No sooner than they reported on the incident, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has what could be the first comments from Mike Haywood since his release.
In speaking to the Tribune-Review on the phone, Haywood says that the truth will come out:
University of Pittsburgh football coach Mike Haywood posted bond this afternoon and has been released from an Indiana jail.
"It isn't fair," Haywood told the Tribune-Review in a telephone interview. "The truth will eventually come out."
Well, as I mentioned yesterday, even if it turns out that this isn't as bad as it sounds, at the very least, it still looks awful for both Pitt and for Haywood. The fact is that Haywood was hired in part because of his character and integrity - athletic director Steve Pederson practically said as much:
He was introduced as Pitt's head football coach on Dec. 16 by Pitt Athletic Director Steve Pederson, who referred to him as a man of "character and integrity" who had qualities that were "absolutely in line with the values of this great university."
Mr. Pederson spoke highly of Mr. Haywood's reputation as a disciplinarian who would hold players accountable and be a "good role model" for Pitt's players. He talked at length about the structure and discipline Mr. Haywood would bring to the program.
Good role model? Well, I'm not saying he can't be that. But like I said above, this at least
looks bad. The problem for Pitt and Pederson is that they held Haywood up to such a high standard. He came from a small school and, like I've said plenty of times, had only one year of success as a head coach. That was it. Pitt obviously couldn't hang its hat on that, so they held up Haywood as a virtue of everything that's right. So for something like this to happen, even if all of the details aren't necessarily known...
Well it looks bad.
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