Huggins' Hurtful Words

Should not define him. A way to see what happened Monday

I hate writing these columns.

There is no simple reaction to what Bob Huggins said on the radio Monday, only easy, knee-jerk opinions. Step on Huggins with both feet, pound him with indignation to within an inch of his life, demand he be fired from his job as men’s basketball coach at his alma mater, West Virginia.

Cancel him. It’s easy, it feels good, who’s going to argue?

We live in times now when one uttered phrase can obliterate a lifetime of credible work, and I don’t mean simply in a chosen profession. It’s not an excuse to say that in close to half a century, Huggins changed for the better the lives of hundreds of the players he coached. That’s not rationalizing what he said Monday. Nothing could rationalize that. That’s giving judgment a little nuance.

It’s easy to grab the chainsaw and give it a pull. The same intolerance we scream about, we practice. We’re just on the righteous side of the fence when we practice it.

I’m not in the Instant Judgment Business anymore, thank goodness. I have the luxury of keeping the saw holstered in the name of contemplation. Who knows what I might have typed Monday afternoon. The knee-jerks subsided before I began to write. Here’s what I think after sleeping on Huggins’ insensitivity and foolishness:

He’s a flawed man, obviously. Maybe more than most. Certainly, more publicly. He has lived his life without apology, until now. Is he an evil man? Do his hurtful words on Monday demonstrate his malevolence? I don’t think so. You can’t be evil and help people the way Huggins has.

A mark of a coach, a boss, a friend, is the loyalty he inspires in those who know him best. I don’t know how brightly that flame burned for Huggins in Morgantown; I know it was raging and bright when he was in Clifton. His players loved him. Not in spite of who he was, but because of who he was.

I remember way back in the day, talking to Huggins’ office assistant, Renie Heroux. Renie’s job was, essentially, to keep Bob World in order, to tend to his larger orbit so he could concentrate on his basketball planet.

She showed me his engagement book. Every day of the month had something written beneath it. Stags, charity appearances, 5th-graders at Loveland Elementary School. “He can’t say no,’’ she shrugged.

We can send that person to the wolves. Maybe we should. Or we can holster the self-righteous anger and paint Huggins in shades of gray. After all, gray is the color of the world. Not black or white.

Casting stones is easy. Also, often hypocritical. I’d challenge anyone who knee-jerked their way through a newspaper commentary or a social media rant yesterday to declare he or she has never said something similar to what Huggins said on the radio Monday. Tell us that not once have you ever lobbed pejorative bombs while talking privately with friends, family and inner-circle folks you can trust.

“All those f--s, those Catholic f--s, I think,” Huggins said Monday, on air. He was talking about Xavier fans at the Crosstown Shootout, whom Huggins suggested had tossed rubber penises on the court.

They wish they had (a penis), said Huggins, to the delight of Bill Cunningham. Cunningham gets off on this stuff. He’s gotten rich mining the depths of human behavior. Ratings and revenue define him. What a fine way to make a living.

“Steve, your comments about Bob Huggins?” Cunningham said. “Is he the best?” Cunningham was speaking with former Huggins assistant Steve Moeller, who was in the studio

“He’s the best,” Moeller said.

“The best ever,” Cunningham said. Everyone laughed.

”A completely insensitive and abhorrent phrase that there is simply no excuse for,’’ was how Huggins described his words.

He said he was sorry. Maybe he was. He said he was “ashamed and embarrassed and heartbroken.’’ He said he would accept the consequences. The university did the stock indignation bit. Officials will address the situation.

Bob Huggins is 69 years old. He told me more than 20 years ago that he would not be a coaching lifer, at least not in the big-time sense. He had too much fishing to do. That didn’t come to pass, obviously. Maybe now it should.

The saddest thing is, we’re still using certain groups of people as punch lines. That’s “abhorrent,’’ as Huggins said.

What’s less abhorrent but also sad is that a guy who made his mark as a very good, very successful basketball coach, and a positive influence on people who often needed one, now will be remembered at least in part as a guy who slurred people in public. It’s not who he was, or is.

Don’t excuse Bob Huggins. He said what he said. Try to see more of his photo. That’s asking a lot, I know. But if we’re ever going to make sense of the world, and progress in it, anger has to find its place, too. It’s not in a boot on Bob Huggins’ neck.