Armstrong, Ken and Nick Perry. Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime, and Complicity. Cloth: alk.paper: 372 pages. University of Nebraska Press (2010) ISBN -978-0-8032-2810-8. Includes bibliographic references and index.
Reviewed by Dick Stull
The title, "Scoreboard, Baby" was former Colorado Buffaloes football coach Rick Neuheisel's retort to comments made by the losing coach who accused Neuheisel's players of illegal tactics on the field. A few years later Neuheisel was paid $1,000,000 to revive the Washington Huskies football program. He delivered a "mystical, magical dream season" in the year 2000, culminating in a dramatic Rose Bowl victory. Armstrong and Perry's thorough and compelling investigation reveals the facts behind a different scoreboard. Four of every five players failed to meet minimum University of Washington admission standards. One out of three players graduated. Twenty-four players on Washington's 2000 football team were arrested or charged with some crime during their years at the university. The authors write:
"Some players do serious damage. Some get used up. A city looks away and the game goes on. Variations of this story-more about culture than sports, more about a community than a team - can be found in colleges across the country. Florida State, Ohio State, Texas A&M. Washington isn't an aberration, it is an example."
Through extensive review of public records and interviews, the authors detail the complicity of Seattle community members, law enforcement officials, coaches, players, members of the legal profession, local media, and the university in this tale of "twisted values."
A sorority student is raped, allegedly by another player. Circumstantial and DNA evidence appears to be conclusive - but not so in the eyes of the prosecutors. The student, a highly personable and outstanding academic achiever, has her life irrevocably changed. Her mother reports her eyes are simply "empty." Police records in this case and in others are "sealed," community service or time served is designated "after football season," "domestic abuse" is not reported, an armed robbery and shooting investigation is stalled. There is the sad Greek tragedy of a fearless, much-admired player who is paralyzed while making a vicious hit. He becomes a martyred symbol for his team and the community but his violent past presents a difficult moral conflict for reporters "in the know" who would like the greater narrative to be about redemption for the player and the team's season.
Armstrong and Perry's skillful setting up of some of the key players' back-stories often reveal the athletes' Jekyll-and-Hyde personalities. Many are well-spoken and are thought of highly by their teammates, their coaches, and members of the media -- but many also show extreme entitlement and ugly, violent behavior. The authors' recounting of the personal hardships encountered by many of them during their early years gives the reader enough context to understand but not excuse their actions. The "demands" of football and their own unrealistic expectations of future stardom make it hard to imagine that all but the most capable, motivated, and highly disciplined of them can get a meaningful academic experience - there simply aren't enough hours in the day. The authors point out the insular world of football, a culture unto itself within the greater university. These things are not new to anyone familiar with division 1 sports, but
it's the dogged reporting of the day-by-day devils in the details that makes Scoreboard, Baby so compelling. You simply can't rationalize away so many facts into simplistic moralistic story-lines.
There are of course courageous and honorable individuals. An academically unexceptional athlete is encouraged by one of his coaches and a committed, caring college advisor to go abroad. He becomes the University of Washington's first athlete to win the Mary Gate's scholarship (established by Microsoft founder Bill Gates) in recognition of undergraduate research or leadership potential. He travels to South Africa and goes through a transformative experience at a small rural school and gets an advanced degree. There are also hardworking people in the system that do their best to do the right thing. Some police investigators go beyond the call of duty. One, a female officer, shows uncommon tenacity and compassion for the rape victim in trying to obtain justice. Another officer refuses to let up on an investigation of a robbery and shooting case involving a star player though he knows it is a highly sensitive community issue.
A further plus of the book is the authors' descriptions of some of the season's games themselves, and, in particular, the Rose Bowl thriller against Purdue. The gripping stories behind the scenes ratchet up the drama and ironies. You are momentarily transported - "The game's the thing!" Alas, this silver lining doesn't convince the reader that the dark clouds of greed won't eventually rain on any parade, however. You already know too much.
The authors' epilogue in Scoreboard, Baby makes it hard to imagine that any fundamental systemic changes can alter the all-too-human temptation towards riches, power and fame - greed is still "good." People will find a way to get around regulations whether it's the SEC and Wall Street, the Minerals Management Service and oil drilling, or the NCAA and college football. Like the revolving door where lobbyists switch hats with regulators on Capitol Hill, coaches and administrators are recycled, reforms come quickly after scandal, but human nature regresses to the mean reality of Mammon.
Past is Prologue? If there was ever a "bread and circuses" break from reality, college football is as good as it gets. The authors set us up in the first chapter. And they're right, as any college football fan can attest. There's nothing quite like the pageantry, the color, the marching bands, the drama, the passion - the thrill of the game. Decades ago in my teens, my dad and I attended a Stanford-USC football game that had Rose Bowl and national championship implications written all over it. Biting into our hot dogs amidst the din just before the opening kickoff, my dad turned to me and said laughingly, "When I was your age my father took me to a meat-packing plant. After seeing what goes into one of these, I couldn't eat a hot dog for 20 years!" Then came the kickoff, and God, what a game it was! Scoreboard, Baby is a much harder truth to digest.
Dick Stull
Arcata, CA
