Miami is sometimes referred to as America’s “Casablanca.” So with a tip of the hat to Captain Louis Renault, I’m shocked — shocked to learn athletes at the University of Miami reportedly were paid thousands of dollars; were supplied with gifts, strippers and prostitutes; and attended high-priced parties on million-dollar yachts.
Not even Renault could recite that line with a straight face when it comes to the allegations against the Miami athletic program.
America’s Casablanca was rocked this week when a Yahoo! Sports report detailed the corruption that former Miami booster Nevin Shapiro — right out of “Miami Vice” central casting, serving a 20-year sentence for engineering a $930 million Ponzi scheme — said he spread throughout the Miami football and basketball programs.
Shapiro told Yahoo! Sports that he gave money, cars, yacht trips, jewelry, televisions and other gifts to a long list of players, including Redskins linebacker Rocky McIntosh and the late Sean Taylor.
“Hell yeah, I recruited a lot of kids for Miami,” Shapiro told Yahoo! Sports. “With access to the clubs, access to the strip joints. My house. My boat. We’re talking about high school football players. Not anybody can just get into the clubs or strip joints. Who is going to pay for it and make it happen? That was me.”
He made it rain for Miami athletics — both football and basketball — but it was acid rain that now threatens to destroy the programs.
If true, the revelations are disgusting on so many levels, not the least being how school officials seemingly chose to ignore the corruption that was taking place in front of them.
“If they had hired a private investigator for a day, it would have been the easiest job that guy ever had,” Shapiro said. “It would have been over in five minutes.”
There will be a long line of the disgraced in Miami when all this is sorted out, but at the front should be school president Donna Shalala, a decorated former member of the Clinton administration.
Shalala was president of the school the entire time Shapiro was one of its largest boosters. There is a picture of Shalala smiling in the background as Shapiro handed over a $50,000 check to former basketball coach Frank Haith (how do you think Jim Larranaga feels today about leaving George Mason for Miami?)
This is someone who served for eight years as the Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Clinton. This is someone who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award in 2008.
Yet Shalala allowed all this to take place under her watch. When she received the presidential honor, the White House described Shalala as “one of our nation’s most distinguished educators and public officials.”
She should give that medal back.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
