Exemplary employee

Baylor whistleblower Abar Rouse should be rewarded

Someone had better hire Abar Rouse. A college basketball coach at a major program needs to add Rouse to his staff, and we're talking immediately, right now, today. I say this even though I have no idea whether Rouse knows an X from an O, a pick-and-roll from pork chop. The only thing I know about him is that he's a 28-year-old Baylor assistant coach-- perhaps soon to be an ex-Baylor assistant coach -- who, at considerable risk to his own fledgling career, blew the whistle on the most reprehensible conspiracy attempt sports has seen in years. A great many people should pay for the for the cesspool of dishonesty that the Baylor basketball program has become. Abar Rouse should not be one of them.

If Rouse had not taped some of his conversations with his boss, Baylor coach Dave Bliss, and then made those tapes available to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram a few days ago, we almost certainly would not know that Bliss tried to save his own coaching skin in the most cowardly way imaginable -- by smearing the reputation of a dead young man, Patrick Dennehy. In order to cover up the fact that he had paid about $7,000 of Dennehy's tuition, a blatant NCAA violation, Bliss tried to persuade his assistants and some of the Baylor players to tell investigators that Dennehy was a drug dealer, and imply that he paid his own tuition with those profits.

Rouse, a Baylor alum, was one of the people Bliss tried to enlist in his pathetic plan. When he hesitated to go along with the script, Rouse says, Bliss showed him a copy of his assistant's contract, and the clause that gives the head coach complete authority to fire assistants was highlighted. Considering that Rouse had been hired all of 2 1/2 months earlier, a major step up after five years of paying his coaching dues at such out-of-the-way stops as Ranger College, Midwestern State and Cape Fear Community College, it wouldn't have been surprising if he had been intimidated enough or ambitious enough to keep his mouth shut. Instead, he recorded such damning statements from Bliss that the coach had no choice but to admit his plot.

"We can get out of it, OK?" Bliss told Rouse in a conversation taped July 30. "Reasonable doubt is there's nobody right now who can say we paid Patrick Dennehy ... because he's dead." And this, taped the next day: "If there's any way that we can even create the perception of the fact that Pat may have been a dealer ... even if we had to kind of make some things look a little better than they are, that can save us."

As if it wasn't enough that Dennehy's family and friends had to deal with the discovery that he had been shot to death, his coach -- his so-called father figure -- was willing to let them and the rest of the world believe that he died a criminal. Bliss' actions showed not only a breathtaking lack of ethics, but also of human decency. It's hard to believe he will ever again be hired to coach so much as a middle-school badminton team, much less a Division I college basketball squad, which is as it should be. Rouse's job prospects, however, could be bleak as well. Baylor has not fired him (and it will surely face a lawsuit if it does) but Rouse may find it impossible to stay at a school whose program he helped bring to its knees, however justifiably. There have already been indications that he may have a hard time finding another job, because he violated one of the primary laws of the coaching fraternity -- protect each other at all costs.

Rick Evrard, an attorney whose firm specializes in helping schools deal with NCAA issues, told the Star-Telegram, "It's the old story. If Coach A tells on Coach B, Coach A will be ostracized in the coaching community, period." It's not hard to imagine coaches, even coaches who respect Rouse for his honesty, being afraid to hire him for fear he would turn them in as well at the first hint of a violation.

But instead of shunning Rouse, college coaches should embrace him for saving what's left of their credibility. After the various misdeeds of coaches like Bliss, Rick Neuheisel, Jim Harrick, Mike Price and Larry Eustachy -- and that's just in the last six months -- the coaching community should be grateful to Rouse for reminding people that at least some coaches have integrity. Even if Rouse's motivations weren't altogether noble, even if he was more pragmatic than he was principled and just decided it was smarter to turn Bliss in than to go down with a sinking ship, at least he made the right choice, which is something we've seen precious few other coaches do lately.

If there is any justice, Rouse's phone will soon start ringing off the hook, with coaching heavyweights such as Mike Krzyzewski or Lute Olson or Roy Williams on the other end, and they will say something like, "Young man, here is my home phone number, and if you need a job, or a recommendation for a job, do not hesitate to use it."

When the dust settles at Baylor, Abar Rouse will need a job. But the coaching profession will need him more.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor writes about a Hot Button topic every Monday on SI.com.

 

Related information

Stories

Bliss reportedly wanted to make Dennehy out to be dealer Previous Phil Taylor Columns

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video