Friday, August 14, 2009
Hannan / Sports Is Principled Coach Kevin Stallings Contractually Obligated to be Moral?
Posted by Caleb Hannan on Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 6:02 AM
Rick Pitino's contract has a couple vaguely worded clauses that could figure into whatever fate awaits him at Louisville. One refers to "acts of moral depravity," the other to "willful misconduct" that "tends to greatly offend the public."After his apology Pitino said he had no intent to resign. And we're going to go out on a limb when we say that, despite being located very near the buckle of the Bible Belt, Louisville fans will be more than willing to overlook the "acts of moral depravity" committed by their proven winner. But would the same thing happen in Nashville? If Stallings, currently the poster boy (OK, our poster boy) for principled sideline-stompers, got a second-helping of off-the-menu extra hot (wink, wink) at Prince's, would Vandy have recourse to fire him? Sadly, because they're all private and stuff, no one at the University would say whether or not Stallings' contract included a "morality clause." Says Rod Williamson, Director of External Affairs, "We are not bound by any open records statues so we will never reveal data, even if it'd make us look good in a story." Fine Rod. You win for now. But if your boy gets caught with his pants down, you know who to call.
Comments (4)
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"Sleeping with a woman who was not his wife in a restaurant booth" has got to be the most hilarious use of the term "sleeping with" ever. Kind of stretches the euphemism to its natural breaking point.
Agreed, Aunt B.
Pitino's behavior certainly reaches the level of a fire-able offense under his contract. Whether they will do that or not remains to be seen. Apparently the president of the school has heard about some additional details that have not come out through the media yet and seems to be concerned about them.
A little less snarky tone about Vanderbilt from Mr. Hannan might be nice -- especially since it's unwarranted here. Private schools have never been obligated to share information on salaries or contracts, and so almost none ever do it. Why should they?
BTW, the guy's name is Rod Williamson, not Rod Williams. That bit of information IS public and would have been easy enough to verify.
Thanks for the catch, Bubba. As for the snark, I can see where you're coming from but I guess my defense is I was just trying to be playful. I knew Vandy wouldn't give me the contract details, but I wanted to at least take a moment to give Stallings a fist-bump for all the good deeds he's been up to lately. Not trying to tear him, or Vandy, down. Just the opposite.
