CU coach placed on leave for saying Hnida 'awful'

[La_Serpiente]

CU coach placed on leave for saying Hnida 'awful'

BOULDER, Colorado (CNN) -- University of Colorado football coach Gary Barnett was placed on paid administrative leave because of his disparaging remarks about the university's only female placekicker, who has accused a teammate of rape, CU President Elizabeth Hoffman announced late Wednesday.

"In the context of a rape allegations, it is inappropriate to make statements about the ability of the player," Hoffman said.

Barnett had called Katie Hnida an "awful" player.

Hnida, a CU placekicker in 1999, told Sports Illustrated this week that she was raped by a teammate and that she was verbally abused, harassed and molested by her fellow players.

At a news conference shortly after Hoffman announced the university's decision to place Barnett on leave, the coach read a prepared statement in which he accepted the reprimand -- noting that he did not agree with it -- and accused the media of taking his comments out of context.

more...

CU coach placed on leave for saying Hnida 'awful'

[hlthe2b]

1. Off topic.... Is that a young Howard Hughes in your signline photo?

just curious...

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

26. I think it's Federico Garcia Lorca.

[hlthe2b]

47. Yup... I'm not too current on Spanish poets and writers....

but, I do know the name...

[Archae]

2. Even money that coach is a republican.

Why do I say this?

Because when they totally screw up, "It's the media's fault, not mine!"

Sheesh. What an asshole.

[Demonaut]

21. what an idiot, did he expect her ability hinged on rape or respect??

[MaineDem]

3. I was flabergasted by his statement!

What an insensitive clod!

He said "she was a girl and she was awful". I can't believe he made those remarks in the context of a rape allegation. And the football team already has such a bad rep in this regard.


This action was the least Hoffman could have done. I'm disgusted by this coach.

[Ripley]

4. I saw him, he actually said she was TERRIBLE.

After he said she was a girl. And he had a weird angry, me-the-victim look on his face when he said it. It certainly sounded to me like he was justifying any violence against her.

What is it in Colorado...isn't that where all of the rapes occur at an Air force Academy? Is rape just a casual thing in that state?

[hlthe2b]

6. Look, don't disparage an entire state, for heavens sake....

Colorado does not have a lock on misogynist, chauvanistic, assholes.... And, when you speak of a military academy, realize how few are Colorado natives-- they come from throughout the country.

Yes, we have our share of RW idiots and fundies. But, from what I can tell, Colorado has no lock on that either.

No, rape is not just a casual thing in the state. But, on this issue, our media is doing its job to investigate and expose these issues. Can you say that they would do the same (with certainty) in your own state?

[Ripley]

7. Sorry, forgot that dang "sarcasm" again.

Sheesh. Of course I was not serious...I'm sure California has more rapes than Colorado just due to the population difference.

Yes, my state reports every single rape reported in the state (there are so few, I guess).

I'm just sick of hearing about these rapes obviously tolerated for years and years. The Air Force Academy thing is about 10 years old. Who is in jail? Who was fired? This school thing is 3 years old.

You have a beautiful state (in pictures) and I'd love to visit it some day. :hi:

[hlthe2b]

10. You should! (come visit Colorado)

I share your frustration on the air force academy, but it does not appear much of the authority for dealing with it is in local hands...

7News broke the sexual assault scandal at the United States Air Force Academy. The investigation detailed stories of female cadets victimized by fellow cadets and exposed a system and the commanders who covered up and ignored them. The reports prompted the following:

removal of Academy leadership including the two top generals
demotion in rank of the Academy superintendent
Congressional hearings into conduct of officers in charge and the culture and climate at the Academy
an Air Force Inspector General's investigation
a Department of Defense Inspector General's investigation
an internal Air Force General Council's investigation
a Civilian Review panel investigation reporting directly to Congress
a new Academy administration that has begun implementing 147 changes to reform the Academy's culture, climate, and conduct toward female cadets
new sex assault programs and procedures which prohibit investigation of the victim; amnesty for victims and witnesses from lesser cadet infractions used to deter reporting sexual assault; and an action team made up of medical, psychological, legal, and law enforcement officials to support the victim and investigate the crime

7News aired Air Force Academy reports on 97 separate days beginning Feb. 12 through June 30 encompassing nearly six hours of programming -- including a one hour primetime special on May 31. more:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/denvers7/2800973/detail.html


As for the CU thing, I'm not sure it is unusual that it has taken 3 years for the whole scandal to come to light.... As we've seen with all the Bush administrations' misdeeds, those involved take great pains to cover up. Good ole boy networks are certainly pervasive in sports as well as politics.

