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How Smart Is Your Athletic Director?

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Something to worry about in the future. For now you can read this.

Lost amid the kerfuffle overtaking John Calipari, Memphis, and Kentucky is the question that everyone should be asking: Is your average athletic director smart enough to handle their job given the intense pressure and attention that now descends upon the position?

Most are old jocks who've risen to prominence through equal parts glad-handing and reminiscing about the good ole days. They aren't particularly skilled in the black arts of modern-day communications or even, necessarily, at managing multi-million dollar businesses. I've wondered about this for a while, but the ham-handed way that R.C. Johnson of Memphis and Mitch Barnhart of Kentucky have dealt with the John Calipari imbroglio, has convinced me that neither of these guys are up to the job with which they've been entrusted.

Let's begin with Memphis' Johnson. He has his master's degree in P.E. from Northern Iowa. I'm sure there are all sorts of brilliant people in charge of multi-million dollar businesses who chose to pursue graduate studies in P.E., but I can't think of any. His actions at Memphis confirm this opinion. First, he allowed Calipari to insert language into the letters of intent that his players were signing that allowed the players out of the deal if Calipari wasn't there any longer; this is unheard of. Secondly, he waged a war to keep Calipari at Memphis without firing the shot that would have ended Kentucky's pursuit of Calipari immediately, releasing the NCAA letter of inquiry.

Also, reader John C. emails me a blog. Writing, "Do you want to pimp slap this legal argument, or do you want me to?" The writer believes the reason Memphis's athletic director didn't release the letter was because he was afraid of being charged with tortious interference with a contract. Seriously. It's so cute when non-lawyers Google legal causes of action. R.C. Johnson doesn't even know what a tort is. But if he did, he might be aware that you can't interfere with a contract when you already have a coach signed to a contract and the contract you're accusing someone of violating doesn't even exist. To put it in paragraph form via wikipedia:

Tortious interference with contract rights can occur where the tortfeasor convinces a party to breach the contract against the plaintiff, or where the tortfeasor disrupts the ability of one party to perform his obligations under the contract, thereby preventing the plaintiff from receiving the performance promised. The hardcore instance of this tort occurs when one party induces another party to breach a contract with a third party, in circumstances where the first party has no privilege to act as it does and acts with knowledge of the existence of the contract. Such conduct is termed tortious inducement of breach of contract.

You can agree or disagree with whether or not R.C. Johnson should have used the NCAA letter to his advantage (I obviously think he should have), but you can't use tortious contract law to justify your position. Unless your readers are too dumb to recognize that you don't even know what you're writing about. Then, type away.

I'm up in Michigan for the week and will be away from my computer most of the day. But my columns will still be going up this week at FanHouse. Tomorrow I'll be writing on Crompton's death threat and a column on seven changes I'd make to sports. Not sure when exactly they'll be up. But they will be up sooner or later. They'll show up here. Or you can head to the front page of Fanhouse and click next to my dashing photograph.

Labels: r.c. johnson mitch barnhart idiot athletic directors

Posted by Clay Travis at 12:06 AM
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1 Comments:

Anonymous said...: This from a fan of the athletic department that hired the clown prince of the SEC to coach football...that's rich.

Also Mitch worked at UT for years, just sayin'...glass houses, stones, don't work all that well.; June 2, 2009 9:50 PM

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