Air Force VS Northwestern

[TXMike]

Bama: Have you seen the incident on the TV or just the clip that is posted on the internet?

Woody Paige's take:

NU coach offers up excuses
By Woody Paige, Denver Post Sports Columnist

Possibly, in a few years when Chance Harridge is flying an F-16C into harm's way and protecting the life and liberty of young Americans, including Jada Peterson, her dad finally will apologize to the United States Air Force officer.

Maybe, by Sept. 16, 2006, when the Air Force football team returns to Evanston, Ill., to play Northwestern, the 41-yard-old Jay Peterson will have grown up.

Most likely, the Northwestern assistant and the school's head coach, Randy Walker, will be fired before Harridge finishes pilot training or the next inevitable victory by the Falcons over their inferior Big Ten opponent.

Peterson and Walker must be liars, fools, dressmaker's dummies or unskilled manual laborers - or a dangerous combination.

Certainly, those two dull objects with a dim-bulb coaching mentality certainly shouldn't be supervising young student-athletes.

After belatedly and reluctantly scanning a tape of his deliberate or accidental assault on Harridge on Saturday afternoon, Peterson said, "Wow, I don't remember that."

Peterson is neither an officer nor a gentleman.

In the game at Northwestern, Harridge, the Falcons' accomplished senior quarterback, fumbled, and John Pickens recovered. Without thinking, Peterson recklessly rushed out onto the field to man-hug the linebacker and - this fact is indisputable, except to Peterson - his flailing left elbow struck a sharp, direct blow to Harridge's chin.

Harridge responded to the forearm burst with a right cross to Peterson's side.

Harridge was charged with a flagrant foul and ejected from the game.

Peterson was not penalized, continued to coach and has not been suspended, admonished or even cautioned about similar future conduct.

Instead, Walker, Northwestern athletic director Mark Murphy and Big Ten Conference commissioner Jim Delany have shielded and supported the coach.

I'm surprised the three "adults" didn't claim that Harridge used his chin to slam into Peterson's elbow. How juvenile.

The cover-up is unbecoming.

Until the video was released, Walker wouldn't divulge the name of the assistant. Eventually, Walker griped that it was "preposterous" for anyone to believe that Peterson intentionally hit Harridge.

It was not preposterous for anyone who looked at the slow-motion tape of the incident to reach that sound conclusion. Several impartial viewers have said it was evident Peterson loaded up his forearm to pop Harridge in the jaw.

To begin with, Peterson didn't belong on the field - and should have drawn 15 yards for the rules violation. Then he clearly lifted his elbow and changed its trajectory toward and into Harridge's face.

Peterson was very pleased about the turnover. He had watched in agony from the sideline (where he stayed) last year at Air Force Academy as Harridge ran and threw for three touchdowns in the first 16 minutes and en route to a 52-3 rout over Northwestern. And Peterson was forced to review that game over and over since. He desperately wanted revenge - but, alas, even without Harridge, Air Force rallied to beat Northwestern, 22-21.

For days afterward Peterson hid behind Walker's back and refused to address the issue.

Col. Randy Spetman, the Air Force athletic director, said it was "a very unusual situation for an assistant coach to be on the playing field and to strike a player." Coach Fisher DeBerry said he would expect to be fired if he pulled a similar stunt - "and rightly so ... I'd be very concerned if one of my assistants did something like that."

W. PAIGE ON ESPN
Woody Paige can be seen regularly on "Around the Horn," which airs daily at 3 p.m. on ESPN and 12:30 a.m. on ESPN2. He can be heard from 5-6 p.m. Wednesdays on ESPN radio 560 AM. He can be e-mailed here. For more information about Paige, visit WoodyPaige.com.

Former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes was fired for striking a player in the 1978 Gator Bowl, and his successor, Earle Bruce, was fired at Colorado State for, in part, grabbing the face masks of his own players.

What do they teach the coaches in that conference? Even if a coach won't admit he purposely threw an elbow at a player, in a civil society a man who has bumped another apologizes.

But Peterson has no such class or dignity. He remains in denial.

When, at last, he was confronted by Jay Mariotti, late of The Denver Post and now a longtime columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times, Peterson seemed indignant that the accusation had been made.

"I am very disappointed in them. I don't understand the motivation" of the Air Force Academy, he said.

The motivation might be to get the coach to understand that none of his post-fumble actions should have been tolerated.

"I'm wrong to go on the field, but I got caught up in the celebration," Peterson said, justifying what he did. "I do that quite a bit."

By his own admission, Peterson erupts. And he will again as long as Northwestern and the conference don't punish him.

Peterson's memory is as faulty as his judgment. The coach maintains he doesn't remember anything that happened - a convenient excuse.

Harridge shouldn't have counterpunched, but he was kicked out of the game and humiliated, and he later addressed his teammates and appeared contrite.

Peterson is not being held accountable. Rather, the head coach, the school and the conference have treated Peterson as if he were the victim.

But that attitude is typical in this football program at Northwestern, a university that purports to have higher standards.

In August 2001, safety Rashidi Wheeler and other Northwestern players were required to participate in a rigid conditioning exercise - 28 sprints of 40 to 100 yards. The 22-year-old Wheeler collapsed and passed out, but the drill proceeded.

Wheeler died.

When his mother sued, the university's argument was that Wheeler had taken an ephedra-based supplement.

The football coaches wouldn't accept any responsibility for the death.

Thank goodness Harridge wasn't seriously injured by Peterson's field rage.

Possibly, maybe, most likely, Peterson would have claimed self-defense