[Ripley]

13. I think I've got it now.

The Academy is run by the Federal government so local jurisdiction doesn't apply. The Academy is supposed to send out the best and the brightest of our military. Honorable men and women who should be up to the highest standards. They are role models.

If this was an isolated case, I would say "there will always be exceptions to the rule." Hold the individual responsible. But when a pervasive pattern of unacceptable violence against women is tolerated for decades in large institutions, and I see this happening more and more frequently since Smirkaholic was selected, something is terribly wrong. It is not an individual matter anymore, it seems to be a societal problem. Take DU for example. Lots and lots of female bashing goes on and it is tolerated for the most part. When women are expected to accept the use of the word c*** here because "we're all adults" (which we are not by the way...there is at least one 14 year old girl here), something is wrong with even small progressive societies in America.

End of rant.

P.S. So glad to see some heads rolled at the Academy, thanks for posting the info. Hopefully there will be a cultural change there.

[Spentastic]

14. Now now

"Lots and lots of female bashing goes on "

Really? Perhaps I'm blind, but could you point some of the "lots" out for me?

Additionally I've never seen the C word used here.

[Ripley]

34. See post #18 below.

To begin with. And #36.

[BigBigBear]

17. No it isn't...

what a stupid question.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

[skippysmom]

5. Good for CU

Hope Barnett has his resume updated.

[Cooley Hurd]

8. He wasn't placed on leave for saying she was "awful..."

He was placed on leave for saying she was assaulted because she wasn't a good player.

Why wasn't this stupid, ignorant bastard FIRED???

I hope Katie SUES HIS ASS!!!

GO KATIE!!!

[Sequoia]

16. Right on! Let's keep the heat on so he'll be fired

The lout. How could he possibly think his words "were taken out of context"? What a coward and a worm he is. Send him to jail and those boys there will show him what out of context means. I hope she sues too and that other women will come forward. This crap against women has to stop.

[Gemini Cat]

38. He said "his words were taken out of context"

Right.
My bloody arse!
I understood perfectly what the little terd worm was saying, yesterday as well as today. Now the worm wanker is trying to play "victim" of the media. Yeah, right-o. It won't wash worm wanker!
I hate stupid people and this guy classifies as one.

:dem:

[deceased]

19. lynch mob?

im not looking to get banned or yelled at but, this has to be said.

im having a very hard time finding anything online that documents gary barnetts comments, if anyone can point out a source or webpage id be greatfull.

but of what i remember, barnett was asked by a reporter why the girl was being harassed by other members of the team, and he responeded that it was because she was a girl and because she wasnt that good. and that some players felt that she didnt belong on the team.

gary barnett was not fired for making this statement, hes a football coach not a public relations manager. it seems that the media and the head of CU are looking for a scapegoat. bill owens wants public accountability and gary barnett is the sacrifical goat.

after all that i read the only thing gary barnett has done wrong is stick his foot in his mouth, other than that there is no evidence to prove anything otherwise.

i dont follow football, i dont know all the rules and regulations, but it would seem to me that a coach wouldnt be held accountable for what a player does on his own time. for me at least i think human beings should be responsible for their own actions.

all i have to say is stop acting like a lynch mob, wait till the evidence comes out...its innocent untill proven guilty. not 'because the mob says so'

[Cooley Hurd]

22. He said, and I quote:

<snip>
"It's a guy's sport, and they felt like Katie was forced on them," Barnett said. "It was obvious Katie was not very good. She was awful."

