Should Rick Pitino be Fired for his Actions?

If sports fans haven’t heard by now, they will soon. Rick Pitino, the venerable coach of the Louisville Cardinals basketball team, and one of the most popular college basketball coaches to ever live, is embroiled in a scandal. A sex scandal that has not only sullied his reputation but has called into question the very idea of college sports for profit.

Pitino had sex with a woman named Karen Sypher in a restaurant eight months before Sypher ended up marrying Pitino’s confidant, Tim Sypher. That’s really not the issue, of course, as having sex with someone doesn’t mean anything legally.

But Sypher is claiming that after the initial meeting at the restaurant, she was sent to Pitino’s office some time later, by her future husband, and at that time Pitino sexually assaulted her. The police in Louisville have dismissed the case as there doesn’t appear to be enough evidence to support Sypher’s claims.

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But wait, there’s more. After both of these incidents, it is alleges that Pitino and the Syphers tailgated and partied and hung out like a nice threesome is prone to do. It also alleged that Syphers asked Pitino for $3,000 to have an abortion and that he obliged. It also alleged that Tim Sypher gave Pitino a long list of demands that totaled roughly 10 million.

James Ramsey, Louisville’s president, has already said that he backs Rick Pitino and that Rick Pitino is “his man.”

That’s all well and good, but it begs the question, should he be? There are two ways to look at this issue. The first is that Pitino should immediately be fired as the head coach of the Louisville basketball team because morally he just can’t help boys become men. The second is to say that Pitino should be fired because a scandal like this just doesn’t do Louisville basketball any favors.

The third is that Pitino shouldn’t be fired at all, but I’m not willing to accept that notion. The truth is that I, and most gamblers, could care less about Pitino’s indiscretions. Would I have acted like Pitino? Absolutely not, but I don’t care if he and the Syphers run around like morons in a skeezy college hoops version of One Life to Live. I just don’t care.

But I would fire Pitino just the same for a very simple reason. About an hour and a half from Louisville is a placed called Lexington, Kentucky. Their basketball coach is a man named John Calipari. Calipari has proven to be the best recruiter in the college basketball. He’s also, like Pitino, had amazing success on the court.

How can a man who can’t keep his on house in order so to speak, battle an incredibly adroit coach like John Calipari? He can’t. That’s the reason that Louisville should, without hesitation, find themselves a new coach.

Pitino is a liability. When the great high school players take a look at the state of Kentucky, they are going to turn first to Big Blue and John Calipari. They might have already but now, with Pitino suddenly not able to even keep his own life in order, high school kids, and their parents, almost assuredly will go to the smiling, clean-cut Calipari, for guidance.