well based on her job title that's literally her job to do that. Was Barta supposed to come back and do it? Obviously not. Rob knows that. He just didn't want to see her (or anyone) giving KF his flowers.

I think back in 2020ish when Rob went digging into all that and was interviewing some of the former players he just went all in on that side of the fence and that's just where he's been all this time. No wonder he hasn't really landed on his feet since Hawkeye Nation got ran in the ground. This article was put out with the intention of stirring the pot and putting his name back out there. Nothing more nothing less.
 


Wow. I have generally liked Rob and enjoyed it when he posted and discussed things on this forum. But, that was a bad piece of journalism, even if you could call it that.

So, let me see if I get this right. In an article that most of us could have written in the time it takes to sit down for a good shit, he dredges up the two scandals that Coach Ferentz has experienced in his 26 year tenure at Iowa. Eye roll on the Rhabdo thing. The kids got worked too hard. Gotcha. Crime of the century there.

As for the racial issues and tensions, yes, that happened. KF's old school approach and lack of oversight over a couple of his assistants led to minority players feeling marginalized within the program. That was a blind spot, KF owned up to it, KF listened to his current and former players, KF made changes, and to my understanding the issues have not resurfaced. That's called taking responsibility and making amends. That's what leaders do. I have never heard anyone suggest that KF himself has any racist tendencies, and so to bring these long-settled issues up now, after his milestone victory, is little more than cheap clickbait journalism from a tired print writer desperate for some lost attention. Sad. Just sad.
 


HuckFinn said:
There is so much more to this story of racial bias, but Rob has decided that he will come down on one side. As I am sure you were, I was appalled by some of our coaches’ behavior toward black athletes. No excuses. Evidence was clear. See reports.

I would not, however, place the weight room fiasco next to the racial bias issues. Talk about cognitive dissonance. Unrelated.

However, the end result is the most significant part of this story. A settlement was reached, like it or not. Doyle was fired. Given the information we have seen about his behavior, I am ok with that. The death of the program was predicted.

Then, in my view, Kirk reacted with the appropriate corrections. Enough? Too much? But the program did not perish and most of the black athletes who were part of the program at that time remained on board. Recruiting of minorities seemed to continue successfully.
Examples of players affection for Kirk are well documented. The treatment of cultural differences has apparently been addressed in a satisfactory manner.

I am very proud of the end result.

I may get targeted, to use a football term, for one additional position that I want to suggest. Hayden Fry famously said he was in fact “color blind” in his treatment of players. You know his history. That may have been KF’s view of the world.The error on his part likely shared by many, might have been that sensitivity to cultural differences and the need to respond appropriately, was not within his view. We must admit that we older guys may have missed reality. No more excuses.
Click to expand...
NorthKCHawk said:
Wow. I have generally liked Rob and enjoyed it when he posted and discussed things on this forum. But, that was a bad piece of journalism, even if you could call it that.

So, let me see if I get this right. In an article that most of us could have written in the time it takes to sit down for a good shit, he dredges up the two scandals that Coach Ferentz has experienced in his 26 year tenure at Iowa. Eye roll on the Rhabdo thing. The kids got worked too hard. Gotcha. Crime of the century there.

As for the racial issues and tensions, yes, that happened. KF's old school approach and lack of oversight over a couple of his assistants led to minority players feeling marginalized within the program. That was a blind spot, KF owned up to it, KF listened to his current and former players, KF made changes, and to my understanding the issues have not resurfaced. That's called taking responsibility and making amends. That's what leaders do. I have never heard anyone suggest that KF himself has any racist tendencies, and so to bring these long-settled issues up now, after his milestone victory, is little more than cheap clickbait journalism from a tired print writer desperate for some lost attention. Sad. Just sad.
Click to expand...
I think the biggest cancers in the program were Doyle, Wallace, and BF. Doyle was gone immediately which was good. Wallace should've been gone immediately and probably Brian too.

That's my biggest gripe with KF in the whole thing. They decided to make an example out of only Doyle in hopes of it going away and for the most part it worked. That was enough for most people. I don't think KF was as guilty of being a racist as he was of being ignorant number one, and selling part of his soul to keep Wallace and BF around.

No one is perfect. I've said and thought plenty of things in my life that I shouldn't have. That can be fixed most times if someone reflects. I think KF probably did that. My problem is he didn't do enough to fix the program when it came to accountability in Wallace and Brian. Those were the only two other individuals that had complaints come out from players and those complaints were really, really bad. We know the reason Brian was kept on staff, and after Wallace became assistant HC we know why he was kept. He's the son KF never had.

It would be ignorant to think the KF was in the weight room directly hearing what Doyle was saying, how BF treated guys in practice, and heard/saw how Wallace treated players like Kallenberger. At the P4 level head coaches aren't in those places. If you think they are you're just flat wrong...it doesn't work that way. P4 head coaches are like CEOs of big companies...they're managing at a high level and assistant caches are like supervisors directly running departments and interacting with employees every day. I've personally talked to several former players just because I got to know them in high school sports where I live. My part of the state has a lot of Hawkeye football players past and present. Several of those players have told me in casual conversation that they hardly ever saw KF other than in whole team meetings and some never had a single one on one interaction with him other than in passing for 30 seconds.

All that said, when it came to light what happened all 3 of those guys should've been gone. That's on no one but KF. It's a black mark, IMO and it's why I rant on here about what I'll do if Wallace becomes HC. That's not hyperbole from me, I just couldn't be a fan at that point as the father of someone who struggled in the exact same way with the exact same disorder as Kallenberger. I shudder sometimes when I think of how I'd react if what happened came out as happening to my son, because I don't know if I'd have the self-control it would take to stay out of prison.

I think you can be a good person and at the same time make huge mistakes. KF came from an era where things like that were just "hard coaching," which isn't an excuse, but it at least has to be considered because everyone of us is a product of our upbringing and environment. But KF was very, very wrong in how he handled the whole thing and I don't think winning a certain number of games wipes it away.
 


I appreciate the civility in this thread up to this point, btw, and I don't have any intentions of moving it to OT as long as it keeps going that way.

For those of us on the board in 2020 during the Iowa football chaos and COVID, we can all remember what that was like and this is much, much better.
 


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