"You know what guys do, they respect your ability. I mean you can be 90 years old, but if you can go out and play, they respect you.

"Well, Katie was a girl. Not only was she a girl, she was terrible. And there's no other way to say it. She couldn't kick the ball through the uprights."
</snip>

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Central/02/19/colorado.football/index.html

They also have the video...

[newyawker99]

52. Hi deceased!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[bushisanidiot]

9. Does He Publicly Denounce His Male Players Like This? uh.. no!

coaches don't go on the record saying individual players are "awful". they may say someone had a bad day on the field, etc. but they don't give a blanket statement as to the player's athletic ability. that's not coaching.. that's bitching.

Barnett should be fired for being a horrible leader. He was hired to lead, not bitch.

[progressiverealist]

11. Gary Barnett is an egotistical pile of horse crap

When he coached in the Big Ten, at Northwestern, he had the dirtiest team in the conference- hits after almost every whistle, etc. His postgame comments were always an exercise in how to be a sore winner (his teams did win). Much like Bush*, he squandered whatever goodwill there might have been regarding the 'Cats newfound success.

I hate Gary Barnett.

[Rich Hunt]

41. ha ha ha

lots of NU alums agree with you, actually.

This is no surprise - Barnett was -always- a pompous jerk.

[donco6]

48. I agree - and I'm from Colorado

He's always been an ass.

[flamingyouth]

12. Three cheers for Mr. Sensitivity

What an asshole. Gee, it's hard to imagine Ms. Hnida being "verbally abused, harassed and molested by her fellow players" under the watch of this pile of pond scum. :eyes:

[RoadRunner]

15. Leave?

shoulda' fired his sorry ass after he practically said it was all her fault she got raped.

[BigBigBear]

18. I live in Boulder

and while I have zero affiliation with the University, never attended it and do not root for its football team, I gotta say this:

This girl was a walk-on to the CU football team. She was a fourth string kicker for a Division 1 school - football is pretty serious business for this University. I have now heard accounts from several of her former teammates on local radio call-in shows and they all agree on one basic point: based on her talent, she had NO BUSINESS being on the team. She COULDN'T KICK.

I heard Barnett's remarks on the TV interview, and he said (paraphrasing as closely as possible) "she was an awful kicker, she couldn't kick the football through the uprights."

Eventually she was cut.

I have no love for Gary Barnett nor the Buffs. Neuheisel was as bad or worse. Bill McCartney was Mr Promise Keeper himself. In 22 years here I have never attended a single game, and could count the number of games I have watched on TV on one hand. But look - this girl was a media creation and a Joan D'Arc for the equal-rights-in-male sports crowd. Had she been a phenomenal kicker, she would have earned the attention she got - but as it was, she was a needless distraction in the testosterone machine of a Div 1 football team, she added nothing to the talent pool, and was little more than symbol for some misguided, hyper-PC, girls-can-play-football-too delusion.

The complaints I heard centered around this: her former teammates uniformly say, if she doesn't name names to the local authorities to substantiate and pursue the rape allegation, she is besmerching the whole team, and that makes them mad. Short of that, she is perpetuating the media circus. There is NO EXCUSE for her being assualted, raped, abused, etc - but there is also NO EXCUSE for not pursuing charges, and speaking up as if her ordeal was orchestrated or tolerated by the University, the coaching staff or Boulder law enforcement.

Barnett strikes me as kind of a jerk - I honestly don't care if he gets suspended or not. Their program is in ruins right now, and frankly, I could care less. And in general, I'm fine with ANYONE getting a fair shot at a football team if they can carry their role. But I DID NOT hear Barnett says she earned or deserved physical or sexual abuse because of her lack of talent. That's beyond the pale.

Sorry if I'm taking the anti-PC stand on this one, but she should put put up (name her attacker(s)) or shut up. Throwing attractive blonde girls onto Div 1 football teams because it's a novel idea for sports feminism is just stupid, and just invites this kind of tragedy and attendent media circus.

