Me on Colorado

On July 23 on this site, I ranted a bit about Colorado football and how I didn't feel I could be a fan any more. I said I might write a column on it. It ran in today's paper. Our website has become pay for content so I'm posting it here.

Colorado loses his support

Reprinted from the Sept. 7 Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Sitting on a shelf in my bedroom is a University of Colorado football hat. Not far away in a closet are five or six hangers holding Buffalo T-shirts, a sweatshirt and a jersey.

I can’t bring myself to wear them and I can’t bring myself to throw them out. Colorado opened its season Saturday with a win over Colorado State. Last year I agonized as the same two teams went down to the wire. This year, I didn’t care who won.

After being a CU supporter from almost 2,000 miles away, I’m disgusted with Colorado. It’s not just because of this spring’s rape scandal, although that’s a big part of it, but the way the school has handled it has been equally as appalling.

So I’m shelving my Buffalo fandom along with the gear I’ve acquired because of it.
Colorado is in denial. Coach Gary Barnett, who made some memorably insensitive comments about former CU kicker Katie Hnida, who claimed she was raped by her former teammates, is coaching again.

After serving an almost four month suspension, Barnett has almost painted his team as the victim.

"There's a real lack of information about all the things college athletes do and a lack of understanding about the business of college athletes," the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported Barnett as saying. "So, anytime there's a lack of understanding, there's a mistrust. I think our athletic department needs to do a better job of reaching out to the athletic community, explaining how and why we do things, and show all the positive things that occur.

"We just assume people know. We just assume that we've had the respect of the rest of the university community, and what we've found out in this whole process is that there's very little of that."

Like many statements made by football coaches, Barnett used a lot of words and said very little. Confusing babble about next week’s game plan is boring but harmless, but hot air when he’s talking about rape is cowardly.

Every time Barnett is asked about the rape scandal, he should respond by apologizing:
"I’m sorry we had players on this football team who had no respect for women. I’m sorry to the women on this campus and the people who care about them, that players of mine created an atmosphere that forces them to fear for their safety."

His lack of any accountability has only strengthened my resolve not to root for Colorado now and maybe never again.

I don’t know who I’ll root for this fall. People have offered lots of suggestions, but it’s hard to start over.

I didn’t attend CU and maybe the decision to ditch the Buffs would more difficult if I had.
The roots of my fandom are silly. I was 16 when Colorado faced Notre Dame in the 1991 Orange Bowl for the national championship, I cheered for the Buffaloes mostly to turn the tables on my dad, an Irish fan. Thanks to an ND touchdown negated by a clipping penalty, CU won 10-9.

I hadn’t had a strong rooting interest in any college football team, and the bragging rights over my dad made me feel connected to Colorado.

I started buying black and gold CU hats and T-shirts while rooting for Kordell Stewart, then Koy Detmer. In college I dragged my friends to Rafters to watch games because our dorm didn’t have cable television.

I anguished during the lean years, including 3-8 in 2000 and hoped Gary Barnett would make CU a regular national championship contender. Now I wish the school had shown him the door.
Colorado certainly won’t care about losing me. I’m not a donor, or even a season ticket holder, just the only guy in the bar wearing black and gold watching the Big 12 game of the week in western Massachusetts.

Not any more.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com.