There was one nugget from the entire Miami scandal that totally slipped past me. It is literally too good to pass up. In Dan Wetzel’s piece for Yahoo! Sports on why Miami is in trouble, he includes this fantastic detail about booster Nevin Shapiro.
“I had an architect try to put a stripper pole in the suite,” Shapiro said. “Aesthetically it wouldn’t work.”
No word if Shapiro also tried to install a garbage disposal in the suite’s bathtub or a shelf and mini fridge under the desk. But here’s the killer part. The description of Shapiro’s game day antics is enough to tell you Miami can’t use the “we had no idea what was going on” defense.
Shapiro said Shalala’s own box was located just down the hall and the president often stopped by (the university declined comment). So too did former players, parents, recruits and coaches, according to Shapiro, corroborating witnesses and photos of the suite.
This was no blend-into-the-scenery figure around the Miami athletic department. He wasn’t some mild mannered alum who quietly doled out hundred dollar handshakes.
He was front and center, profane and begging to be noticed. Nevin Shapiro never does anything quietly. He yearns to be seen, to be heard, to be respected.
As the NCAA has said in the past, saying “we didn’t know” is inexcusable. Miami, like many other programs, chose not to know because it’s not in their interest to cut off monetary pipelines. Pretty hard to admonish someone after they get into trouble when you were willing to take their donations all along, right?
Thanks to Marty Caswell for pointing out the story