[MaineDem]

20. Wow

Being a woman in a male-dominated field does not invite a sexual attack. If the atmosphere condones it, that just stinks!

I appreciate your thought-out remarks but I don't agree with you at all.

[BigDaddyLove]

28. Excellent post.

.

[Ripley]

31. A lot of very mean-spirited assumptions there.

First of all I saw the Sports Ill. reporter interviewed about her. He said she had one of the best high school records for kickers. So the facts seem to not support your remarks. Do you really think that feminist groups of America got together and pushed this young woman onto the team? She clearly had a good enough record to be put on the team.

Your over-the-top blasting of her because she is an attractive blonde girl is quite telling. If she was ugly and brunette would that make you feel better about her being "allowed" to kick on this team? Would that mean she wouldn't have been sexually harassed and possibly assaulted?

Since you think it is so misguided for females to kick footballs, tell me how big and tough NFL players like Martin Gramatica are?

[BigBigBear]

45. I think it's misguided

if they attempt to play on a big name Div team and can't perform.

I heard how the press came out the their practices, where they never would before, and all surrounded her with their cameras and microphones. She was a fourth-stringer, for chrissakes.

Who, precisely, benefitted from that?

[Ripley]

46. Now you blame her for the media attention?

Do you have proof of that..did she call the photographers and reporters to come watch her play? Maybe it's because it is a first, something unique. Kind of like Jackie Robinson. I believe he got an awful lot of coverage too. Who benefits from that? It's called news. I won't argue whether they went overboard on it, because obviously the media today is run like Entertainment Tonight.

[skippysmom]

32. Here;s the problem

Barnett and the members of the Colorado football team you cite are using her talent as an excuse for what happened.

No, they haven't been saying that directly. But the implication is certainly there.

She wasn't a good kicker, so she didn't belong there -- or so they claim. And we all know what happens to women who go where they don't belong.

Regardless of her talent, she should have been able to play football without being harassed and molested. She was there -- they needed to deal with it.

[bicentennial_baby]

33. Excuse the fuck outta me

"she should put put up (name her attacker(s)) or shut up. Throwing attractive blonde girls onto Div 1 football teams because it's a novel idea for sports feminism is just stupid, and just invites this kind of tragedy and attendent media circus."

The fucking fact that she's even willing to admit being RAPED is amazing, and you want her to pony up with some names? Why? So his friends and CU football fans can threaten her and terrorize her further? 80-90% of rapes go unreported, in fact it is the most underreported crime in America,and has been for some time. The reason being, the stigma and shame that come with confronting your attacker in a court of law and in the media is often too much for a woman to endure. Rape has nothing to do with being attractive, and your assertion is offensive. Rape is a crime of violence and power, sex has very little to do with it, if anything.

[BigDaddyLove]

36. Crying "Rape!!!" four years later to get back at a team.....

that cut you because you sucked and didn't belong there is a crime of power and just as distasteful and offensive.

If she was raped and now 'courageously' admits it, knowing the uproar it would cause, then she should indeed name those who attacked her.

Until she does, this just sounds like a pissed off feminist who didn't get her way.....her affirmative action plan didn't work to her liking.

[Ripley]

39. "Her affirmative action plan didn't work..." !!!

Utterly astonishing. No one forced her to be accepted to the team...her record got her there.

So any woman who claims rape years after the fact is now a "pissed off feminist who didn't get her way?" That takes the cake for sexist remarks I've heard on DU. Do you feel the same way about the thousands of grown men who have just recently accused priests of sexual assault sometimes even 30 years after the fact?

[Gemini Cat]

40. You have GOT to be kidding me.

Maybe she didn't report it because of the uproar it would cause, or the fear of retaliation against her or any number of reasons. You know, her teammates and coach do appear to be a bunch of bloody arses.
In case you don't get it yet, rape is a crime. Women who report they were raped are not "pissed off feminists who didn't get their way." It's that attitude that stops many women from reporting the crime to begin with. Perhaps attitudes such as yours in the world, is why she didn't report it when it happened.

Blah.

