People tell me Oregon football coach Mike Bellotti is a decent guy, but I don't believe it. Not after what he did to his quarterback.
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| It seems like Dennis Dixon paid a harsh price for his coach's rash decision. (AP) |
Now Dixon is preparing for knee surgery, the predictable result of a player being allowed to play while suffering from a career-threatening injury.
Bellotti, a coward to the end, is hiding behind stethoscopes and Dixon's lion-sized heart -- pinning the decision to let Dixon play on Dixon and the team doctors.
"I took myself out of it," Bellotti told reporters Sunday. "That was Dennis' decision, and the doctors clearing him."
That's strange. Who plays, who doesn't play -- doesn't the head coach make that decision? The coach absolutely should have made this decision for Dixon, whose courage had surpassed his common sense. Of course Dixon wanted to play against Arizona. The Ducks were in position to play for the national championship. Dixon was in position to win the Heisman. He's a senior. This is his final shot. He wanted to take it.
Bellotti -- and Oregon's doctors -- owed it to Dixon to tell him no.
But Bellotti wanted that national championship, too. Maybe Bellotti wanted the NFL head coaching opportunity that would have come with it. Or maybe he wanted the chance to replace Pete Carroll at Southern California if Carroll leaves for the NFL after this season. Whatever his motivation, Bellotti put the needs of Oregon, and of Mike Bellotti, ahead of the needs to Dennis Dixon.
Dixon had no business stepping onto that football field. Was Bellotti even watching as Dixon tiptoed gingerly through the Arizona defense for a 39-yard touchdown in the first quarter? Dixon looked great, because he is great. But he looked tentative, as if he knew his left knee wasn't strong enough to do what he was asking of it.
Sure enough, later in that quarter Dixon lay crumpled in the Oregon backfield, touched by no one, undone by his unstable knee.
And undone by Bellotti, who deserves whatever crap comes his way. Bellotti has to live with the guilt, and he'll have to answer questions from mothers and fathers of future recruits wondering why they should send their son to Oregon to play for the guy who put Dennis Dixon in such unnecessary jeopardy.
A surgically repaired ACL isn't the career death sentence it once was, but it could be the undoing of Dixon. He isn't a pocket passer. He's a running quarterback, and if he isn't the most elusive player on an NFL field, he might not belong on an NFL field. A healthy Dennis Dixon was a possible first-round pick. A surgically repaired Dixon? Late rounds, at best. Mike Bellotti possibly cost his quarterback millions of dollars.
Come to Bellotti's aid, Oregon fans. Tell me how badly he feels about Dixon, and I'll give you that. Criminals get repentant before the judge, too, but they're not sorry for what they did. They're sorry they got caught. That's Bellotti. He risked Dixon's future, and he got caught. Only ... Dixon's the one who will do the time.
