Column: Sports always provides a conduit to forgiveness

Sorry, Rick Pitino’s return to the NCAA Tournament is not some feel-good tale of redemption, no matter how others might try to portray it.

Same goes for all those other coaches and players who got second, third, even fourth chances to make up for their transgressions — or, even worse, have them shoved under a rug that no one is ever supposed to go looking under.

The bottom line: Just because you have a penchant for winning, that doesn’t make you a winner.

We’re looking at you, Les Miles.

You, too, Domingo German.

While we’re at it, let’s not forget Kareem Hunt. And Kyle Larson. And Mickey Callaway. And Hugh Freeze. And Bobby Petrino. Even Kobe Bryant, whose sexual assault case from early in his dazzling career was largely forgotten amid all the tributes that flowed in the wake of his tragic death.

Sports has always provided a undemanding conduit to forgiveness, a get-out-jail-free card to anyone who displays a knack for bolstering the bottom line of whatever team or school comes calling.

Pitino is only the latest example in a long line of those who could rely on their success inside the lines to trump whatever sins they committed away from the arenas and stadiums.

And, rest assured, he won’t be the last.

Let’s not forget, Pitino didn’t even lose his job at Louisville after a tawdry extortion case that stemmed from his brief sexual encounter inside a restaurant with a woman who was not his wife. Later, it was revealed that he had paid for an abortion and the woman wound up marrying a member of his staff.

Granted, Pitino was the victim of the extortion plot, but his personal behavior should have been a huge red flag to the university.

It was not.

Pitino’s downfall in 2017 came only after the Cardinals were accused of paying players and arranging...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Column-Sports-always-provides-a-conduit-to-16039262.php