:dem:

[BigBigBear]

44. She';s not at CU anymore

Get your facts straight.

And what about the "shame and stigma" of being a member of the team she has accused as a collective? Have they no rights? Or, are they all guilty in your eyes?

[SemperEadem]

35. so, are you saying

that because she was a girl who was not on par with the guys that she deserved all that happened to her because she dared to try? Well, then what did she deserve more--the rape or the smear afterwards?

[SemperEadem]

37. so, so wrong

" but she should put put up (name her attacker(s)) or shut up. Throwing attractive blonde girls onto Div 1 football teams because it's a novel idea for sports feminism is just stupid, and just invites this kind of tragedy and attendent media circus. "

What a blatant display of arrogance and ignorance.

No, a woman playing Div 1 football is not the problem. The problem is male teammates who cannot control their feelings of inadequacy when faced with a strong-minded female who can clock them in their sport and who won't be intimidated by them. The only course of action left to them to check their impotence was rape and intimidation. They certainly don't possess the ability to rise above and move beyond.

That is the stupid tragedy of this whole arguement.

[BigBigBear]

43. Here

I'll repeat it, since my critics seem unable to ACTUALLY READ ALL my post.

There is NO EXCUSE for assualt, abuse or rape. Got that? Kindly acknowledge I said that before you call me names or change the subject.

My point is making excuses for someone who DID NOT have the courage to report the crime, nor the courage to STAND UP for those who treated her well, is, itself, arrogant and ignorant. If she was brutalized, she should work with the authorities to exert punishment. Either you agree with that statement or you do not - calling me arrogant or ignorant sidesteps the issue.

Evidently the "culture" CAN be blamed as an excuse for her NOT to seek protection or justice for her crime, but it CANNOT be used as an excuse for it happening in the first place.

Does anyone here believe in due process?

I'm glad she's well treated in New Mexico.

[opiate69]

50. LOL...

"The problem is male teammates who cannot control their feelings of inadequacy when faced with a strong-minded female who can clock them in their sport"

And, when exactly did she do this?

[MissMarple]

42. She's doing fine at the University of New Mexico.

It must be a better environment for women in football.

[underpants]

23. Uh-OH NEW charge just leveled (article 5 minutes ago)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=566&ncid=755&e=1&u=/ap/20040219/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_colorado_assault_case

[Cooley Hurd]

30. This guy reminds me of the coach in "Saving Silverman..."

<snip>
After spending much of Wednesday commenting about Barnett's remarks, Hoffman learned police had released the report that quoted an unidentified woman saying Barnett told her he "would back his player 100 percent" if rape charges were pursued. The woman declined to file charges.
</snip>

ALSO BREAKING CNN: Press conference @ 3 pm on CNN: 15 of Katie's former teammates from CU to speak...

Why do I think they'll be sticking up for "Coach Norton?"

[BigBigBear]

24. Well

I haven't the enthusiasm to pursue this subject at any great length.

I hope the University gets what's coming to them, everything gets investigated and that they clean up their act.

[kskiska]

25. What is it with these coaches, anyway?

When they're not having temper tantrums and throwing furniture, they're foul-mouthed, sexist b**sards.

[mountainvue]

27. He needs to be fired.

[underpants]

29. I think he already is

but they are going to lynch him up and let the community and the alums have some shots at him first, that way the new guy has a bit of a clean slate.

[Hotler]

49. Rape law in Colorado is weak.

I'm a native, and IMO the rape law is weak just like the drunk driving law. The reason is because to many people with power and/or position do it.

[newyawker99]

53. Hi Hotler!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Sandpiper]

51. I hope that CU gets the dreaded

NCAA death sentence, that is, 3 years of no television appearances, no bowl games, and scholarship reductions.

[yellowcanine]

54. NCAA is going to say "lack of institutional control" by CU

They better fire his ass or they are going to get bitchslapped by the NCAA for "lack of institutional control" - one of the most serious charges against a university's athletic program the NCAA can level. CU can kiss off any possibility of post season football appearances for several years after the dust settles on this one.