.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
Texas A&M's sexist football clinic reflects poorly on Kevin Sumlin
What was Kevin Sumlin thinking when he hired offensive line coach Jim Turner in February?
He was probably thinking about the Aggies’ O-line, which was a mess last season — unable to effectively protect in the passing game or gain yards on short-yardage downs.
Desperation can make football coaches overlook a lot of things, and in this case, Sumlin, who enters the 2016 season on the hot seat, overlooked glaring character concerns.
If Turner was a recruit, Sumlin would be a fool to sign him, but as a 51-year-old coach, Turner was able to put pen to Texas A&M stationary and land a six-figure salary in the process.
Turner will forgo that salary for the next two weeks, though, as he’s on suspension after he and another A&M coach created a sexually suggestive, sexist and unquestionably unprofessional PowerPoint presentation for a women’s football clinic at Kyle Field earlier this week.
Turner and the other suspended coach, tight ends coach Jim Banks, released a statement Friday that claimed it was a “failed attempt at humor.”
It’s not Turner’s first “failed attempt” at humor.
If Jim Turner’s name rings a bell, it’s not because it’s a common moniker. It’s because he was one of the first people fired in the wake of the Miami Dolphins’ infamous bullying scandal in 2013.
Turner was the offensive line coach for the Dolphins when tackle Jonathan Martin was subjected to a “pattern of harassment” from at least three other members of the team’s offensive line.
The investigation into that scandal, the Wells Report, featured 90 references to Turner in 144 pages.
The report is scathing. It’s difficult to read at points. The actions detailed are beyond reprehensible. Frankly, going through it again, more than two years later, it’s amazing how quickly we've forgotten about it. The fact that Richie Incognito or John Jerry landed another NFL gig, or that the Dolphins gave Mike Pouncey $22 million in guaranteed money in a huge new deal, or that Turner was hired at the University of Cincinnati before Sumlin poached him earlier this year, is shocking.
The Wells Report said that Turner not only was aware of the over-the-top bullying among his players, but he also participated in it. He had a system to encourage it. Then, after the scandal started to come out in the media, he pressured Martin to publicly absolve Incognito — the main bully — in a series of text messages, telling him to “do the right thing.” This, while Martin was in the hospital following an emotional breakdown.
Three Dolphins offensive linemen — Incognito, Pouncey and Jerry— used every homophobic slur imaginable toward Martin, and he wasn’t the only one subjected to their harassment — a Japanese assistant trainer was subject to relentless racial slurs, sometimes even clearly premeditated — according to the Wells Report. The linemen even repeatedly said they were going to rape Martin’s sister, the report reads, citing repulsively graphic language.
Character is defined by what happens behind the scenes, when the public isn't watching. The Wells Report took us behind the scenes with Turner, and the picture painted was damning.
That’s the man that Sumlin hired to lead his young offensive line.
In the Wells Report, we also were made privy to another “failed attempt at humor” by Turner.
For Christmas 2012, Turner gave all the Dolphins offensive linemen gift bags. Inside the bags were inflatable female dolls. But Turner, knowing that offensive lineman Andrew McDonald was frequently harassed by other linemen with homosexual slurs, gave the tackle a male blow-up doll to join in on the “joke.”
When Turner was asked about the incident that plenty of others recalled without a problem, he said he couldn’t remember.
When Turner was asked if he was aware of the verbal abuse towards Martin a year later, he said he wasn’t, despite Martin and Incognito’s assertion that he was.
Sumlin can't follow Turner's lead and claim ignorance to what happened in Miami. The details of the bullying scandal are written in can’t-even-try-to-misinterpret language in the Wells Report. It’s really easy to find online. Here’s a link. Sumlin could have found it in seconds and read it on the Swaggercopter.
Turner has refuted the report — he’s even sued Ted Wells for defamation. Wells’ camp, pushing for the case to be thrown out, was recently able to win a discovery stay, which could lead to the case being dismissed in the coming weeks.
But Sumlin didn't wait for the court to clear Turner's name — Turner could make Texas A&M’s offensive line a bit tougher, and Sumlin’s job is probably on the line this season, so who cares what happened in Miami two or three years ago?
That's not acceptable thinking. There are dozens of capable offensive line coaches in the country, and Turner has proven unfit to manage adult men, much less college-age players. Is Turner’s system of fines and his “Judas” code, implemented in Miami, the kind of leadership that Sumlin wants at Texas A&M?
We don’t know what happened behind the scenes this past week, and what Turner and Banks did at the seminar — while reprehensible — isn’t on par with the relentless harassment that happened in Miami, but the situation reflects poorly on Sumlin and his judgment.
Turner was fired from Miami in 2014 for his involvement in the bullying scandal — an easy decision if ever there was one — and he’s yet to coach a game since that firing, but he’s already involved in another scandal.
He might be able to whip an offensive line into shape, but Turner’s character reflects poorly on his boss, Sumlin, and Texas A&M.
Sumlin says he wasn’t aware of the sexist PowerPoint until after the event, and you can’t hold that against him — he shouldn’t have to micromanage his coaches for an event like that. But Sumlin, the head of one of the most profitable football programs in the nation, should have known better than to send Turner to be his representative. Either he doesn’t know Turner’s history well enough to see the potential danger, or he did and didn’t supervise.
Either way, it looks really bad at a time when Sumlin can’t afford any missteps.
Sumlin is yet to start the game that is the 2016 season — the most important game of his career — but because of this, he’s already down 7-0.
