[Loose Lips] Gotta say, it's tough knowing what side to come down on in the ongoing saga that is life for Rick Majerus, former (and most winning) Runnin' Utes coach. Majerus, current coach of the St. Louis University Billikens men's basketball team, has opened his big pie hole and created havoc...again. And again. (That's two St. Louis Catholic honchos, and Majerus on the far right in this St. Louis Post-Dispatch photo.) Majerus is a Wisconsin native, son of a major labor organizer, and with his salty mouth and huge girth, could pass for your basic stereotype of a Hormel meat packer. His coaching style, at least at Utah, included making points at practice by whipping out his penis to scold Michael Doleac and routinely calling his college players by that classy slang word for female genitalia.
He left the University of Utah in 2004, following a very public account in the daily newspapers of the way he singled out one of his players, hearing-impaired center Lance Allred, as a "cripple" and a "disgrace to cripples." The official U. account was that he left for medical reasons. But the truth is, big donors and lifelong fans were getting rather fed up with his inhumanity.
It took the U. far too long to address the problem of Rick Majerus, mostly because he won games. Bunches of 'em. And he took the Utes to a 1998 Final Four appearance. Glory Days. But the man was/is vulgar, loud and frequently bigoted. And a liberal iconoclast, to boot.
So now, he's on the wrong side of official Catholic-dom for speaking openly, in public, on his own time as an American citizen at a political rally, in support of abortion rights. I must say, a guy who counts "c--t" as one of his favorite insults while supporting Roe v. Wade is a study in contrasts. My feminist sensibilities are on a roller coaster ride.
What do you think? Should Majerus, who coaches at a private Catholic university, have the right to not only hold an anti-church position on abortion but to speak out about it? Does anyone in a similar position have that right? Could a coach at Salt Lake's Judge Memorial Catholic High School march in a pro-choice rally? What about BYU football coach Bronco Mendenhall? Not that it would ever happen, but I'm just sayin'.
Any thoughts? (Holly Mullen)
