Men of Words, Men of Deeds

NEW YORK, NY  --  Midway through the second half of a close and pivotal game against Texas Southern during the 1967 football season, Coach Eddie Robinson’s Grambling team mounted a drive. It ended abruptly when Grambling’s center threw a forearm at the nose tackle who had been dominating him. A referee penalized Grambling and ejected the center from the game.

When the center, Thomas Ross, reached the sideline, Robinson was waiting. Yet he did not strike Ross. He did not curse him. He did not even shout at him. Instead, in controlled, staccato bursts, he delivered a lesson about character and teamwork.       

 

“You have satisfied yourself,” Robinson said. “You got him back. But we told you about stability and self-control. Now you think about us. We don’t have a center, and we got to play the rest of the game.” Robinson motioned to the other players, standing on the sideline or sitting on the bench. “Look at what you did. Look at the people you let down.”

 

This incident, captured in the 1968 documentary “Grambling College: 100 Yards to Glory,” sprang to my mind in the wake of Mike Rice’s recent firing as the Rutgers men’s basketball coach. What made Robinson’s example so relevant was not only that Rice had been dismissed for physically and vocally assaulting his players. There was also an unexamined premise in much of the news coverage of other coaches notorious for their treatment of players.

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