No-Class Coach Suspended

A month ago I wrote about John Chaney's no-class attack on president Bush during a dinner intended to honor Chaney for his coaching career. Now Chaney is suspended after inserting a "goon" (Chaney's word, not mine) into a game to harm opposing players.

John Chaney's use of a "goon" might have ended a player's season, and the Hall of Fame coach's career could be the next casualty.

Chaney was suspended for the rest of the regular season by Temple on Friday for ordering rough play by one of his players, Nehemiah Ingram, who fouled out in four minutes against Saint Joseph's after breaking an opponent's arm.

Saint Joseph's forward John Bryant, a senior and sixth man for the Hawks, will likely miss the rest of the season.

The Hall of Fame coach had suspended himself for one game Wednesday and apologized.

Chaney will miss Temple's home game against Massachusetts today and road games against Rhode Island and La Salle, before returning for the Atlantic 10 tournament.

"I think my behavior is reprehensible and, as I've said a thousand times, I take responsibility," Chaney said. "If it's the judgment of the school to suspend me, I can accept the responsibility of my actions."

Gee, John, That wasn't what you said when you threatened BEFORE THE ST. JOHN'S GAME to send in your hitman to punish St. Johns if the officials didn't make the sort of calls you thought they should.

He warned before the game he might send some of his "goons" into the game if referees didn't whistle St. Joe's for illegal screens.

He did it, too.

And you certainly didn't do anything to help control the situation after an opposing player was seriously injured. If you were a responsible educator (hell, if you were a decent human being), you would have stepped forward to control your own fans. But having incited them before the game by promising dirty play, and having carried out that threat (ending a kid's senior season in the process), you could have at least had the decency to step forward and call your fans into line when they displayed some of the worst sportsmanship in recent years.

Saint Joseph's senior forward John Bryant suffered a broken arm after a hard foul by one of Chaney's goons. There also were elbows and punches thrown, hard screens attacked and the like.

Temple fans followed their coach's behavior by spitting on Bryant as he lay on the floor. At that point, the night easily could have escalated into something far worse.

No, you apparently thought that was great. No, scratch that -- you reveled in what happened. Why else would you make the following statement to the press after the game?

Chaney made the matter worse after the game by announcing: "I'm a mean, ornery SOB."

All your "sincere" expressions of regret are nothing more than a pile of steaming bull crap. Your apologies and "acceptance of responsibility" have all the sincerity of words of regret from a Klan leader after inciting a lynch mob or a Mafia don whose been charged with arranging a contract killing. Because that's what you did -- you set up a lynching on the court, you set up for a hit. And you proved that my impression of you a month ago was quite accurate. You have no class, and are an unfit role-model for your players.

Temple administrators shouldn't have suspended Chaney for three games -- they should have fired him on the spot. That they didn't shows they run a no-class program.