Rich Rodriguez Buyout: Enough Already!

Ah, America. Where even a signed, written contract can be challenged in a court of law. You might ask yourself, why? What is there to challenge? Was the signature coerced?

No. The language, as far as I've seen, was pretty cut and dry.

This contract had a $4M buyout attached to it. It was signed by Rich Rodriguez, the former football coach of West Virginia University. Therefore, Rodriguez owed $4M to his former employer. Simple open and shut case.

Here's my take on the whole ordeal.

Rich Rodriguez is stubborn, bull-headed, doesn't know when to stop fighting a losing battle, and has too much pride to admit defeat. Bad qualities perhaps, to have in life. Transfer these qualities to the football field however, and they are qualities you would probably want in a coach.

It seems to me that Rich Rodriguez is a football coach both on and off the field. Perhaps being a football coach consumes the man. We've seen this before, just think of some of the great coaches in history, in any sport.

Rodriguez had to know he wasn't going to get much of a concession on this case. His buyout did not decrease even one cent. The one concession he received was a delay on his buyout, which now doesn't require the first payment due until 2010.

The truth is a handful of buyouts are challenged every year. I don't know about you, but if I had to pay $4M to take another job, you'd better believe I'd try and challenge that. Nearly all of these challenges don't receive nearly the amount of public attention that this one did however.

I'm venturing a guess that when Rodriguez was hired, Michigan must have offered to pay a portion of that buyout, as new employers often do. Michigan waited to see how this case would play out, and as the realization set in that this would go on throughout the oncoming season, Michigan said enough. They urged, perhaps demanded Rodriguez to settle the case, and offered to pay $2.5M of the buyout as well as Rodriguez's legal fees.

There are many who feel that this ordeal makes Rodriguez a bad person with no loyalty. There are many who say that we should not be surprised if this happens to Michigan in three to four years when Rodriguez gets bored or scorned.

It won't. I'll tell you why. West Virginia was Rich Rodrigez's Alma matter. He felt more attachment and loyalty to them then he ever will at Michigan or anywhere else.

For some reason or another, its not exactly clear, Rodriguez felt that the university he loved, cheated him somehow. He felt back-stabbed.

If this was any other school, Rodriguez might have dusted off his hands, settled, and left quietly.

Rich Rodriguez is not the ideal coach for a school like Michigan, but he is bringing the school what it needs. A shock to the system. A decree that the days of eating a large pizza the night before a game to gain weight are over.

If you want someone to get down on here, don't get down on Rodriguez. He coaches football the only way he knows how. Take your criticism out on athletic director Bill Martin.

It is widely believed that Martin never even interviewed Rodriguez before hiring him. It is also assumed that Martin never confronted Rodriguez during this whole ordeal, and that it was the president of the university, Mary Sue Coleman, who did.

Bill Martin is becoming increasingly incompetent. I think its safe to say that his fate at the university is directly tied to Rodriguez. If he wants to stay clear of confrontation, he could be signing his dismissal papers.