Well, that takes care of that.
Eric Scott was reinstated Saturday following a brief stay on administrative leave due to his alleged involvement in a Norwalk-area burglary in late July. After a brief investigation, the Los Angeles County District Attorney decided not to press charges against Scott, although one of the men he was arrested with may still face a related gun charge.
Amid a summer of sports-related scandals, so ends UCLA’s little case study on football justice. All things considered, it was quick and relatively painless.
It’s a shame things can’t be so easy for, say, Michael Vick or “Pacman” Jones.
Granted, Scott isn’t remotely on the same level as No. 7 or the “Pacman.” Scott is a first-year wide receivers coach known best for his inner-city recruiting, not the scrambling face of an NFL franchise or a talented cornerback with a catchy nickname. And allegedly being involved with breaking into a house isn’t exactly the same thing as allegedly bankrolling a dog-fighting ring or allegedly making it rain at NBA All-Star Weekend.
But the spirit of Scott’s case is the same because of the same key word in every situation: allegedly.
See, none of these three has actually been found guilty of anything yet. And yet all three have had to face consequences: Scott has been reinstated, but Vick and Jones remain barred from their teams’ training camps, and Jones has been suspended for the year. Vick hasn’t been officially sent home for the season, but right now it’s hard to imagine him suiting up again for the Falcons ever, let alone this year.
The problem here is that Scott, Vick and Jones are all at the intersection of criminal justice, athletic justice and public opinion. Each one is expected to represent a larger organization and, fair or not, is held to a higher standard than the rest of the public.
Between how slowly the real criminal justice system works and how impatient public opinion is, athletic justice is forced to swoop in and deal with people who have only “allegedly” committed a crime.
That puts people like Scott, Vick and Jones in an uncomfortable limbo. As soon as their respective transgressions hit the press, their organizations became obligated to deal with them. In Scott’s case, there wasn’t exactly the same public outrage that came for Vick or Jones. Again, he’s not a star and his alleged crimes weren’t as severe. But I can’t help but think that had Karl Dorrell not placed Scott on leave as quickly as he did, someone somewhere would have objected.
So that’s where things get difficult. In today’s world of round-the-clock news coverage, the public, or at least the media, seems to want action right away, even if all the facts aren’t in and no one really understands yet what a player or coach is being punished for. Organizations are stuck: Hang tough while their players and coaches are under investigation and on trial and they risk alienating their fans; come down too quickly or too strongly and alienate those coaches and players.
At this point it’s become pretty clear that athletic organizations ““ be they professional or collegiate ““ are no longer in the business of standing by their men. It’s the fans who buy tickets after all, so suspensions are handed out.
Fortunately, Scott’s story has a happy ending. UCLA took the middle road and placed him on paid leave while the police investigated. Nothing sufficient to press charges turned up, so the investigation was dropped and Scott was reinstated. Scott keeps his job, UCLA athletics looks both law-abiding and loyal, and everybody pretty much wins. Even if along the way it came out that Scott has a more extensive criminal history than UCLA was aware of, at least all parties involved should be a little wiser for the experience.
Vick and Jones on the other hand are still stuck in the gray area, suspended from playing as they wait for their trial dates. They’ll be waiting there for a long time until the criminal justice system deals with their cases. Until then, public opinion and athletic justice preside, and Vick and Jones serve interim time for what they’ve allegedly done. So they sit, their corporate sponsors flee, and the media judges.
And the rest of us? We wait and watch, and wonder at what will happen next. At least now we’re not waiting on one of our own.
If you find it sad that “athletic justice” is a legitimate issue, and not the name of a daytime TV series, Lampros can be contacted at nlampros@media.ucla.edu.