Morality (from the Latin “moralitas” manner, character, proper behavior") has three principal meanings.

What is good, moral behavior for the head coach of an athletic team? One thing for sure is bad behavior is not something rare. Look at any level of sports. Look at any sport. Even the reviled are not above it.

Take Bobby Cox, the long time manager of the Atlanta Braves. Even though he has been thrown out of more games than many major league players have actually played, there seems to be no compulsion to eliminate him. Before he retires, Cox will have been thrown out of enough games to equal an entire 160 game season. Instead of the Hall of Fame perhaps he should be nominated for the Hall of Shame.

And then there is the saga of Mike Leach, recently fired as Head Football Coach at Texas Tech for locking up a player in a shed. While there does not seem to be a long history of Leach treating players in this fashion (as was the case with the firing of fellow Big Twelve Coach Mark Mangino at Kansas), he was fired on the spot.

This brings into question the morality of the people who fired him. Some suggest that they are simply looking to get out from under a fat contract that they recently awarded him. Mind you, this is the same institution that agreed to hire one of the all-time bad boys in the coaching arena, Bob Knight, who was fired at Indiana for his questionable behavior. The cuff does not match the collar at the institutional level at Texas Tech. There seems to be some hypocrisy on the part of the Athletic Director, the Chancellor and the President of Texas Tech. The powers-that-be seem to subscribe to some double standards.

And what about the morality of the father of the boy in question, Adam James. As a father of three sons, I would want my son to play in a safe environment, but I would never use my column to call a coach out for not playing my kid. Craig James’ role as an ESPN analyst clearly gave him a forum to raise questions about his son’s situation. What seems to be overlooked here was the father’s efforts to get his son more playing time. James dismissed it as not the issue, but as fellow ESPN Analyst Lee Corso would say…. “Not so fast.” Could that have been the burr under Leach’s saddle from the beginning?

And then there is the saga of Florida Coach Urban Meyer, who announced that he was stepping down and then later announced that he was only taking a “leave of absence.” Comes now the question… “What are your real intentions?” Is he just buying time to get the Florida commitments to sign the dotted line? What about the morality of hiding his health issues from the media and his team? A lie by omission, it could be argued, is still a lie.

This opens Meyer to criticism by every coach that recruits against him. UF does not stand for the University of flip-flop, but you know every coach is going to bring that up.

And speaking of institutions that need to be called out for their own morality, one has to question how Florida State chose to dump their icon, Bobby Bowden. Metaphorically speaking, it could be argued that Florida State might still be the Florida State College for Women were it not for what Coach Bobby Bowden did for the institution’s football program. His efforts over three-plus decades transcend its way through the entire institution. Then to just dump him unceremoniously because he is unquestionably in the twilight of his career raises the question about the school’s institutional morality.

It has been said that the only time Alabama Coach Nick Saban lied was when his lips were moving. When he said he was not going to be the Head Football coach at Alabama you might conclude that integrity is out, character is out, teaching by example is out… and liar is in.

Let the record reflect that coaches, by in large, are part of a profession that is better known as a “pack of liars.” Butch Davis was not leaving Miami’s Hurricanes for the Cleveland Browns until he did. Tommy Tuberville told Mississippi fans that the only way he would leave the school was in a pine box, right before taking the Auburn job days later. Dennis Franchione convinced his players to stay at Alabama and then fled himself for Texas A&M two years later.

The king of all liars could be Bobby Petrino. Petrino denied meeting with Auburn when that indeed had already taken place. The next year he signed a contract extension and said, “This is the place I want to be.” He interviewed with LSU within a week of that statement. He also abandoned the Atlanta Falcons 13 games into the season to take the Arkansas job. He is the king of all liars and our nominee for President of the Liar’s Club.