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Sports Watch
CALL it a $2 million mistake. We live in a litigious society, but the outcome of a sexual discrimination suit against Duke University was ridiculous. The point is
her kicks weren’t
good enoughIt was a mistake on the part of a federal court jury in Greensboro, N.C., which awarded Heather Sue Mercer that amount in punitive damages in her successful suit for being cut from its football team as a place-kicker in 1995.
The award was simply outrageous. Duke will appeal and probably won't have to pay that amount, probably issuing an apology instead.
The jurors said that Duke acted with malice and reckless indifference.
Give me a break. Indifference maybe, but not reckless indifference. And malice? The only malice was a conversation that Mercer taped with Duke assistant coach Fred Chatham without his knowledge.
It was also a $2 million mistake by former Blue Devils coach Fred Goldsmith, who gave Mercer an opportunity to try out for the team as a walk-on and then cut her from the squad because she wasn't good enough to compete on the Division I level.
In truth, she was never officially on the team. She just worked out with Duke's kickers but was never issued pads or allowed to practice with the team, let alone allowed to stand on the sidelines in a Duke uniform.
Goldsmith isn't talking.
But Chatham said that Goldsmith got carried away when Mercer kicked the winning field goal in a spring game.
"He should have never said she was on the team," Chatham said.
"I said, 'Coach, she's not very good.' And Fred said, 'Oh, no. She'll work hard. She'll come around.' He sympathized with her cause. He saw his own two daughters through her. The fact is, she just didn't have the talent to kick at this level, as Fred came to see."
Goldsmith's well-meaning intentions to have his own affirmative-action program -- undoubtedly because he has two daughters of his own -- backfired into a $2 million mistake.
"I feel great. I consider it a complete victory," said Mercer, who plans to use the monetary award to establish a scholarship fund for future female kickers of America.
It figures to be a Pyrrhic victory at best. What college coach in his right mind will now want to take a chance and give female kickers a tryout?
OF course, I can see it now. The coach or the college will be sued for not giving women a chance to try out for the football team. And for a chance to sue the school if they get cut from the team.
Or sue for injuries, trying to run with the ball or make a tackle when a conversion attempt goes awry.
In closing arguments, Mercer's lawyers said that she only wanted to be treated like any other member of the team. Like one of the boys.
That's exactly what happened, said the attorney for Duke. She wasn't good enough and was cut. Boys get cut, too.
In 1997, Liz Heaston, an All-American on Willamette's soccer team, made two of four PAT's in a homecoming game for the Bearcats, who went on to win the NAIA championship.
The team's kicker had been injured and Heaston happened to be in a class Willamette's football coach taught.
Though her soccer schedule eventually conflicted with football, Heaston kicked in two games before the injured kicker returned.
In 1999, Colorado had a walk-on kicker in Katie Hnida, who was the first woman to dress for a Division I-A football game. But she didn't play in the game against Kansas.
It's a wonder she didn't sue.
See how ridiculous situations can become if the gender-equity issue is carried too far?
Bill Kwon has been writing about
sports for the Star-Bulletin since 1959.