Reasons shaky for protection of college athletes

What is one to make of this? The matter doesn’t smell good and shoving it aside is not easy.

Marcus Vick was the star quarterback at Virginia Tech this past season. He was an early Heisman candidate. His brother is Michael, who quarterbacks the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL and also played at Tech.

Marcus had one problem after another in college. He was suspended a season ago for legal problems. He came back and got in trouble at a college party that involved underage girls who were drinking, with Marcus being accused as one of those supplying the liquor.

In the Gator Bowl this month, Marcus stomped on the leg of a downed opponent and incurred the wrath of the football world, and properly so. He said he apologized to the opponent after the game. He lied.

Last week he was booted from the team as two traffic violations, not serious in and of themselves, became for the university the final straw.

That said, it seems fairly easy to reach the end result of Marcus being booted from the program. During the year, I covered a Tech game and met with both Marcus and his coach, Frank Beamer. There are issues.

Beamer would not allow the ABC-TV crew to interview Marcus if we asked about the incident with the girls and drinking. Beamer was his usual cordial and straightforward self and said he just wanted to give Marcus, “a good kid,” a chance to play and move on.

Beamer was also moving along. He had completed a deal for himself that pays him some $2 million a year. He was holding back at the time from signing his deal until he negotiated raises for his coaches. He did that.

These new deals for the football program came because Beamer has turned a down-and-out program to one of the highest ranked in the nation. The trip to the Gator Bowl this year would not have happened without Marcus Vick running the offense.

As we see repeatedly happen in the athletic world, so long as the player is making a winner, and a millionaire, out of the programs and people he/she plays for, the tether is long and the “protection” from having to face real consequences of improper or illegal acts is great.

Such protection has never been a favor to the athlete. Marcus Vick would have been gone for good two years ago if he wasn’t the most important face in the Tech offense. He went too far, no question, but was he kept around just long enough for the program to rake in bowl dollars and coaches to sign new deals?

I don’t know Frank Beamer well, but he seems honestly interested in his players and has a solid reputation as an up-front and caring coach. Still, the whole Marcus Vick dismissal is troubling in its timing.

Vick has opted to leave school and make a run at the NFL. There is no reason to believe his troubles are over. After leaving school, he was charged with brandishing a firearm in public. He is another star athlete who thinks he bears no responsibility for his acts.

Was Vick a pawn used as long as the school and the coaches believed they could make some money and discarded when the bucks were in and his liability outweighed any further use?

Or, was Vick given an honest chance to right himself in the context of a college football player, punished and afforded chances in a fair manner?

I just don’t know for sure, but I wish the school had answered these questions when it decided to kick out Vick. I have not seen such discussions. They are worth having.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.