By Larry Johnson
The University of Iowa is a relatively calm place where people generally seem to put aside their differences and get along.
But in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, more than 50 student athletes, most of them African-American, took to social media to complain about racism and bullying in Coach Kirk Ferentz’s football program.
Monday, the university and strength/conditioning coach, Chris Doyle, agreed to leave the school in a move that will pay him more than $1.5 million to take his act elsewhere. After the last week of Tweets and news, it seemed inevitable. You just don’t get THAT many people to line up against you in public unless there is some substance to the charges.
That’s particularly true in the highly-regimented world of college football.
So Doyle, who had spent 21 years with Ferentz, is gone.
And that raises a question.
What did Ferentz know and when about the hostile environment black athletes face. Was Doyle acting with Ferentz’s tacit sanction? Or if Ferentz didn’t know, why not? I guess that’s three questions, but you get my drift.
Ferentz, from all reports, is a decent and honorable person. Still, you have to wonder if Doyle’s departure is really the end of this story.
