High school should have passed on Neuheisel

This is the same guy who NCAA audio tapes show repeatedly lied about his involvement in a big-time college betting pool. This is the guy who ducked whether he was interviewing for a pro football gig while still coaching the Huskies. This is the guy who got caught in mess after mess, fib after fib -- and bobbed and weaved and deceived his way out of it.

A fine role model for young people, right? Leadership at its very best?

"It's a good fit for our program," Rainier Beach coach Mark Haley gushed. "He brings a lot of experience and knowledge of the game. Anything that helps our kids, that's what we're looking for."

Translation: If Neuheisel helps Rainier Beach win, that's all that really matters.

Sports rule!

What next? An NFL player, suspended for violating the league's substance abuse policy, volunteers as special teams coach for the school?

What's worse is the deafening silence surrounding this matter.

You don't see the Seattle School Board saying maybe this wasn't the wisest move.

You don't hear the principal publicly questioning whether Neuheisel's presence contradicts values the school and parents hope to instill in young hearts and minds.

You hear only a few people telling Rick thanks but no thanks.

This lack of circumspection is particularly troubling given what happened just two months ago. The NAACP called for the head of a white Seattle public school teacher who used an ill-advised racial slur during a classroom "teaching moment."

Brian Emanuels was trying to show a student how using the word "gay" could offend some people. Emanuels asked the African American student how would he feel if someone called him the N-word.

It was a boneheaded move by the first-year teacher at Cleveland High School. Emanuels had no known track record of hurling epithets.

He got what he deserved -- a written reprimand; the district appropriately said what happened wasn't grounds for termination.

Emanuels apologized and that should have been that.

He didn't return to the classroom, but when the NAACP found out he was quietly working at home to build the school's computer database, they erupted.

They wanted him to sever all ties.

Like Neuheisel, Emanuels, a former Microsoft executive, is well off. He didn't go to the school for the money. He sincerely believed in imparting his trove of computer knowledge to inner-city kids with hungry minds.

But unfortunate pressure from a vocal minority forced out a teacher who many people considered to be, like Neuheisel, "a good fit."

The message in the Emanuels case was clear: Make a politically incorrect mistake -- based on good intentions -- just once and you're toast in the school.

Those are the consequences.

The message in Neuheisel's instance is equally clear: Make mistake after mistake as the state's highest-paid public employee, show questionable moral character, get canned and take your baggage anywhere you damn well please -- in this case, Rainier Beach.

Such is the twisted logic of a public that worships at the altar of sports: Just bring your name, your football fame and we'll overlook a past that is lame.

Neuheisel's leap to Rainier Beach also smacks of a slick campaign to polish a bruised image. The timing speaks volumes. About the same time the damning NCAA tapes come out, Neuheisel high-steps to the South End for pigskin redemption in the 'hood.

"This is pure," Neuheisel insists of his advisory role. "It's young people wanting to be better people, both on and off the field. I appreciate a chance to be a part of it."

This from a guy who just sued the UW for firing him, saying other people lied at the university and got away with it. So why then, he suggests, should he be the one to get in all this trouble?

Gee, what a terrific lesson to impart to young people: Hey kids, just point the finger at everyone else, just shirk personal accountability, just resort to semantic gymnastics rather than speaking the truth.

Most of the Rainier Beach team will not go on to Division I college programs. The lasting lessons they will get from their coaches will be more than gridiron X's and O's.

Neuheisel talks a good game, even if he seems oblivious to the link between actions and the consequences. He wants the Rainier Beach kids to be better people, he says, on and off the field.

If only he practiced what he preaches.

Surely, the win-hungry coaches at Rainier Beach know Neuheisel's rules are ill-suited for the most important game of all.

Life.

P-I columnist Robert L. Jamieson Jr. can be reached at 206-448-8125 or robertjamieson@seattlepi.com

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