Virginia Tech’s blind obsession with becoming a national football powerhouse and its look-the-other-way mentality at coach Frank Beamer’s recruitment of thugs and gang bangers for his football team is giving the school another public relations nightmare when it can least afford it.
A federal grand jury’s indictment of former Tech quarterback Michael Vick on charges of sponsoring a dog fighting operation may well destroy the national mood of sympathy generated after the mass murder on the Blacksburg campus earlier this year. With the national spotlight already on Tech, those same journalists who rode roughshod over the town during the aftermath of the shootings will now turn their attention to Beamer’s questionable recruiting practices and the school’s long history of covering up the misdeeds of its star athletes.
Area police knew Vick as a troublemaker with a long history of involvement in dog fighting and other illegal activities during his time at Tech but the university pressured local law enforcement to bury reports of his arrests and records of his crimes simply disappeared from the files of the Blacksburg Police and Montgomery County Sheriff’s departments.
Tech successfully quashed an investigation into Vick’s dog fighting activities during his student days. All of this will likely come back to haunt the school as the investigation continues, Virginia issues its own indictments, and Vick goes to trial.
And what does emerge could erase Tech’s reputation as a top-notch engineering school and first-rate agriculture research facility. It could reveal how the school administration’s obsession with becoming a big time football school with big time TV exposure and major league bucks became a driving force, eclipsing more academic pursuits.
It will most likely define forever the tattered legacy of Beamer, the Fancy Gap boy who rose to fame and fortune on the shoulders of a team built from street thugs and gang members. The Vick brothers – Michael and Marcus – stand out as his star pupils but they are only part of the questionable history of Beamer’s teams. Area police files are filled with records of arrests of, and complaints filed against, members of Tech’s football program.
A Blacksburg cop tells me a cheer went up in the squad room when word of Vick’s indictment arrived. Too many times, they were forced to look the other way when Vick got into trouble. Too many times, the two thousand pound gorilla called Virginia Tech exercised its muscle to cover up the truth. Coverups are so much a part of Tech’s operation that Beamer even covered up Marcus’s run-in with the law, and concealed the fact from university officials, so the kid could play in a bowl game. And he got away with it, only to see Vick embarass the school on national TV.
No more. If justice is served, Frank Beamer and Virginia Tech will get what they deserve.
It should not have happened. It need not have happened. But it did and, in the end, we all will pay for Tech’s stupidity.
Any reasonable person would admit that Frank Beamer isn’t much of a disciplinarian, but I seriously doubt that he knew about Vick’s alleged penchant for dogfighting. There are a lot of players on the team and I don’t think it is reasonable for a coach to know everything his players get into. If Beamer or anyone at VT pressured local police departments not to arrest/press charges on a player they should be fired. The high number of Hokie football players that have been in legal trouble leads me to question that this has gone on.
…however, Frank Beamer has publicly discussed his close relationship with his players and, in particular, with the Vick family, including visits to the family home and their mother.
Beamer admitted knowing about Marcus Vick’s arrest before Tech’s bowl appearance, didn’t tell University officials about it and allowed Vick to play. That suggests to me a coach who knows about his players’ faults and problems but chooses to keep the damaging information secret so they can continue to play.
I felt Beamer should have been fired when he acknowleded the cover-up on Marcus Vick. If the information of a similar cover-up on Michael turns out to be true (and I have every reason to believe it is) then he should not only be fired but also charged with obstruction of justice.
I’m a Tech alumni but I’m ashamed of the cruelty to animals that Michael Vick either sponsored or allowed, through omission, to occur on his property.
Like you Doug I’ve watched Tech become obsessed with its football program to the detriment to the other fine things that the university offers. The bill for all this excess is about to come due and I’m afraid it will be those of who graduated from, and supported, Tech all these years who will pay.
Frank Beamer should be fired and Tech should return to its roots. This will not be the first university ruined by the lure of college sports money but I pray it will be the last.
I’m from a rival school; . Wva and we have Pacman Jones and Chris Henry smearing our recruiting. My sister who works there keeps saying . They are not that bad. A teacher for 42 years, I say. oh yes they are!!!. Substance above flash any day I say.. Great waterfall!!
I’ve been a longtime reader of your columns on Capitol Hill Blue and I admire your ability to place complex issues into perspective. Your comments on Virginia Tech show the school has lost its perspective. After what the school has experienced in this terrible year the last thing it needs is another scandal but the school shall reap what it has sown.